Co-creative engineering curriculum design — Case East Africa

Abstract

This work-in-progress study reports the first findings from an engineering curriculum design process in an East African context. The design of new programs and teaching practices involves three universities with local faculty designing a new engineering curriculum with external experts involved in the design process. Innovation is something that in addition to societies and industries also the global academia is striving towards, and not only in research but more and more so also in education [1]. The big question, however, is how to achieve this and how to make innovation happen inside the classroom when the faculty needs to push the boundaries of science while at the same time being transformative educators [2]. And all this in a global higher education environment, where well-established institutions are in the cross pressure of neoliberal worldview and the humboldtian ideal of the community of scholars [neoliberal]. On the other end innovation and creativity are argued to be products of co-creation and a non-controlled if not chaotic and emergent environment. Much different from tradition and critical thinking (devils advocate) driven scientific world or establishment that sees cultural change and societal pressure often as a threat to their independence. The empirical part for this study involved several co-creation workshops where students and faculty participated and where co-creative learning methods where tested in a local environment. Although the processes ran parallel and where not coupled together both workshops gave insight on the preconditions of curriculum design and design of learning methods in the context in question. The Northern European university in question was responsible for organizing the workshops in collaboration with East African partners. The results show that there are several constraints for curriculum design and the adoption of new learning methods. The first results using the co-creation model proved, however, useful. The process of curriculum design and implementation will go on for the next two years until year 2020.