From a variety of sources and commentators, a persistent set of issues has posed a challenge to the profession of engineering. From concerns about rapid advances in technology to environmental protection to questions of gender and racial fairness and representation, the profession of engineering faces important challenges. Two new educational models are responsive to these professional concerns, Smith College's woman-only program with a strong commitment to nurturing a commitment to social responsibility and the new Olin College of Engineering with a focus on blending entrepreneurship with engineering.
The development of an engineering program at Smith College and the establishment of an entirely new college of engineering at Olin create an extraordinary opportunity to take advantage, by systematically observing, what can be viewed as a natural experiment. To "control" for the role of innovation in professional engineering education, two steps are proposed: (1) the development of a systematic review, using secondary sources, of innovations in engineering education and (2) parallel studies of students and other key stakeholders at two other engineering programs, MIT and the University of Massachusetts.
To test empirically the relationship between neo-institutional theories of change and students' development, a six-year panel study will be employed at four sites: Smith College, Olin College of Engineering, MIT and the University of Massachusetts. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, the investigators plan to follow a panel of students at each school through their classroom and college relationships, summer internships, and occupation immediately following graduate to develop a model of how the several programs embed or overcome gendered and racial stratification in the next generation of American engineers, among other issues. Also, they propose to conduct interviews with key stakeholders at the respective institutions at two points in time, year one and four of the study.
The Smith and Olin initiatives constitute an unprecedented opportunity to examine the status, rationale, and norms that surround separatist and coeducational models to insure equity and balance in the professions and, as such, a unique opportunity to develop effective policy for engineering education. For example, they offer an opportunity to explore the norms and practices of engineering education that inhibit or promote creative leadership for responsible change, including transformations in the gender and racial composition of the profession. Equally, these initiatives provide an unprecedented opportunity to test important propositions in neo-institutional theories of social change and in theories of professional development. Together, the coincident opening of two new programs in engineering education creates an opportunity to contribute to the development of effective policies for engineering education to enhance equity and to contribute to the development of social science theory.
