Although teaching sustainability across the curriculum may have surface validity, the presenters question whether a space can be made for the teaching of sustainability in their specific educational context, i.e., a technologically-oriented university that is driven by engineering, physics, and similar disciplines. More specifically, the teaching philosophies held by the engineering faculty at this educational institution may not be compatible with those of the presenters who seek to integrate sustainability into the engineering curriculum.

The purpose of this presentation will be to report on the teaching philosophies of the engineering faculty at this university as regards sustainability. The authors propose a dialogic methodology to encourage these faculty to articulate their assumptions regarding the purpose(s) of engineering education, the role of sustainability in the engineering curriculum, and the relationship between sustainability and the “ethics” and “environmental awareness” criteria posed by the engineers’ accreditation agency (ABET 2005). Specifically, electronic dialogic journals will be created that allow select engineering faculty to share their pedagogical ideology, to explore the relationship between the technological content that they teach and the objectives and outcomes required by ABET, and to articulate the methods and goals they have for shaping our students’ philosophical perspectives as regards sustainability.