About Engineering and Engineering Education as Spiritual Vocations
| Authors | Thompson, Julia D.; Chua, Mel; Joslyn, Cole Hatfield |
|---|---|
| Date | 2014 |
| Conference | 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition |
| Vol / Pages | pp. 24.491.1-24.491.11 |
| URL | https://peer.asee.org/engineering-and-engineering-education-as-spiritual-vocations |
Type: Conference Paper
Abstract
Spirituality and engineering (education) are often kept in separate compartments in our lives. They may slip out occasionally for conversations during ethics classes or service learning projects, but speaking -- and living -- our spiritual/religious values as engineers and engineering educators/researchers is still uneasy territory for many. The spirit of free inquiry and reflection that permeates the liberal arts urges us to integrate our spirituality into the human and natural worlds we inhabit. How do we bring such thinking into the technical realms? In this session, we will describe our personal journeys toward engineering education and how we actively and reflectively integrate our core values and spiritual/religious beliefs and practices into unexpected aspects of our work as engineers, engineering educators, and engineering education researchers. Each facilitator comes from a different faith tradition and technical background. Mel is an open source software hacker rediscovering feminist Catholicism. Julia is a Quaker-Buddhist with a degree in Chemical engineering who worked as a energy consultant for two years. And Cole is a Christian with a degree in industrial engineering who spent over ten years as a minister.