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Multiple studies call for engineering education to integrate social justice into classroom instruction. Yet, there is uncertainty regarding whether integrating these social topics into engineering curriculum will support or detract from the learning of technical concepts. This study focuses on evaluating how reframing technical assessments to include social justice concepts impacts student learning and investigates how well students integrate social justice into engineering decision making. Using a within-subject design, in which students were exposed to both conditions (questions with and without social justice context), we evaluate how social justice framing impacts overall student learning of technical topics. Social justice prompts are added to homework questions, and we assess students’ demonstration of knowledge of original technical content of the course, as well as their ability to consider social justice implications of engineering design. In the earlier homework assignment, the experimental group showed a significant decrease in learning when technical concepts were framed to include social justice. As the students became more familiar with social justice considerations, their learning of technical concepts became comparable to that of students who did not have the social justice components in their assignment. Their evaluation of the social implications of technical decisions also improved. History: This paper has been accepted for the INFORMS Transactions on Education Special Issue on DEI in ORMS Classrooms. Funding: This work was supported by the Carnegie Mellon University’s Wimmer Faculty Fellowship and the National Science Foundation [Grant 2053856]. D. Nock also acknowledges support from the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, where she is an energy fellow.
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This content will become publicly available on January 18, 2026
With intentionality: Preparing Pre-service and In-service Teachers to Teach STEM for Social Justice; Learning to Teach STEM for Social Justice using Justice-Centered STEM Pedagogy
Teaching STEM for social justice is essential to ensure that K-12 students experience opportunities to learn that attend to time in instruction, the quality of instruction, and the use of technology (Tate, 2001) to engages students in STEM learning. This themed paper-set endeavors to introduce three intentionally designed courses aimed at helping STEM educators better understand liberatory design, justice-centered STEM pedagogy, and most of all teaching STEM for social justice.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2243462
- PAR ID:
- 10611188
- Publisher / Repository:
- Association of Science Teacher Education
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Science education teacher preparation
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Long Beach, CA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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