Higher Technical Education and Socio‐Economic Development

Abstract

TWO BRIEF, but comprehensive publications appeared in 1968; both are surveys: one, of teaching programmes, the other, of research. The first is the U.N.E.S.C.O. booklet, The Teaching of the Social Sciences in Higher Technical Education: An International Survey. The second, the June issue of the American Educational Research Association's Review of Educational Research, devoted to international development education.I The U.N.E.S.C.O. survey was commissioned to present 'a factual and quantitative collation of data on social science teaching in schools and other institutions of polytechnic education at university level'. Additionally, it was to make 'an analysis of such teaching in historical perspective and a critical study of the present situation, including prospective developments and teaching methods'.(2) Though there appears to have been an unfortunate delay between the collection of the material and its publication, the book nevertheless provides a useful insight into this somewhat hackneyed problem as it existed about 1965/6.(3) Though changes have occurred in the last three years in some of the institutions surveyed many of the assumptions given here would still seem to hold good. The editors distinguish between two views of the social science contribution to engineering education, the 'humanistic' and the 'instrumental'. The instrumental view 'treats the social sciences as disciplines with positive value for the engineer as he deals with the practical problems of his profession'. The humanistic view 'emphasizes the intellectual orientation given by a study of the social sciences . . . complementary to the technical values imposed by the engineer's training'. (4 The objectives served by social science teaching in engineering education are described with reference to group or organizational needs, to the larger economic, political and social context within which the engineer operates, and to the function of the social sciences as bridge disciplines between the legendary two cultures. These arguments are sufficiently well known to need repetition here. The second reference point, the A.E.R.A. Review, describes international development education as 'the field concerned with organised programmes of teaching and learning within the context of planning for economic, social or political change in the newly developing regions of the world'.0 Though long, this is a comprehensive definition for scholars working in the area of 'education and development'. The issue reviews over 450 research titles under various headings. Topics covered include the relationship between education and economic, political and social development; concepts and techniques of educational planning; research on content, methods and techniques in education for development, and international development through educational exchange. This would seem to be the