Seeing through the lens of social justice: a threshold for engineering

In this paper, we have explored how students in a cross-disciplinary course on engineering and socialjustice approached the idea of using social justice as a lens for looking at engineering. We have used anadapted phenomenographic approach [Marton, F., and Booth, S., 1997. Learning and awareness. Mahwah:Lawrence Erlbaum], together with Meyer and Land’s [Meyer, J.H.F., and Land, R., 2003. Threshold conceptsand troublesome knowledge: linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines. ETLProject Occasional Report 4 [online]. Available from: http://www.tla.ed.ac.uk/etl/docs/ETLreport4.pdf[Accessed 1 January 2009]] threshold concept framework, to study the variation present among the studentsin the class as they attempt to pass through the threshold of this lens. Data were collected throughsemi-structured interviews with students.We examine the liminal space that students hover in for severalweeks, not knowing whether or if they will eventually pass through the portal into new territories. Wefound nine conceptions of increasing complexity present among the students in the class. We suggestthat the students’ collective experiences illustrate potential journeys along a spectrum of liminality andthrough the threshold.We conclude with some implications for what can be done to facilitate the students’transition through the threshold, thereby contributing to the development of this aspect of engineeringeducation