Infusing a multicultural approach to education in the engineering and science curriculum

Abstract

Over the summer of 1997 I participated in a workshop for infusing multiculturalism across the curriculum. The workshop was based upon guidelines established by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and has been sponsored by Loyola College in Maryland for its faculty for the past two summers. Faculty from the humanities, social sciences, fine arts, business, and engineering have participated in this workshop. It is often difficult to attract engineering and natural science faculty to this kind of activity. One important outcome was improved dialog among faculty across the disciplines. Such a multicultural approach to education is an important step for improving the 'classroom climate'. It can be important for the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups such as women, minorities and non-traditional engineering students. A multicultural approach to engineering education has the potential benefits of better preparing our students for teamwork and the global marketplace, and fostering different learning styles, creativity and innovation. This paper provides some recommendations for changing engineering courses, specifically, an introduction to engineering course. For example, one might place engineering design problems in a social, cultural, historical, as well as, technical and economic context.