Diversity and Multicultural Issues in Engineering Curriculum
General Syllabus Info: http://www.kostic.niu.edu/OfficeHoursEtc.htm * Back to: www.kostic.niu.edu
Acknowledgments: I would like to express my thanks to the Provost’s Task Force on Multicultural Curriculum Transformation at Northern Illinois University for selecting me to participate in the 2003 Summer Institute, as well as to all presenters and participants, who shared their expertise and experiences, thus comprehending my beliefs in importance of diversity and multiculture for betterment of quality of life, productivity and standard of living, and ultimately improve happiness of individuals and harmony of whole society [2003 Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Institute - Final Report ]
Overview
The lack of awareness of importance to understand and integrate multicultural issues in engineering curriculum is a reason for both, perception that engineering is a difficult field (which is actually not), and very low participation of women and other minorities as compared to their respective representation in general population. Furthermore, with advancement of society and living standard (in good part accomplished by engineering activities) the engineering designs and products are more-and-more intended for general public as opposed to early contributions to governments and reach minority of the population. Therefore, it is important that engineers be recruited and be retained from general population and diverse cultural spectrum, in order to best satisfy needs for diverse services and products of multicultural society and the world. This will open up equal opportunities in engineering to all, including women and minorities, and at the same time will help to remove predicted shortages of engineers in the future. There is no doubt that understanding and integrating multicultural issues in engineering should start in engineering education, and will be equally beneficial to all.
In contrast to physical exactness (and thus simplification) of engineering principles, there is a complexity of individual learning, the latter being dependent on wide spectrum of diverse issues, very much dependent on multitude of cultural backgrounds of students-learners and instructors-teachers. While being focused (and often obsesses) with engineering physical principles, we (teachers) are not fully aware or have not given due priority to multicultural (thus other important) educational issues. After all, it is not about us teachers to show how we understand engineering principles, but how the students could relate and comprehend them, thus be interested and enthusiastic, and then learn and appreciate engineering discipline.
Related and useful Links:
NIU Provost’s Task Force on Multicultural Curriculum Transformation
Resources for Minorities in Science, Mathematics and Engineering
Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
M.Kostic's General Syllabus Info
[2003 Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Institute - Kostic Final Report ]