Defining engineering: Learning from New Graduates to Expand the Image of Engineering

To educate engineers for sustainable development, we need to help them develop an understanding of engineering work that positions sustainable development at the core of our field. But given the importance of prior knowledge and beliefs in learning, we first need to understand how students and new graduates currently perceive engineering work. To address this gap, we draw on data collected from the Capstone To Work project, that followed students from four U.S. institutions from graduation through their first year of work. In this initial exploration, we analyze responses from 76 graduating seniors and 36 early-career engineers regarding their definitions of engineering. Using thematic coding, we identified 9 different themes, which we then grouped under the three categories specified by Sinek’s "golden circle" of marketing: what, how, and why. Most of responses fell into the "how" category and focused on problem-solving and design, echoing the prominent cultural narratives about engineering. But based on the findings here, we argue that engineering education would benefit from focusing more on the why-question when talking about engineers’ role in society, both to better educate holistic engineers and to more effectively reach a wider audience.