Journal articles on the topic 'Engineer-educator'

Abstract How should ethical standards be maintained within engineering and engineering education? The present paper addresses this question with relation to the dominant models of engineering ethics (EE) to show that their limits might be overcome by incorporating the vocabulary of neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics. On the basis of the MacIntyrean concept of practice, the secondary role of engineering is highlighted which echoes similar debates concerning education. This similarity is picked up to argue that the role of the engineer in relation to the end-users of their projects should be understood as on a par with the teacher-student relationship. This enables us not only to redefine the internal good of engineering and the ground for EE, but also to indicate the key virtues and educational models for engineering that they should be key parts of.

The interrelationship among art, intelligence, and machine has important implications for the visual arts as part of a general education. Here, Frederic Fol Leymarie (FFL), a computer scientist and engineer at Goldsmiths College, and Seymour Simmons III (SS3), an artist and art educator from Winthrop University, South Carolina, discuss these issues and the value of sustained cross-disciplinary conversations in addressing challenges in the 21st century.

The article deals with the classification of institutions by the reporesentatives of modern Austrian economic school and its meaning for understanding the problems of development economics. The especially important role of institu- tional stickiness in the initially alien social environment is emphasized. Attention is drawn to the fact that the intention to impute progressive institutions in a backward country without adjustment to its endogenous institutions or chang- ing the latter by formation of new beliefs may lead to their rejection. On this basis the modern Austrian school sees the economist not as an engineer, but as a researcher and beliefs affecting educator.

Of the many talented men who entered government service in Egypt in the 19th century, none equaled in sheer energy and productivity ʿAli Mubarak Pasha (1823/4–1893). Engineer, officer, administrator, educator, and author, he was the outstanding Egyptian of his generation and the first native Muslim to head a government department in modern times. Yet his most enduring legacy are his writings, in particular his famous Khitat. A twenty-volume topographical encyclopedia published in the 1880s, the Khitat of ʿAli Mubarak is a landmark of Arabic prose and probably constitutes the greatest existing historical record of Egyptian society.

Purpose. To analyze current scientific research on the problem of design competence of future engineer-teachers, and to conduct a terminological analysis of related and fundamental concepts, such as «competence,» «design activity,» «design competence,» and «design competence of engineer-teachers.» Methods. Methods of theoretical and methodological analysis of literature on the research topic, regulatory and legislative documents were applied, along with analysis, synthesis, generalization, and systematization to clarify the meanings of the studied concepts and formulate conclusions. Results. In modern conditions, ensuring a workforce that meets the real conditions and needs of the labor market and the demands for the quality of the country’s production potential is of paramount importance in Ukraine. A strategic role in solving this task is played by the system of vocational and technical education, which is closely linked to production and aims to train highly qualified specialists. This, in turn, requires teaching staff with a high level of current professional knowledge, skills, and competencies in both the psychological-pedagogical sphere and the field of production.Theoretical research allowed for the identification of related and fundamental concepts of the study. Based on an analysis of scientific works, the concept of competence was clarified as an integrative, dynamic quality of a person, characterizing their ability and readiness for successful activity in a specific field (including professional activity). Researchers view it from various perspectives, but its essential components are knowledge, skills, experience, values, and attitudes toward activity in a specific professional domain. It was found that in modern scientific literature, design activity is interpreted as an integrative process combining theoretical knowledge and practical actions of an educator aimed at developing and implementing educational projects to enhance the quality of education and develop professional competencies. It was determined that the specificity of training engineer-teachers in any field lies in the fact that their design activity is considered both in the psychological-pedagogical and professional training domains. Design competence should encompass both psychological-pedagogical and professional engineering-technical components of the training of future engineer-teachers in accordance with regulatory documentation: programs, plans, and innovative projects for the development of subject areas of the future specialist’s activity. In general, design competence is interpreted as an integrative quality of an educator that combines knowledge, skills, and personal qualities necessary for effective design and implementation of the educational process. The study also examined the specifics of the design competence of engineer-teachers as an integrative personal characteristic that accumulates interdisciplinary knowledge and skills enabling them to develop collaborative research activities with students, provide scientific guidance, and assist in the implementation of research projects. The analysis of scientific works on the issue of design competence of engineer-teachers revealed that there is currently no single interpretation of this concept. The essence of the term «design competence of an engineer-teacher» was clarified as the integrated result of the educational training of future engineer-teachers. It reflects the formation of relevant knowledge, skills, and professionally important qualities, representing the ability to engage in design activities in the fields of pedagogy and production through the development of pedagogical and production projects. The analysis of psychological-pedagogical literature also identified the structure of design competence, which includes the following components: motivational-value, cognitive, activity-based, and reflexive-evaluative. Conclusion. Based on an analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature, the essence of the concept of «design competence of an engineer-teacher» was clarified as an integrative, dynamic personal characteristic. It reflects a combination of design knowledge and skills, experience in design activities, orientation toward motivational-value attitudes, and reflexive-evaluative actions, enabling the development and evaluation of projects in the dual professional domains of pedagogy and technological expertise.

