Civil Engineering Faculty Incorporation of Sustainability in Courses and Relation to Sustainability Beliefs

Abstract

Professional practice within civil and environmental engineering demands that practitioners within the field have knowledge of sustainability. Engineering education has attempted to reflect this standard, as noted in statements of expected student outcomes from ABET. Yet, the degree of integration of sustainability in engineering education is varied and inconsistent across and within institutions of higher learning. In order to address this issue, this study investigates one of the potential barriers to integrating sustainability into undergraduate engineering classrooms: educators’ beliefs regarding sustainability. The two-fold relationship between civil engineering faculty beliefs about sustainability and actual practice of integrating and incorporating sustainability within their classrooms is investigated in this study. Using thematic analysis of semistructured interview data; we present three personas that emerged from the data set. These personas represent characteristics shared among participants’ statements of beliefs and practices in a detailed, descriptive manner. This enables shortening the distance between the study participants, our interpretations of the participants’ statements, and potential readers’ immediate use of these interpretations. The three personas that emerged from the data set revealed a complex relationship between what faculty members believed the field expects of students’ knowledge, the relative importance of sustainability within the curriculum, and their own personal beliefs regarding sustainability in everyday life. By providing insights into these complex relationships, this study fulfills a critical step in developing more effective ways to successfully integrate sustainability within undergraduate engineering classrooms.