The hidden curriculum in two employability skills development courses in a South African electrical engineering degree programme

ABSTRACT

Employability development is a focus of contemporary engineering education, both abroad and in South Africa, from where this study emanates. However, pedagogic initiatives in service of this goal may fail to take into consideration the ideological underpinnings of this emphasis on employability, as well as of the curricula developed in its service. This study utilises discourse analysis as a tool to analyse texts relating to a final-year course pairing offered to electrical engineering students, which explicitly aims to develop employability skills. Drawing on Fairclough’s three-dimensional conception of discourse, the texts, which include faculty handbook extracts, course handouts, timetables, and additional teaching materials, provide insight into the ideological underpinnings of the courses as well as the context of their creation. The findings of the study reveal the neoliberal foundation of the course-pairing in general and, more specifically, three discourses that interact throughout the courses: the ‘entrepreneur of self’ discourse, the discourse of ‘inevitability’ and the ‘one-size-fits-all’ discourse. The study concludes by suggesting that perpetuating these discourses will lead to replication within the engineering industry, as opposed to transformation and innovation.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering education
• employability skills
• workplace readiness
• hidden curriculum
• discourse analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabrielle Nudelman

Gabrielle Nudelman is a lecturer in the Professional Communication Studies Department in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She obtained her PhD in Higher Education Studies from Rhodes University in 2018. Her research interests include employability skills development in higher education, with particular focus on engineering education.