Pumps are one of the most frequently used tools by humans in their daily lives. The function of the pump is to raise a fluid from a low surface to a higher surface. To meet the working pressure and fluid flow capacity requirements in a pump operating system, it can perform single, series and parallel circuits. In the world of education, an educator is said to be successful if it produces quality graduates. Quality means that student graduates can understand and apply all the knowledge gained while working. An engineer must be able to know the characteristics of various types of pumps, one of which is a centrifugal pump. This is done so that the engineer can use the tool according to the needs of the job. This is done so that the engineer can use the tool according to the needs of the job. One way to get this is to provide props or pump test equipment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to design and build series and parallel pump test equipment that can be used for student practicum. The research methods carried out include the design of 3D series and parallel pump test equipment, the process of manufacturing test equipment, assembling the electrical wiring of pump test equipment and conducting tests. The final result of this study is that series and parallel pump test equipment can be used for practicum testing.

Requirements elicitation is the process through which analysts determine the software requirements of stakeholders. Requirements elicitation is seldom well done, and an inaccurate or incomplete understanding of user requirements has led to the downfall of many software projects. This paper proposes a classification of problem types that occur in requirements elicitation. The classification has been derived from a literature analysis. Papers reporting on techniques for improving requirements elicitation practice were examined for the problem the technique was designed to address. In each classification the most recent or prominent techniques for ameliorating the problems are presented. The classification allows the requirements engineer to be sensitive to problems as they arise and the educator to structure delivery of requirements elicitation training.

In 2007 Professor Frank Fisher was named Australia's inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year (by the Australian Association for Environmental Education). Frank lived a life driven by a determination to engage fully with the world around him. As a young electrical engineer, Frank became convinced of the need for education and research about how we shape the world around us, and contributed to the establishment of the first Australian Masters of Sustainability program at Monash University in 1973. Typified by exercises such as taking students to sit in the middle of major roads, Frank's teaching approach aimed to help students understand the social systems that shape our understanding of and impact on the world around us.

The continued advances in artificial intelligence and automation through machine learning applications, under the heading of data science, gives reason for pause within the educator community as we consider how to position future human factors engineers to contribute meaningfully in these projects. Do the lessons we learned and now teach regarding automation based on previous generations of technology still apply? What level of DS and ML expertise is needed for a human factors engineer to have a relevant role in the design of future automation? How do we integrate these topics into a field that often has not emphasized quantitative skills? This panel discussion brings together human factors engineers and educators at different stages of their careers to consider how curricula are being adapted to include data science and machine learning, and what the future of human factors education may look like in the coming years.

Professor William (Bill) Johnson, engineer, educator and research scientist, died peacefully on 13 June 2010, aged 88 years. His illustrious academic career spanned more than 50 years, during which time he published more than 400 papers and wrote eight books. His primary speciality within applied mechanics was the applications of plasticity theory to manufacturing processes and to impact mechanics, to both of which he contributed well-received text books. However, he also had a long-established passion for the history of science and technology. His research and publications also included engineering aspects of sports, medicine, history and literature. He engaged students with an exciting style of teaching, engendering enthusiasm for the subject at a time when, primarily, only chalk and blackboard were available. He was also an inspirational research collaborator. Many students and colleagues who had their initial training under his guidance have been appointed to chairs throughout the world.

