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Abstract Background Civil engineers design systems that have the potential to impact existing oppressive societal conditions. Critical action—the ability to recognize and act against oppressive conditions—is an obligation for civil engineers committed to building a more just world.
Purpose/Hypothesis History reveals that civil engineers often do not take critical action and accrediting bodies (e.g., ABET) have responded by creating requirements to consider social factors and contexts. Considering these endeavors, we ask: To what extent do civil engineering students demonstrate critical action attitudes when prompted by engineering problem‐solving? In what ways does culturally relevant problem‐solving influence critical action attitudes?
Design/Method Employing transformative action as a theoretical framework, we assessed students' responses to a design question on three levels that perpetuate or disrupt oppression (avoidant, destructive, and critical action). The empirical study used qualitative and quantitative analysis to examine survey responses of 375 civil engineering undergraduate students across 12 US universities.
Results The results showed that engineering students largely avoided discussing taking critical action, remaining focused on technical and nontechnical factors that evaded acknowledgement of sociopolitical factors. Nevertheless, when exposed to culturally relevant problem‐solving, students showed a statistically significant increase in both critical and destructive action responses.
Conclusions We posit that students' exposure to culturally relevant problem‐solving can enhance students' critical action attitudes. The results call on the need for civil engineering educators to cultivate culturally relevant problem‐solving in civil engineering curriculum.
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This dataset includes anonymized interview data collected in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in August 2022. These interviews were designed to capture end-users' perceptions and experiences with their water infrastructure systems. Interview questions included, for example: Can you tell me how you use water in your household?; What do you like about your water or water system?; What are some of the concerns/challenges you deal with in your household water system?; Do you worry about whether your water is safe to drink? 10 semi-structured interviews with 12 end-users are included. These interviews were conducted from August 2nd to August 8th, 2022. All interviews were conducted in-person. Interviews were recorded (with permission), transcribed, checked for quality, and anonymized.more » « less
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This dataset includes anonymized interview data collected virtually and in-person with stakeholders from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta between November 2021 and August 2022. These interviews were designed to capture water sector stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions of their water infrastructure systems. Interview questions included, for example: “Can you walk us through a typical workday in your role?”; “Who do you interact with most often in your role?”; “What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your role in the water sector?”; and “How do you resolve issues that arise in the water system?” We conducted eight virtual interviews and nine in-person interviews with stakeholders between November 22, 2021 and August 5, 2022. Interviews were recorded (with permission), transcribed, checked for quality, and anonymized for archival.more » « less
