Critical contemporary questions for engineering education in an unequal society: Deliberations for the South African society for engineering education (SASEE)

Abstract

The South African Society for Engineering Education (SASEE) was established in 2010 as a forum for those committed to improving the practice of engineering education in the country. These ideals need to be seen in the context of the South African history-a continuing unequal school system and consequent racialised patterns of access and success in university studies. The major activities of the Society are formative in nature and are focused on ensuring that all engineering educators are able to critically engage with the needs of students; particularly those most at risk. The objective is for all students, irrespective of the differences in their schooling backgrounds, to have the opportunity to be successful in their studies. In this article we categorise the papers presented at the first three conferences of the Society in order to determine the research foci that have been followed to date. It is shown that the majority of articles fall into the category of "teaching and learning", with some additional work focusing on students in transition from school to first year. Less represented were themes on curriculum or on policy development. In the context of this book we suggest that social justice and equity have also been less represented. To this end, we draw on a recent piece by one of us to scope out something of an agenda in this domain.