Within the framework of studying fundamental disciplines, an educator, from the perspective of competence approach, provides not only theoretical training, but also cultivates the corresponding personality traits. Professional competences can be reasonably divided into the basic – common to all engineering specialties, acquired at the initial stages of educational process; and specific – formed in the course of special disciplines. The goal of this research is to determine, on the basis of analysis of the concept of information competence, its elements developed in the process of studying natural scientific disciplines. The task is set to outline the criteria and indicators of the level of formedness of information competence of future engineers in the process of studying fundamental disciplines. The scientific novelty of this work consists in determination of the elements of information competence of a future engineer developed in the process of studying fundamental disciplines, as well as description of the criteria and indicators of the level of formedness of information competence, characteristics of the low, average, sufficient, and fairly high levels of formedness of such competence in the process of studying natural scientific disciplines.

Lajos Martin (1827–1897) was a mathematician, engineer, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1861), founding member of the Transylvanian Museum Society, first appointed professor at the Hungarian University of Cluj founded in 1872, one of the Hungarian pioneers of aviation, and also warden of the Evangelical church. In 2022 was commemorated the 125th anniversary of his death and also the 150th anniversary of the founding of the University of Cluj, of which he was professor, from the foundation until his death. He was also the rector of the institution in academic year 1895/96. His legacy (the floating wheel, his collection of papers containing his research and the Martin folder) was bequeathed by his children to the Transylvanian Museum Society, the institution where he gave many lectures and published the results of his research. The present study aims to present in more detail not only the part of his life revealed by his commemorative research, but also that part of his life which highlights his role in Hungarian education in Cluj, as educator and institution leader, marked by his faith in science.

The article theoretically substantiates the peculiarities of preparation of future engineers-educators of the food industry for the creative vocational activity and defines ways of this preparation. Modern requirements for engineers-educators of the food industry in the field of industry and education are the formation of the readiness for the creative vocational activity, which includes the ability of these specialists to meet the growing needs of the consumer and production; the appropriate level of knowledge in the disciplines of vocational and practical training, possessing vocational and practical skills, which in turn will become a good basis for the vocational solution of specific production situations that occur daily in enterprises of the food industry and educational process. The potential opportunities of educational programs of the specialty 015 Vocational Education (Food technology) for ensuring the formation of the readiness of future engineers-educators of the food industry of the educational degree of a bachelor to the creative vocational activity are identified. The ways of improving the preparation of future engineers-educators for the creative vocational activity are determined. In particular, the orientation of training on the optimal realization of the creative potential of future specialists and the creation of appropriate organizational and pedagogical conditions (activation of higher education candidates' motives for creative expression in future vocational activities, use of the didactic opportunities of the disciplines of the cycle of vocational and practical training in achieving the expected creative results; organization of psychological and pedagogical support with seekers of higher education on the formation of components of readiness the for the creative vocational activity). The offered research allows to decide the problems of the staff of labour migration at the level of providing the high-quality trade education and learning, in particular in the context of strengthening the skilled potential of the food industry on their readiness to be quickly oriented in the changing terms of labour in the field of industry and education

This year marks 85 years of the National Research University “Moscow Power Engineering Institute” (National Research University "MPEI”). The department of engineering drawing was the first among other departments in the MEI, for which it is also the anniversary year. The organizer and the first head of this department from 1930 to 1962 was Eugeniy A. Glazunov - a prominent scientist and educator, engineer and organizer, who celebrates 125 years. At the beginning of 1930 the Department of Electrical Engineering Higher Technical School, which earlier E.A. Glazunov graduated, has been transformed into the Moscow Higher School of Energy, which became soon the Moscow Energy Institute. Eugeniy Glazunov was appointed to the head of the department of descriptive geometry and drawing in MPEI. (Some time this department was called "Technical graphics"). His name is undeservedly rarely mentioned in textbooks and other literature in applied geometry and graphics. But Eugeniy Glazunov was very authoritative in the circle geometry and graphics, and among the heads of departments he was one of the initiators and leaders of the Moscow seminar on descriptive geometry, who published his works, and the head of the department, who generously shared teaching materials with his related institution. But E.A. Glazunov had relatively few publications compared with present time. But there were very capital works. One of them was written in conjunction with the N.F. Chetverukhin and is called "Axonometry." But it was not only an outstanding organizer and teacher, but also a magnitude engineer — designer and practitioner in the field of electrical engineering. He was a team-mate, who developed and marketed the first installation, substation and network of well-known Russian electrification plan — the plan for electrification. Based on his experience and under his leadership tasks on the engineering drawing based on electrical products and parts were improved, and drawing ceased to be exclusively machine-building. His merits in the development of engineering education and his geometry and graphic component were so significant that he was awarded the title of professorship of Higher Attestation Commission without doctoral dissertation. He was also one of the highest awards of that time, the Order of Lenin (1951).

