Published on: 16/09/2024 · Last updated on: 23/09/2024
Introduction
The Department of Chemical Engineering at University of Bath has run focus groups with students to understand how staff can enhance climate and sustainability teaching provision in their courses. In May 2024, the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee Chair Dr Hannah Leese and departmental Climate Advocate Dr Sandhya Moise co-organised a consultation session with final-year Chemical Engineering students, one of whom also sits on the ED&I Committee. Participants were drawn from the MEng Chemical Engineering and MEng Environmental Engineering courses. The focus groups prioritised discussion of the links between sustainability and social justice in these disciplinary contexts.
Questions of social justice are central to the relationship between engineering, climate, and sustainability.
The impetus for the consultation, which aligned climate change, sustainability, and ED&I efforts across the department, stemmed from the recognition that climate change is intricately linked with questions of social justice: climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable and marginalised communities, limiting their access to resources such as clean water, food, energy, and healthcare. As such, engineering solutions must be inclusive and avoid exacerbating inequalities. Future engineers must be equipped with the skills and tools to evaluate climate change solutions through a lens of equality, diversity, and inclusivity. How, then, can engineering curricula respond to this challenge?
Insights on curriculum design and delivery
The student focus groups identified key areas that will feed into the continuous development of the Chemical Engineering curriculum:
- Whilst Chemical Engineering curricula have successfully embedded knowledge and tools to assess various aspects of environmental sustainability, the discipline and its curricula would benefit from increased focus on people and social justice.
- Adopting principles of course-wide design, the links between environmental sustainability and social justice should be signposted at all levels of the curriculum.
- Students are especially excited by novel and innovative areas of study (e.g. renewable energies, hydrogen, biotech).
- Students value explicit marking criteria around sustainability and inclusive design in engineering.
Prioritising student voice and co-creation in climate and sustainability education initiatives
Student feedback on the session was very positive: “I found the EDI-Sustainability focus group to be valuable, as it provided a safe space to voice our views and experiences, and to reassure us that diverse student perceptions and viewpoints are heard and valued. My main takeaways were a deeper understanding of existing EDI and sustainability initiatives in the department, and how these aspects are currently recognised and embedded into the Chemical Engineering curriculum. I appreciated the opportunity to give constructive feedback on how this can be built upon, with the understanding this can be used for continuous improvement for future cohorts.”
Next steps: consolidating climate and sustainability provision and ED&I perspectives across Chemical Engineering courses
Following the focus groups, the Department is introducing further mechanisms to ensure that students are at the heart of its initiative to align climate and sustainability education with ED&I and social justice perspectives. The Department of Chemical Engineering will continue working alongside the Chemical Engineering Sustainability Group (CESG; a subsidiary of the Chemical Engineering Student Association) to enable students to drive the sustainability agenda forward within the department. Dr Moise runs a ‘Climate change and Chemical Engineering’ talk in Freshers Week to foreground this aspect of the curriculum and to signpost the CESG. The CESG President is also regularly invited to appropriate lectures across year groups to remind students of opportunities for engagement. In parallel, the ED&I Committee Chair attends all Head of Department Welcome Talks for Freshers and returning students and is working closely with teaching staff across the Department to support students to reflect on inclusive design, and ED&I experiences. Provision in this area is driven by a broad belief that both ED&I perspectives and climate and sustainability education necessitate an engagement with students’ broader lived experience, an insight borne out by the focus groups.
Find out more
Do you want to know more about embedding climate and sustainability skills in your teaching? Find guidance and resources for embedding sustainability in the curriculum on the Teaching Hub, or learn more about Climate Action Education at Bath.
