Engineering and Social Justice through an Accreditation Lens: Expectations and Learning Opportunities for Ethics and Equity

Abstract

The inclusion of Ethics and Equity as one of the twelve essential attributes mandated for accredited engineering programs in Canada represents a unique opportunity for engineering educators. Never before has the term equity been included in criteria for accreditation. To apply professional equity in the practice of engineering requires our students to learn about world affairs and diverse ways of life, about historical and sociological frameworks for exploring their own global frames of reference, and those of others, about current and historical examples of engineering approaches to making our world more equitable, and about how all of this can be used to integrate equity into their practice of engineering. Three settings in which we can provide our students with opportunities to learn about these concepts include humanities courses, an engineering equity core course, and immersion throughout coursework in engineering core courses. Ideally, a combination of the three should be implemented.