Britton Chance was a pioneer in many scientific fields such as enzymatic reaction kinetics, bioenergetics, metabolism, in vivo NMR, and biophotonics. As an engineer, physical chemist, physicist, physiologist, biophysicist, biochemist, innovator and educator, he had worked in diversified fields over extended periods between 1926 until his death in 2010, at the age of 97. In order to illustrate his scientific career and great impact on research from a new perspective, we employ scientometric analysis tools to analyze the publications of Britton Chance with data downloaded from the ISI Citation Indexes in April 2013. We included articles, reviews and proceeding papers but excluded meeting abstracts. In total, we obtained 1023 publication records with 1236 authors in 266 journals with 17,114 citations from 1945 to 2013. We show the annual publications and citations that Britton Chance received from 1945 to 2013, and generate HistCite maps on the basis of the global citations (GCS) and local (self) citations (LCS) to show the citation relationships among the top-30 publications of Britton Chance. Metabolism and the development of physical methods to probe it appear to be the connecting thread of the lifelong research of Britton Chance. Furthermore, we generate the journal map and co-authorship map to show the broad scope of research topics and collaborators and the high impacts of the scientific oeuvre of Britton Chance ranging from physics, engineering, chemistry and biology to medicine.

The article comprehensively presents little known Estonian contribution to the recognition of first meteorite impact structures in Europe, related to works of Julius Kaljuvee (Kalkun; 1869–1940) and Ivan Reinwald (Reinwaldt; 1878–1941). As an active educator specialized in geoscience, Kaljuvee was the first to hypothesize in 1922 that Kaali lake cirque in Saaremaa Island, Estonia, was created by meteorite impact. Thanks to mining engineer Reinwald, this assumption was accepted since 1928 due to the exhaustive field and borehole works of the latter (also as a result of exploration by several German scholars, including renowned Alfred Wegener). The impact origin of Kaali structure was proved finally in 1937 by finding of meteoritic iron splinters (as the first European site). Reinwald was not only outstanding investigator of meteorite cratering process, but also successful propagator of the Estonian discoveries in Anglophone mainstream science in 1930s. In addition, in his 1933 book, Kaljuvee first highlighted an impact explanation of enigmatic Ries structure in Bavaria, as well as probable magmatic activation in distant regions due to “the impulse of a giant meteorite”. He also outlined ideas of the inevitable periodic cosmic collisions in geological past (“rare event” theory nowadays), and resulting biotic crises. In a general conceptual context, the ideas of Kaljuvee were in noteworthy direct or indirect link with concepts of the great French naturalists – Laplace, Cuvier and Élie de Beaumont. However, some other Kaljuvee’s notions, albeit recurrent also later in geoscientific literature, are queer at the present time (e.g., the large-body impact as a driving force of continental drift and change the Earth axis, resulting in the Pleistocene glaciation). Thus, the Kaljuvee thought-provocative but premature dissertation is rather a record of distinguishing erudite activity, but not a real neocatastrophic landmark in geosciences history. Nevertheless, several concepts of Kaljuvee were revived as the key elements in the current geological paradigm.

