Course: Democracy and Media
Institution: Olin College of Engineering
Faculty: Erhardt Graeff

The activity takes place over two class periods. The first class period offers a short lecture based on readings about civic professionalism from Harry Boyte and Albert Dzur. The lecture introduces civic professionalism as a framework for a civic-mindset and ethical and democratic practices in professional fields, and also connects this to the virtue of humility (specifically the pursuit of epistemic humility and epistemological pluralism in engineering work). I then ask students to imagine exemplars of civic professionals. They share and discuss these together in groups and as a class, deliberating about what makes for a civic professional.

Students then write a reflective essay on civic professionalism that extends their thinking about their exemplar and then looks prospectively at the potential of being a civic professional in engineering in their own career and how they imagine the relevance of humility to their future careers.

In the next class, students share their essays with a partner, reading and discussing them. I then scaffold the discussion to explore their hopes and concerns about being a civic professional in engineering.

This is the procedure for the discussion about being a civic professional in engineering.

Procedures for the discussion

• Break into groups of 4–5 (mix with folks you didn’t pair & share with)
• Discussion Questions
  • For the civic professionals in your essays, do you think their civically responsible activity is primarily a function of their civic virtue (i.e. their personal values and character traits emphasizing concern for others and the common good) or their perceived professional or civic obligation (i.e. a duty or required action of their position)?
  • What power might civic professionals in engineering be able to wield to make change on an everyday, perhaps "slow burn" basis?
  • What do you think about politics in engineering?
  • Can every engineer be a civic professional? Should they?
  • How do you imagine professional responsibilities and civic responsibilities overlapping or interacting in your own career? ○ What do you hope for? ○ What are you concerned about?