In this paper we report on some of the findings from a CUTSD project which was designed to find ways of promoting reflexive practice amongst engineering undergraduates. The project was one response to calls from within the profession of engineering and a review of engineering education for changes to engineering practice. Some of the desired changes included demands for engineers to be better communicators, better team workers and to have a greater sense of social and environmental responsibility. Much current engineering education and practice emphasises technical competence only. The challenge has been to find ways of ensuring technical competence with a greater awareness of contexts of practice, and we proposed that the incorporation of reflexive skills into engineering education would be one way of producing “the new engineer”. As it turns out, this strategy has extensive implications for the “old engineer” also.

One of the basic tenets of reflexive practice is that one must learn to identify and question presuppositions (starting assumptions). But part of what we do as University teachers is to socialize our students to the norms of the discipline, whatever that may be. We have found this matter of learning and practicing what could be called hegemonic behaviours to be particularly salient for engineers, but suspect it is significant in all disciplines. We are interested in the extent to which reflexivity can be expected of neophytes and how and when to introduce it but we are also interested in the effects reflexive practice has on practitioners. It has become clear to us that the changing contexts that require a new kind of engineer, also require a new kind of engineering educator. Teachers, as well as students, must learn new skills.