The application of global positioning system (GPS) technology as a pretrial diversion mechanism to monitor intimate partner and domestic violence (IPV/DV) cases has become increasingly common. As more jurisdictions implement GPS technology, there is a need to understand the workplace experiences of community corrections officers with this nascent supervision strategy. This qualitative case study draws upon the experiences gleaned from in-depth interviews with all the pretrial officers assigned to technology caseloads ( n = 8) in a single jurisdiction to explore prevailing occupational stress themes associated with GPS supervision for IPV/DV cases as a diversion from pretrial detention. The results reinforce and extend a range of well-established stressors in the extant literature related to pretrial officers managing a GPS caseload of IPV/DV defendants. The findings highlight that pretrial officers using GPS technology are expected to serve in other unique roles (e.g., critical educator, software engineer, data collection specialist, communication expert, and victim advocate) in the course of their duties that were unanticipated sources of occupational stress. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

<em>In addition to social economic developments in our country, today&#39;s educational programs have been radically changed and updated, taking into account the modern achievements of modern education, science, technology and technology, economics and culture in the world, modernizing the educational system, structurally rebuilding it.</em>

I first met Shôn in October 1973. I had just started Part III of the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos – a post-graduate course that was retrospectively awarded a Masters’ Degree in Mathematics. After a summer job working with Ted Broadbent on aircraft noise at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, I had decided do a PhD in Aeroacoustics. I asked Sir James Lighthill for advice and he told me that he was now focused on biomechanics but a new professor had recently arrived in the Cambridge Department of Engineering and that I should ask him. I made contact with Shôn, saw him in his office that afternoon, and he agreed to supervise me for a PhD. As quickly and simply as that, I was on a path that for me was transformational, not only an exciting research future, but the start of my transition from mathematics into engineering. Throughout my career, Shôn continued to be a major influence on me as he has for many others.

Today’s world has an urgent need for engineer-changemakers to participate in the addressing of complex societal challenges. However, today’s Engineering Education does not provide the opportunity for students to develop the necessary skills, perspectives, and experiences to become engineer-changemakers. In this paper, we present a new model of changemaking and use this model to assess the profession of engineering, engineering education, and a number of initiatives we have created over the past year at the Lassonde Futures Lab. Using the model, we also propose a forward thinking vision for creating a “purpose-driven collaboratory” that simultaneously catalyzes change and prepares changemakers.

In this paper, we describe a framework for bilingual decoding instruction, with a call for collaborators. Decoding is the ability to apply knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to pronounce words. We adopt a standard phonological approach for early instruction that could be expanded to include practice with constructive morphemes, like prefixes and suffixes, and reading for meaning. Decades of research have shown that word decoding is a bottleneck in reading comprehension. Unless children develop sight-word reading capabilities, comprehension of texts is severely hampered. The present approach draws on children’s spoken vocabulary knowledge in their native language as a bridge to decoding in a second language. The goal is to develop a tutoring system that draws on current and forthcoming multimedia technologies, and to implement the system in multilingual countries, e.g.: USA, India, Ukraine and across national borders. As a starting point, the authors will use a web platform https://ethicalengineer.ttu.edu designed in 2017 by the USA, Indian, and Ukrainian collaborators, several of them being co-authors of this paper, as a model for the new website for reading instruction. The Ethical Engineer website demonstrates one mechanism through which instructors can reach out to establish connections within and outside their native country around topics and issues of common interest and support educator cooperation and research development. The new model hopes to achieve success comparable to that of the EthicalEngineer. Using computer-based instruction allows for empirical testing of teaching methods, thereby optimizing the educational process. It is important to take advantage of this to ensure the most effective methods are used in early reading instruction for children. Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Universities are undergoing significant change (Kaplan, 2021). Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, external pressures meant that universities were adapting their research practices, their teaching and learning practices, and their external engagement. This research is concerned with how universities’ employment practices might be altered to meet these changing needs. Drivers for this change included increasing access to technology, requirements for greater access, student variety, and a more challenging funding environment, as well as pressure from external providers (Bakhov et al., 2021). There is diversity in how universities are addressing these demands. Some universities have invested in significant training to prepare staff to teach in blended or online environments (Llerena-Izquierdo &amp; Ayala-Carabajo, 2021). Some universities have invested in centralized (Bearman et al., 2021), or faculty level teaching and learning units (or both), with a purview to assist academics in developing a better student experience. Another option has been the outsourcing of the design work to Online Program Managers (OPMs) who undertake the learning design work. In reality, the most common practice is a combination of different approaches, which can lead to, for example, learning designers training academics, as well as developing courses at a whole of university level, but also working at a faculty or school level. This approach has only further confused the question of the role of third space professionals such as learning designers. This area, and the effect that it has had on employment practices in higher education is under-researched at the current time. This poster reports on a preliminary study of various higher education job advertisements, seeking to identify in what way employment practices are changing (if at all) to reflect the changing dynamics of higher education expectations of academic staff members. In doing so, it establishes a research agenda for future studies in this space. The experiences during the pandemic should provide lessons for future practices and research. In order to do so, it is necessary to consider the dynamic range of influences active in this space; for this reason, a systems thinking approach provides insight into this space. Current research that focused on educator’s characteristics (professional knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes) found that the education sector struggled to provide satisfactory learning during this period. Educators are only one part of the story here; the other part is the role of institutions, the resources provided by governments, and the general population's expectations of the educator regardless of the challenges being experienced (Wright &amp; Meadows, 2012; Stroh, 2015). Considered together, these elements offer insights into to how we support, assess and re-engineer our systems towards better educational outcomes (Senge, 1990). Education is a societal need and if society is not benefitting from all of the inputs, then changes should be implemented. This poster provides a conceptual view of what these changes might look like at all levels. The role of the educator, as an embedded resource in a learning system, and what abilities are needed for the role or to support the role are also discussed.

