How International-Focused Experiences Shape Students' Conceptualizations of "Global Engineering"
Session We2: Nov 10, 11:00 AM
Abstract:
Helping graduates be prepared to enter a workforce characterized by culturally diverse teams and customers is one of the pressing challenges for the engineering undergraduate and graduate programs. With an interconnected global society, it is becoming increasingly more important to be able to communicate across cultural and political boundaries and recognize how differences across contexts, including national and regional contexts, matter for problem definition and formulation, team processes, and the viability of different ideas for solutions. Engineering programs have sought a variety of different ways to help develop such “global engineers” --approaches have included, for example, short- and long-term study abroad, international research, course-based modules with global foci, and student design team projects that facilitate collaboration with international colleagues. These approaches all aim to help students build awareness about differences in engineering around the world and to facilitate the development of global engineering competency. In this session, we will focus on how programs of different structures seem to influence students’ understanding of global engineering. Our overarching research question is: How do students define “global engineering” before and after engaging in an international experience?” We will compare students’ before and after definitions and descriptions across three different kinds of programs: 1) a summer research experience where students spend approximately 10 weeks working on research projects in an international university, 2) a summer research experience where students spent approximately 10 weeks working on research projects in the United States while connecting virtually with international collaborators, and 3) a one-semester course focused on global engineering targeting students in their first year of study. Students across these programs either engaged in pre/post interviews or completed written responses to a commonly worded question regarding definitions of “global engineering.” We also consider differences in responses based on students’ prior travel experience, either as a part of a structured program or not. Findings have implications for how programs may structure opportunities as they aim to develop engineers who can be successful once they enter a globally connected workforce.