Resumen de Engineering global preparedness: parallel pedagogies, experientially focused instructional practices
With advances in technology and blurring of national boundaries, colleges and universities worldwide are increasingly required toprepare their graduates for global workforces. Importantly, engineering industries are seeking graduates with globally focusedcommunication and leadership skills. Additionally, graduates are sought after who have interdisciplinary research and professionalabilities that enable them to work effectively in diverse engineering environments that cross national boundaries. The presentedresearch responds to an emergent challenge of engineering global preparedness. Specifically, it represents a study that measures theimpact of formal and informal experiences and socio-demographic factors that impact students’ global preparedness in engineering.In this study, graduate and undergraduate engineering students were assessed using an engineering global preparedness index thatmeasured the role that experiential and socio-demographic factors played in their global preparedness. The results indicated thatstudents’ internationally related pedagogical experiences and precursing life experiences positively impacted their preparedness forglobal workforces. Additionally, diversity in preparedness and socio-demographic factors among students was noted, revealing thatstudents with diverse socio-demographic profiles had diverse preparedness indices. The study provides engineering educators withfuture directions as to the importance of providing globally focused experiences for their students in engineering education to assistthem in becoming fully prepared for global engineering workforces.
