Engineering Students' Conceptualizations of Sustainability

Paper in proceeding, 2020

While the integration of a sustainability lens within engineering education is increasingly urgent, the appropriate conceptual underpinnings for such integration remain under debate. The study presented follows an investigation of one small group of students in a course that addressed sustainability in the context of technology design. Our goal was to explore the range of student conceptions of sustainability. Using a phenomenographic approach, we observed and interviewed students in the course and identified seven categories of sustainability. These findings can be used as parts of a tool for scaffolding students' learning experiences.