Enabling pathways by enabling cultural and value change in engineering academics

Abstract

Enabling pathways are often placed in the difficult position of establishing a bridge between engineering academic expectations and the quality and diversity of students seeking access to tertiary education. Difficulties in progressing to engineering programs may be in the form of articulation of fundamental maths and sciences. However, one of the main issues may not be an educational one but a cultural one; in that there is a cultural and value divide between students and engineering academics, which often are not adequately bridged. The proposition is that via improving scholarship of learning and teaching in engineering academics by collaborative development of curriculum with enabling educators, the cultural divide may be bridged. The paper looks to the examples in the experience of international students in enabling pathways and factors that hinder successful student progression in their respective programs. The paper endeavours to suggest propositions and relevant methods to address this, and provide tangible ways of delineating the barriers to effective transition in students, and provide positive change in the culture and values of engineering academics in particular.