Mapping Student Development in Culturally Contextualized Design
- Conference
- Location
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Seattle, Washington
- Publication Date
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June 14, 2015
- Start Date
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June 14, 2015
- End Date
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June 17, 2015
- ISBN
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978-0-692-50180-1
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Design in Engineering Education
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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16
- Page Numbers
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26.1131.1 - 26.1131.16
- DOI
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10.18260/p.24468
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/24468
- Download Count
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608
Paper Authors
Laura Sánchez-Parkinson University of Michigan
Laura Sánchez-Parkinson is a Research Assistant for the Office of the Provost, Global and Engaged Education at the University of Michigan (U-M) and a Program Coordinator at the National Center for Institutional Diversity. She holds a B.A. in Organizational Studies and Sociology and a M.A. in Higher Education Management and Organizations from the U-M. Her research focuses on organizational change by exploring deep-seated inequalities at colleges and universities in order to promote positive transformation for the educational success of students. She has taught at the undergraduate and graduate level, re-imagining traditional pedagogical practices and engaging students in intra- and intergroup dialogue.
Shanna R. Daly
University of Michigan
orcid.org/0000-0002-4698-2973
Shanna Daly is an Assistant Research Scientist and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Engineering Education in at the University of Michigan. She has a B.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Dayton (2003) and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University (2008). Her research focuses on strategies for design innovations through divergent and convergent thinking as well as through deep needs and community assessments using design ethnography, and translating those strategies to design tools and education. She teaches design and entrepreneurship courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, focusing on front-end design processes.
James Paul Holloway University of Michigan
Professor Holloway earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois, a CAS in Mathematics from Cambridge University, and doctorate in Engineering Physics at the University of Virginia, where he was subsequently Research Assistant Professor of Engineering Physics and Applied Mathematics. Professor Holloway joined the faculty of the University of Michigan (U-M) as an assistant professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences in January 1990. Subsequently promoted to Associate then Full professor, in 2007, he was named an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in recognition of outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. Later that year, he became Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education for the College of Engineering.
He now serves as Michigan's Vice Provost for Global and Engaged Education, and is focused on the ways in which the U-M engages the world through both scholarship and education. He is interested in developing a global perspective in U-M scholarship, and in facilitating the development of a broad set of platforms for experiential learning accessible to all students at the U-M.
Professor Holloway has lived, worked and taught in Thailand, England, China, Germany and Ghana.
Amy J Conger University of Michigan
Amy Conger is Assistant Vice Provost for Global and Engaged Education
at the University of Michigan. She manages strategic projects that help U-
M offer experiential learning opportunities for students and strengthen institutional platforms for teaching and scholarship. She served for 7 years as Director of International Programs in Engineering at the University of Michigan, and in this role more than doubled participation in curricular programs abroad, and helped create similar growth in the co-curricular. Amy also teaches ENGR 260: Engineering Across Cultures, a required course for the U-M international minor for engineers.
Kathleen H. Sienko University of Michigan
Kathleen H. Sienko is a Miller Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan (UM). She earned her Ph.D. in 2007 in Medical Engineering and Bioastronautics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, and holds an S.M. in Aeronautics & Astronautics from MIT and a B.S. in Materials Engineering from the University of Kentucky. She directs both the Sensory Augmentation and Rehabilitation Laboratory (SARL) and the Laboratory for Innovation in Global Health Technology (LIGHT). SARL focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of medical devices, especially for balance-impaired populations such as individuals with vestibular loss or advanced age. LIGHT focuses on the co-creative design of frugal innovations to address healthcare challenges in resource-limited settings. Prof. Sienko has led efforts at the University of Michigan to incorporate the constraints of global health technologies within engineering design at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She is the recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, a Teaching Innovation Prize from the UM Provost, and a UM Undergraduate Teaching Award. While at MIT, she was a winner of the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition.
Lorelle A Meadows Michigan Technological University
Dr. Lorelle A. Meadows is the Dean of the Pavlis Honors College at Michigan Technological University.
Abstract
A New Framework for Culturally Contextualized Design Sophistication among Engineering StudentsSuccessful engineering education prepares engineering students to be designers who appreciatestakeholders’ cultural contexts and integrate stakeholders and their contexts into designdecisions. Experts consistently point to the importance of the development of the T-Shapedstudent—the engineering student with deep technical knowledge and the intellectual breadth towork across disciplines and settings (AAAS, 2013; ASEE, 2012; ABET, 2011; NAE, 2004).Furthermore, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) emphasizes thatengineering education must prepare students with “the ability to understand the impact ofengineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal context (3.h).” Despitethese widespread recommendations, we lack a theoretical framework to understand and assessstudents’ culturally contextualized design sophistication and how learning experiences influencethis progression.We use the term culturally contextualized design to describe culturally relevant, user-centeredengineering design solutions. Culturally contextualized design merges two areas of study—theprocesses by which engineers improve as designers (Dubberly, 2004; Crismond & Adams, 2012;Andrews & Goodson, 1980) and student development theory for intercultural awareness,specifically King and Baxter Magolda’s (2015) Intercultural Maturity Model. Our interest lies inthe intersection of these bodies of work where we seek to understand student levels ofsophistication with regards to integrating cultural contexts in design decision-making.Our research was guided by the following questions: How can we map the development ofengineering students as culturally contextualized designers? How do students’ learningexperiences, design practice, and articulation of their design approaches translate into stages ofdevelopment? What characteristics constitute each level of design sophistication?We collected data from 35 undergraduate and graduate engineering students at a Midwesternresearch university. Through semi-structured interviews, we prompted participants to share theirculturally contextualized design experiences, which included experiences both on and offcampus as well as domestic and international. The interview protocol consisted of three parts:intercultural interactions, design techniques, and the intersection between the two. We conductedseveral open coding cycles for each transcript and identified and reached consensus on threelevels of sophistication: novice, aware, and informed. Additional analysis of specific excerptshelped us determine the unique characteristics of each developmental level. We alsocharacterized five aspects of culturally contextualized design for which we could see evidence ofstudents conceptions at all levels of sophistication: 1) human-centered, 2) collaborative, 3)intentional, 4) open to flexibility and ambiguity, and 5) invested and committed. This paperdescribes the development of our culturally contextualized design framework, including adescription of each level of sophistication for each of the five aspects of culturally contextualizeddesign sophistication and examples of student experiences and reflections that shaped thesedimensions. We also discuss the potential application of this new framework for understandinghow engineering students learn to integrate culture and design and for assessing the impact ofeducational practices.
Sánchez-Parkinson, L., & Daly, S. R., & Holloway, J. P., & Conger, A. J., & Sienko, K. H., & Meadows, L. A. (2015, June), Mapping Student Development in Culturally Contextualized Design Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24468
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