Memo+42

Plan of Study

Get myself more familiar with the literatures. Now I've found that I have a lot to learn before writing a dissertation proposal and heading out for field research. In the literatures on education, I need to check three sub literatures: the general thoughts on education, such as Dewey; comparative education study; engineering education. There have already been some studies on the engineering education in China, which I need to look at. In psychology literatures, I need to check the works in humanistic psychology, cognitive psychology, personality theories, etc. At the same time, I will keep developing my knowledge in STS, especially its critique of the power structure in scientific research and technological innovations, and its research on social movements as challenges to the authority of technoscience.

Another work that I need to finish before I study my dissertation research project is to reflect on my own engineering education experience and trying to summarize the characteristics of engineering education in China. This summary could be further verified when I do the field research.

Due to my lack of knowledge and experience of engineering education in the US, I need to use this time to learn more about it, through literature study and some preliminary interviews or participatory observations. This ethnographic work will mainly be done at RPI, I will take advantage of my TA classes as a site for knowing more of the engineering students here.

A more ambitious project would be to learn more about the Chinese and American culture. These two cultures constitute the contexts for my comparative study. I don't have a clear idea of how to do this at this moment, but I will keep trying.