Teaching Towards the Vocation of Life

This study examines ideas of purpose in undergraduate engineering education by drawing on John Dewey’s conception of “Vocation of Life” and the more recent conception of “Twenty-First Century Skills.” Through a single-site case study and utilizing the constant comparative method, this study produced a set of student learning outcomes the faculty at “Oxbow College” describe for their disciplinary teaching that includes technical, professional, and personal skills. The faculty also described a set of department, school, and national level (i.e. ABET accreditation) contexts that impacted their conceptions. This study is set within a broader landscape of attainment issues in STEM education, and engineering specifically, including: 1) student interest in an engineering education; 2) persistence in engineering education for all students; 3) attainment of engineering degrees by a diverse set of students representing the broader national population. Addressing these challenges is imperative because engineering remains of great importance to the United States’ position of technical authority in the world though the United States confers a significantly lower proportion of bachelors degrees