What does it mean to be a “responsible engineer”? The question has been asked throughout history, including during times that were fraught with challenge, but the problems awaiting engineering students in Canada in 2021 are arguably unprecedented in their complexity. Technologically difficult problems resulted in recent advances such as the World Wide Web and 5G mobile communications, but today’s challenge derives not only from the global scale of man-made environmental problems and their impacts, but from lack of agreement around appropriate mitigation strategies and on the need to act at all. The engineering students of today must develop solutions to problems that have newly acknowledged and highly contentious human factors. In the Canadian context, new policy is emerging from Canada’s recognition that it must reconcile the harms of past policies towards Indigenous peoples. This recognition has created a discourse around equity that will shape the landscape in which graduates will practice. In preparing young engineers to navigate technological and social complexity, and to equip them to find personal fulfillment in an uncertain landscape, a reinvigorated emphasis on critical and relational thinking is required. In 2019 and 2020, students in a fourth-year class in Sustainability, (which includes a study of law, policy, and sustainability reporting metrics) participated in multiple group exercises that asked them to explore multiple facets of problematic or politically current issues. These learning activities sought to support a transformative learning experience in which students would come to recognize their ability to contribute as citizens to the development of responsible public policy. In these exercises they examined opposing positions and assessed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks, associated with each. That there was no RIGHT conclusion was emphasized. The only criteria for assessment was depth of exploration and logical chaining of evidence. Students learned about cultural perspectives from an Indigenous educator, and as they explored the diversity of viewpoints around the question of pipeline expansion in Canada. A final exercise asked students to reflect on the meanings of responsible policy and practice and how they would operationalize sustainability thinking.

Abstract Objectives To identify Barbie brand dolls that had medicine and science themed professions in comparison with other career dolls and to determine their accuracy in meeting clinical and laboratory safety standards. Design Descriptive quantitative study. Setting Visual and data analysis of web searches. Main outcome measures To identify the kinds of medical and scientific subspecialties that the Barbie dolls (and a comparison doll group) worked in; and to determine whether these medical professional and scientist dolls met laboratory and clinical safety standards. Additional data about doll demographics (ie, age, ethnic group, and sex) were also collected. Participants 92 Barbie brand dolls were analyzed: doctor (n=53), scientist (n=10), science educator (n=2), nurse (n=15), dentist (n=11), and paramedic (n=1). 65 non-Barbie brand dolls were also analyzed for comparison purposes: doctor (n=26), scientist (n=27), nurse (n=7), dentist (n=2), engineer (n=2), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technician (n=1) dolls. Results Barbie brand medical professional dolls (n=80) largely treated children (66%, n=53/80), with only three (4%) medical professional dolls being directly depicted working with adults. Of the 12 scientist Barbie brand dolls, none met all proper personal protective equipment requirements related to hair and clothing. Barbie brand dolls often came with items, such as laboratory coats, microscopes, stethoscopes, and glasses, that children stereotypically associate with doctors and scientists. While comparison dolls offered a wider range of age and ethnic groups than the Barbie doll group did, the dolls similarly struggled to portray a wide range of medical and scientific subfields and most comparison dolls did not wear proper personal protective equipment. Conclusions Medicine and science themed dolls help to inspire tomorrow’s medical professionals and scientists. All toy companies should ensure that future medical professional and scientist dolls meet clinical and laboratory safety standards and diversify the types of medical and scientific professions represented (especially among male dominated fields). For young girls’ sakes as much as her own, Barbie must keep shattering glass ceilings.

