Sustainability invisibility: Are we hooked on technical rationality?

Trad, SP; Hadgraft, RG; Gardner, AP

Sustainability invisibility: Are we hooked on technical rationality?

Trad, SP Hadgraft, RG

Gardner, AP

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: Proceedings of the 46th SEFI Annual Conference 2018: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence, 2019, pp. 479 - 486
Issue Date:: 2019-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Trad, SP	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Hadgraft, RG https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0480-7456	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Gardner, AP https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2764-591X	en_US
dc.date.issued	2019-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Proceedings of the 46th SEFI Annual Conference 2018: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence, 2019, pp. 479 - 486	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9782873520168	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/128600
dc.description.abstract	© Proceedings of the 46th SEFI Annual Conference 2018: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence. All rights reserved. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is regarded as a key enabler for all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Higher Education Institutes have been slow in adopting a holistic approach to ESD in undergraduate engineering curricula. The aim of this research is to explore how tertiary subject coordinators understand and envision sustainability and how that subsequently manifests in their teaching curriculum design. A qualitative inquiry approach was adopted to explore the rationalities of ten academics within the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at an Australian university. In a previous study in the School, the researchers identified a low percentage of ESD integration across the curriculum. The interviews showed that these academics perceive sustainability as a technical concept, presumably taught by someone else in the curriculum. As a result, sustainability is mostly invisible within undergraduate engineering curricula. Results elsewhere show that for ESD to be effectively implemented at a tertiary level, academics must come to understand and accept what ESD aims to achieve, which is to educate engineering students to encourage them to integrate sustainability decision making in their future engineering practice. Engineers Australia's Code of Ethics requires: Balance the needs of the present with the needs of future generations. The difficulty is that these behaviours are difficult to detect in engineering curricula, which are strongly focused on technical problem solving. This research will identify and disseminate good practice in curriculum design for sustainability at both unit level and program level. This paper represents an early part of the research program.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Proceedings of the 46th SEFI Annual Conference 2018: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence	en_US
dc.title	Sustainability invisibility: Are we hooked on technical rationality?	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.for	1303 Specialist Studies in Education	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US

Abstract:

© Proceedings of the 46th SEFI Annual Conference 2018: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence. All rights reserved. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is regarded as a key enabler for all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Higher Education Institutes have been slow in adopting a holistic approach to ESD in undergraduate engineering curricula. The aim of this research is to explore how tertiary subject coordinators understand and envision sustainability and how that subsequently manifests in their teaching curriculum design. A qualitative inquiry approach was adopted to explore the rationalities of ten academics within the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at an Australian university. In a previous study in the School, the researchers identified a low percentage of ESD integration across the curriculum. The interviews showed that these academics perceive sustainability as a technical concept, presumably taught by someone else in the curriculum. As a result, sustainability is mostly invisible within undergraduate engineering curricula. Results elsewhere show that for ESD to be effectively implemented at a tertiary level, academics must come to understand and accept what ESD aims to achieve, which is to educate engineering students to encourage them to integrate sustainability decision making in their future engineering practice. Engineers Australia's Code of Ethics requires: Balance the needs of the present with the needs of future generations. The difficulty is that these behaviours are difficult to detect in engineering curricula, which are strongly focused on technical problem solving. This research will identify and disseminate good practice in curriculum design for sustainability at both unit level and program level. This paper represents an early part of the research program.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/128600