Conference Program

This paper addresses the democratic turn in university STEM education by presenting the embedding model developed and implemented at Politecnico di Milano over the past decade. The democratic turn in university STEM education involves, among others, enriching educational programs through the acquisition of critical and reflective competences concerning scientific research and technological development. Particularly in the education of engineers and designers, sensitivity to the social impacts and ethical dimensions of technology is increasingly becoming a recognized imperative. This is especially evident in leading European technological universities, where subjects such as Critical thinking, Ethics of technology, and Technology and society are becoming part of standard curricula.

The embedding model is a strategy for integrating critical and reflective competences into the educational pathways of engineers and designers, based on the incorporation of SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) experts into technology-focused degree programs and courses. The first part of the paper will describe the model's main characteristics, highlighting its five pillars: not simply SSH disciplines but meta-technoscientific competences; multidisciplinarity; meta-technoscientific competences are not soft skills; embedment; starting from below. The second part will discuss the practice of integrating meta-technoscientific competences into technology design curricula, identifying several key features: the need to adapt conventional disciplinary content for audiences without prior exposure, while maintaining academic rigor; the diverse composition of student cohorts and the consequent value of fostering peer-to-peer learning among students from different disciplines; and the potential to leverage students' technical knowledge to develop case studies and exercises that effectively contextualize meta-technoscientific concepts and theories.

Innovative teaching formats, particularly integrated courses, will be specifically examined to demonstrate that co-teaching by both a technology specialist and an SSH scholar not only shows students the importance of incorporating critical perspectives into technology design but also facilitates mutual training and professional development among teaching staff. Furthermore, the simultaneous presence of both instructors interacting in the classroom illustrates to students that technology design processes should consistently integrate meta-technoscientific competences throughout all stages of development.

The embedding model aims to provide students with basic tools to identify potentially harmful consequences of emerging technologies and possible steps to eliminate and mitigate them in a context in which expert opinion should not override that of non-experts. Graduates should emerge attuned to the risks that even well-designed and working technologies can entail if developed within a technocratic framework and deployed without democratic oversight.

The paper will also provide a critical assessment of the difficulties encountered, the most arduous challenges, and main critical points of the embedding model.