Embedding the social sciences in engineering education: collaboration with a Politics degree

This paper reports reflections on the successful adaptation of the CDIO pedagogy to a module offered as part of a Politics and International Relations (IR) degree. CDIO has been highly successful in engineering education, enhancing engagement, attainment, satisfaction and employability, by enabling students to learn engineering science through engineering practice. The potential to achieve similar outcomes in political science, through political practice, led the author to develop the Transport: Politics and Society module. With a focus on transport studies, a subject that is naturally interdisciplinary in both academic study and industry practice, this module presents an ideal opportunity for collaboration between engineering and the social sciences. As such, this paper describes the module curriculum, considering content and pedagogy. The paper considers if the format and content of this module could appeal to engineering and social science students alike, enabling engineering graduates to understand and respond to the changing cultural, social and political context in which they operate, whilst providing social scientists with invaluable insights into and connection with industry and the workplace. The paper offers this module as a template which, if implemented within engineering programmes, could support the goal of furthering the aim of CDIO 3.0 to develop, embed and enhance the role of the social sciences in engineering education (Malmqvist et al, 2022).