WIP: Exploration of Conceptions and Attitudes of Colombian and American Chemical Engineers about Chemical Engineering

Background and Purpose: As a Work In Progress (WIP) study, we expect to identify and compare the conceptions and attitudes of undergraduate and graduate chemical engineers about engineering and technology, based on Colombian and American sociocultural and historical identities. In Colombia, chemical engineers’ perception of themselves and engineering is related to the utility that this profession has for the economic development of the country and for solving industrial challenges and problems. It seems that this perception is very appreciated for this community and for the universities which teach this discipline because these are abilities for securing a job. Nevertheless, this perception of engineering seems to be different from the idea that American chemical engineers consider, where, in addition to the previous conception, this agent is closer to normal science investigations. Methodology: A mixed survey questionnaire will be applied to undergraduate and graduate Colombian and American chemical engineers. For deeper information, a semi-structured interview will be done to a smaller population, based on the results of the quantitative moment. Responses will be analyzed employing a genetic-structural convergence approach about attitudes and conceptions. Findings and Conclusions: We expect to recognize the difference between Colombian and American undergraduate and graduate attitudes about engineering related to the socio-historical construction, use and actions around this concept. Implications: To compare with other countries, the conceptions and attitudes about chemical engineering and chemical engineering technology contribute to making visible the differences and similarities between these concepts related to the sociocultural and historical approach. Additionally, it is an opportunity to set up undergraduate curriculums and policies about engineering education taking into account the context in which they are developed. Background and Purpose The biggest challenge that diverse educational institutions have in Colombia is to build curricula which include the experience, knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes of different actors. Higher education institutions should not be outside to these characteristics because they allow more meaningful learning [1], the construction of critical thinking in students inside practice communities [2], and the transcendence of content and competencies to the real world outside the classroom. However, this idea of what a professional must be is hidden by three structural problems which constitute the predominant traditional curricula: Homogenization of the population, partialization of knowledge [3], and privilege learning by content and not skill development [4]. In Colombia, Chemical Engineering is characterized by traditional teaching, where an expert – most of the time the holder of a Chemical Engineering degreesuggests the content that students should learn, and the professional profile those must have, based in the market. Clearly, these parts of the construction of the curricula impact the perception that chemical engineers have about themselves as part of this discipline, their relation with other disciplines and the real world. In this way, a chemical engineer's perception of what it means to be an engineer seems to be related to the abilities this profession brings to solving daily challenges and problems proposed by the industry, as well as to boosting the economic development of the country. In this sense, this conception of a chemical engineer is very appreciated in Colombia by this community and the different universities which form in these essential abilities according to the definition of chemical engineering proposed by the Colombian Ministry of Education [5]. Nevertheless, these perceptions seem to be different from the sociocultural conceptions and attitudes that chemical engineers from the United States consider in terms of being a professional of this discipline. In the United States, being a chemical engineer has two possibilities: The first one, related to a profession close to normal science research in his discipline, as proposed by Kuhn [6], and the second one related to the application of this knowledge in the industry –also called chemical engineering technology. In this order of ideas, this Work In Progress (WIP) paper seeks to answer the research question: What and how are the attitudes of undergraduate and graduate chemical engineers from Colombia and the United States related to chemical engineering and chemical engineering technology? In this way, comparing the conceptions and attitudes about Chemical Engineering of two different cultures contributes to making visible the differences and similarities between them, being an opportunity to establish undergraduate curricula and policies on engineering education that are contextualized to the environment and provide a voice to the students. Therefore, we take as an epistemological framework the pragmatic paradigm trying to converge genetic and structural social representations’ approaches as a mediating element of the relationships between the attitudes and as a mechanism for analyzing the information collected [7]. Theoretical framework In this way, it is interesting to identify and compare how these professionals conceive and act on chemical engineering, from their different sociocultural and historical frameworks they have naturally appropriated in their countries. To accomplish this, the study will use the tension between Social Representations (SR) and Attitudes and their viable solution, as a framework for the development of the objectives. First, social representations, focused from a sociological perspective, refer to the way a group of people perceives a particular phenomenon from their sociocultural knowledge learned throughout life [8]. They also respond to phenomena of core and periphery, in which the meanings that the community offers to the phenomenon are developed and consolidated. According to Abric [9], in the nucleus would be found the attitudes that the community manifests towards the phenomenon, while the periphery is considered as the interaction space between SR through the values. On the other hand, the attitudes respond to a mentalist approach which correlates with the SR from its origins and was changing over time to complete differentiation as a mental and individual phenomenon that pre-defines the behavior of the individual from the assessment. For mediating this conflict, Parales-Quenza propose to consider these approaches from a genetic-structural perspective which conciliates these paradigms through the conversion of the horizon of attitudes towards peripheral components of the SR, releasing the tension existing between them [10] (Fig. 1). Fig 1. Attitudes as part of Social Representations, an Analytical Rationality and of GeneticStructural Perspective. Own elaboration