Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Nature and people require a drastic change in how we educate engineers. Social and Environmental Justice should be a fundamental pillar in engineering education. Both the complexity of our current problems and the social and environmental injustice that most people endure demand engineering to go beyond the technical problems, question the impact of our engineering solutions, and incorporate other ways of doing and being in engineering. Engaging in engineering, and engineering education without awareness of other beings and the Ecosystem, leads to immense harm, especially to underrepresented people and their ecosystems. In this article, I present my first thoughts on an engineering education framework that hopefully will guide educators and students through the relationships and interconnections between three levels: individual, people, and the Ecosystem. To illustrate these interconnections, I use the biological concept of mycorrhiza as a simile of these invisible connections. Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between fungi and plants that cycles nutrients to improve the whole ecosystem. The Mycorrhiza framework aims to raise awareness of the effects of engineering education and work, incorporate social and environmental justice in engineering education, and move closer to helping people freely and fully develop in a sustainable world.
Jorge Cristancho (Tue,) studied this question.