Society Centered Learning: Approaching Society as a Complex System with Diverse Stakeholders

Elizabeth M. Gerber, Amy O. O’keefe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Building on the increasing interest in designing in complex systems, Society-Centered Learning (SCL) is an emergent pedagogical approach that approaches society as a complex system and allows students to work on discrete aspects of the system. This autoethnography explores the role of a broad set of dynamic stakeholders and how students collaborate with them. We investigate the unique benefits and challenges of coordinating, planning, and teaching this approach in the classroom and communicating and managing relationships with stakeholders before, during, and after the course. Observations are based on our experience working with nine distinct sets of stakeholders in graduate-level studio-based service design courses over a ten-year period. In addition to contributing a model of Society Centered Learning to design education, we outline future research and practice.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1457-1466
Number of pages10
JournalInternational Journal of Engineering Education
Volume40
Issue number6
StatePublished - 2024

Funding

We wish to thank our students, administrators, and broad set of stakeholders for their engagement in our course over the past decade. We are grateful to our research community for helping us to improve the work. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Award No. 2008450 and Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering.

Keywords

  • complex systems
  • society centered learning
  • stakeholders
  • systems design

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • General Engineering

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