My Mission
What's my mission?
My mission is to encourage engineers to reflect on their impacts on society.
I've been thinking about missions because they accomplish a few things. They narrow down our pursuits - I find that my pursuits have been very broad and have seemingly only broadened since I started graduate school. I would like to investigate the neurology of engineering and the intersection of innovation and humanitarian design and do my own design for charitable causes, but I cannot do them all, and keeping them all in mind hinders me. Missions also give us purpose, as opposed to jobs - they motivate us, and I find I have been lacking in motivation, recently.
What my mission means:
When I say engineers, I don’t limit that to engineering students. I would like to expand the definition beyond those who have degrees, but that might be too broad of a mission, so I narrow it back down. In particular I am interested in engineers that are on the job. This means that my work will often take the perspective of adult education.
When I say reflect, I mean that in a strict theoretical sense. I refer to Mezirow’s theories of reflection, which are about using education to challenge established assumptions. I refer to Schon’s theories of reflective practice, which are about changing practices as they are done, making them flexible and context dependent, as opposed to rigid. I don't yet know enough to refer to Dewey more generally, but I know I need to. I refer to reflection because it is a necessary part of understanding impacts on society.
When I say encourage, I say it to remain learner-centered. This is as opposed to “force” or “make” engineers reflect. To encourage requires learner-centered approaches to education, requires learning partnerships, requires the initiation, motivation and autonomy of the learner. And finally I use the word encourage because challenging assumptions and clearly seeing one’s impact on society requires courage.
When I say impacts on society, I mean to invoke principles of social justice, that people should be served in such a way that allows them to exercise their human capabilities. Engineering has an impact on these human capabilities. Often we frame engineering as only having a beneficial impact (helping us be safer and more comfortable, live longer, connect with more people, know more) but it also has maleficent impacts (reproducing complicity, harming others, isolating groups of people). One of Kranzberg’s laws of technology is that “technology is neither good nor bad, nor neutral”, rather this quality of technology is dependent on context. Engineers must understand their impacts on society in order to work for social justice and social good, rather than assuming that the technology they work with is good, or even neutral. Changing these assumptions requires that engineers reflect.
What my mission translates to in reality, I haven't learned or seen through yet, but I have a couple of ideas. I wonder what others think of my mission.
My mission is to encourage engineers to reflect on their impacts on society.
I've been thinking about missions because they accomplish a few things. They narrow down our pursuits - I find that my pursuits have been very broad and have seemingly only broadened since I started graduate school. I would like to investigate the neurology of engineering and the intersection of innovation and humanitarian design and do my own design for charitable causes, but I cannot do them all, and keeping them all in mind hinders me. Missions also give us purpose, as opposed to jobs - they motivate us, and I find I have been lacking in motivation, recently.
What my mission means:
When I say engineers, I don’t limit that to engineering students. I would like to expand the definition beyond those who have degrees, but that might be too broad of a mission, so I narrow it back down. In particular I am interested in engineers that are on the job. This means that my work will often take the perspective of adult education.
When I say reflect, I mean that in a strict theoretical sense. I refer to Mezirow’s theories of reflection, which are about using education to challenge established assumptions. I refer to Schon’s theories of reflective practice, which are about changing practices as they are done, making them flexible and context dependent, as opposed to rigid. I don't yet know enough to refer to Dewey more generally, but I know I need to. I refer to reflection because it is a necessary part of understanding impacts on society.
When I say encourage, I say it to remain learner-centered. This is as opposed to “force” or “make” engineers reflect. To encourage requires learner-centered approaches to education, requires learning partnerships, requires the initiation, motivation and autonomy of the learner. And finally I use the word encourage because challenging assumptions and clearly seeing one’s impact on society requires courage.
When I say impacts on society, I mean to invoke principles of social justice, that people should be served in such a way that allows them to exercise their human capabilities. Engineering has an impact on these human capabilities. Often we frame engineering as only having a beneficial impact (helping us be safer and more comfortable, live longer, connect with more people, know more) but it also has maleficent impacts (reproducing complicity, harming others, isolating groups of people). One of Kranzberg’s laws of technology is that “technology is neither good nor bad, nor neutral”, rather this quality of technology is dependent on context. Engineers must understand their impacts on society in order to work for social justice and social good, rather than assuming that the technology they work with is good, or even neutral. Changing these assumptions requires that engineers reflect.
What my mission translates to in reality, I haven't learned or seen through yet, but I have a couple of ideas. I wonder what others think of my mission.
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