Special session — What should a course reader on gender and engineering include? An unconference discussion

Abstract

To build upon the community that has formed at FIE interested in discussing feminist approaches to engineering education, we will hold a special session discussion oriented around proposing a textbook that comprehensively explores the topic of gender and engineering. Through the organization of an "unconference" session discussion will include opportunity to discuss the audience and scope of such a proposed book, as well as explore the advantages and challenges of some of the existing texts on the market. The authors of this special session commit to turning the results of this discussion into a book prospectus to be distributed to appropriate publishers who might be interested in supporting such a book.Index Terms -feminist engineering studies, unconferences, course texts, GOALS OF THE SESSIONInspired by increasing participation at FIE special sessions on feminist philosophies or pedagogies in CSET education, and by the call for action for scholarship in feminist science and technology studies at NWSA2008, this special session will use an unconference format to discuss the potential outline of a new edited book on feminist discussions and critiques of engineering and engineering education. The goal of this session will be all the pieces needed for a book prospectus, including a draft table of contents, a set of researchers who have agreed to contribute their research for peer-review consideration, and an intended audience. We hope this session will invigorate the overlapping margins of engineering education, engineering studies, and feminist technology studies.There has been increasing participation in FIE special sessions on feminist philosophies or pedagogies since 2006, and we hope to continue this multi-year conversation in 2010. Despite efforts at organizing similar discussions at other venues, the FIE community remains more robust in its continued interest than these new efforts. However, critical to the FIE community's continuity is the maintenance of a "space" for conversations on feminist philosophies or pedagogies in CSET contexts. It seems prudent then to develop the community that has developed at FIE by supporting discussions, encouraging participants to ask challenging questions, and engage with others who have different experiences or philosophical perspectives.We facilitated a similar session at the National Womens Studies Association (NWSA) national conference in November 2009; we seek to repeat the unconference topic and format at FIE in order to receive input from the engineering education community to complement input already received from the women's studies community.