Bringing Care and Concern to Engineering Students Through STS Knowledge

Public interest technology (PIT) scholars tend to focus on educating technologists of the social implications of their work and training civic leaders to mitigate the impact of technologies through policymaking. However, PIT scholarship can be further enhanced through theoretical and pragmatic science, technology, and society (STS) knowledge. In this article, I discuss how the matters of concern and the matters of care can be utilized within engineering education to shift students' attitudes regarding the social impact of their work. Additionally, I discuss how these theories guide my own research and work to bring visibility to the less dominant images and communities with an engineering department.