Birzer, Cristian H., and Hamilton, Jaimee (2019) Humanitarian engineering education fieldwork and the risk of doing more harm than good. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 24 (2). pp. 51-60.

Preview

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Universities throughout the world are realigning engineering education by integrating the impact and importance the profession has on humanity, society and the natural environment. Amongst western universities it is common practice for the engineering programs to have ethics and sustainability embedded within most professional practice courses. Western universities are now understanding the important role cultural, social and emotional intelligence play in producing holistic 21st century engineers. Universities are supporting and fostering fieldtrips to resource-constrained communities, exposing students to real-world problems and finding solutions not necessarily typical in western environments. This, to a certain degree, has helped promote the concept of the Humanitarian Engineer. However, many activities run the risk of disempowering communities and incorrectly promote neo-colonialism as a positive concept to students: the exact opposite of what universities should be striving to achieve. This paper explores the concept of voluntourism and the need for holistic and sustainable solutions for universities to produce culturally, socially and emotionally intelligent engineers with a strong depth of technical knowledge. The paper provides case studies of different programs, highlighting different methods of service-learning and community empowerment. The paper provides a framework to assess program suitability to produce holistic 21st century engineering graduates.

Item ID:	85973
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1325-4340
Copyright Information:	© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2025 23:47
FoR Codes:	39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390113 Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy @ 100%
SEO Codes:	16 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 1603 Teaching and curriculum > 160399 Teaching and curriculum not elsewhere classified @ 100%
Downloads:	Total: 1 Last 12 Months: 1
	More Statistics