In 2019, Mattel introduced a series of Barbie dolls in connection with National Geographic which included a Polar Marine Biologist, an Entomologist, a Wildlife Photojournalist, and a mostly "made from recycled ocean-bound plastic" Barbie ("Mattel Launches Barbie Loves the Ocean") followed in 2021. One year later, the company issued an "Eco-Leadership Team" composed of a Conservation Scientist, a Renewable Energy Engineer, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Environmental Advocate. This can be understood as an attempt to introduce children to the urgency of ecological issues and communicating to them the importance of research into climate change in an age-appropriate manner. Yet, despite the pedagogical opportunities the dolls might offer, I argue that their introduction and presentation primarily represents an instance of greenwashing, "the act or practice of making a product, policy, activity, etc. appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is" (Merriam-Webster). In order to support my thesis, I will analyse four issues: first, I will have a closer look at the way in which the four "Eco-Leadership" dolls express ecological concerns. I will then turn to the material Barbie is made of, plastic, and examine its environmental impact together with Mattel's "The Future of Pink Is Green" campaign. Next, I will discuss the conspicuous consumption Barbie models, focussing on the Malibu Dream House. I will address how this is entangled with settler colonialism in the fourth and final part. Eco-Leadership Barbie? The "Eco-Leadership" set, billed as "2022 Career of the Year" collection, consists of four dolls. They come in a cardboard box so that the toys are not immediately visible, and their accessories are stored in a paper bag inside. On the one hand, this makes the dolls less appealing, depriving the potential consumers of visual pleasure. On the other hand, this generates an element of suspense, much like a wrapped present. In keeping with Mattel's slogan "The Future of Pink Is Green", the colour pink is toned down, even though each doll sports at least one accessory in this colour. The toys are sold as a team, thus perhaps suggesting that "eco-leadership" is a collaborative project, which departs from the emphasis on individualism otherwise suggested by Barbie packaging. In their promotional material, Mattel mentions that all of the professional fields the dolls represent are male-dominated ("Barbie Eco-Leadership Team"). The combination of the careers featured makes a telling statement about Mattel's framing of ecological issues. First, there is a Conservation Scientist with binoculars and a notebook, implying that she is undertaking research on larger animals, presumably endangered species. Such a focus on mammals tends to downplay structural issues and the "slow violence" that affects ecological systems, as Arno Hölzer has argued (65). She is joined by a Renewable Energy Engineer with a solar panel, referencing the least controversial form of "green energy". Significantly, this is the classic blond Barbie. Together, these two dolls suggest that science and technology will find solutions to current ecological crises, global warming, et cetera (not that such issues are explicitly mentioned). The third doll is advertised as Chief Sustainability Officer. "She works with a company or organization to make sure their actions and products are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable", as Mattel puts it ("Barbie Eco-Leadership Team"). Here, businesses are portrayed not as the source of environmental pollution, but as part of the solution to the problem. While this is not entirely false, this particular approach to environmental issues is severely limited, firmly remaining within a neoliberal, capitalist ideology. It reflects what Dan Brockington and Rosaleen Duffy, following Sklair, term "mainstream conservation", which "proposes resolutions to environmental problems that hinge on heightened commodity production and consumption" (4). In this context, a company's promotion of "ethical consumption" "achieves its ethically positive results by not counting various aspects of the production and consumption of its commodities" (9). Finally, there's the Environmental Advocate – not activist (the term was probably too controversial). She is always mentioned last. Her poster reads: "Barbie loves the earth", possibly the most inane ecological slogan ever devised. It is made of plastic. Acquainting children with ecological issues in an age-appropriate manner is an important task. Playing environmental advocate, or scientist, might certainly be more educational in terms of ecological issues than many of the other career options the "I can be anything" series features. But the absence of a politician in the set, for instance, speaks volumes. The "recipe" for sustainability the dolls embody only requires a heavy dose of science and technology, whipped up by well-meaning entrepreneurship, with a little love for the planet sprinkled on top. One gets a prettier picture if one looks at the toys from different perspectives. The group is rather diverse, with a Black Conservation Scientist, an Environmental Advocate of Asian descent, and a Chief Sustainability Officer that might be Latinx, and "curvy". Again, though, there is a glaring omission. Indigenous people are not included, despite the fact that, due to environmental racism, they are among the communities most dramatically affected by environmental pollution. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., who coined the term "environmental racism," defined it as racial discrimination in environmental policy-making, enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries … , [and] the history of excluding people of color from the mainstream environmental groups, decision-making boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies. (Chavis 3) The consequences for Native Americans were and are severe. By 1999, Winona LaDuke notes, 317 reservations … [were] threatened by environmental hazards … . Reservations have been targeted as sites for 16 proposed nuclear waste dumps [and] [o]ver 100 … toxic waste [sites] … . There have been 1,000 atomic explosions on Western Shoshone land in Nevada, making the Western Shoshone the most bombed nation on earth. (LaDuke 2-3) The absence of an Indigenous doll in the Barbie "Eco-Leadership Team" is also noteworthy considering the long history of Native American and First Nations resistance to habitat destruction and environmental degradation, from nineteenth-century Lakota Little Thunder and Anishnaabe leader Wabunoquod (LaDuke 3, 5) to the #NoDAPL movement (Gilio-Whitaker 1-13). Following Robin Wall Kimmerer, one could even argue that sustainability, or "beneficial relations between people and the environment", are integral to Native (here: Potawatomi) culture (Kimmerer 6). On a very different note, any ecological consideration of Barbie dolls must also address their material properties. According to Mattel, the four dolls "are made from recycled plastic … , wear clothing made from recycled fabric and are certified CarbonNeutral® products" ("Barbie Eco-Leadership Team"). This does not apply to the heads and the hair, however – arguably the most distinctive parts of the toys. This had already been the case with the "Barbie Loves the Ocean" series ("Mattel Launches Barbie Loves the Ocean") – apparently, this is not an issue that can easily be fixed. In other words, only some components of the dolls are manufactured from recycled plastic. Further, in 2022, over 175 different Barbie dolls circulated, of which at least 166 were not made from recycled plastic (Google). To speak of "eco-leadership" is thus rather misleading. To further examine this, I want to have a closer look at the materials the dolls consist of. Life in Plastic… For a while now, it has become common knowledge that "life in plastic" might not be so "fantastic" after all, Aqua's song notwithstanding. Plastic pollution of the oceans is a huge problem, killing birds, whales, and other seaborne animals; so are non-biodegradable plastic landfill, neo-colonial waste export, the detrimental health effects of phthalates in plastic, and so on (Moore, Freinkel). But what James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello call the uneven "distribution of violence" during the transformation of fossil fuel into plastic is less well known. Oil production and transport are frequently militarised, they show, with company interests taking precedence over human rights (173-74, 176). Heavily guarded pipelines cut through traditional grazing and farming areas, endangering people's livelihoods as well as local ecosystems (Marriott and Minio-Paluello 176, 178-79). To the consumers who buy the plastic produced from this oil, such violence is invisible, not least because production processes and their environmental consequences are actively screened from view by fossil fuel companies and local governments (173-74). "Although these social and environmental impacts are inherent within its constitution, the plastic product in its uniformity is seemingly wiped clean of all that violence and disruption", the authors conclude (181). Where these matters have rarely been discussed in academic research on Barbie, they garnered significant public interest around the time the movie was released in 2023. That the film itself received the Environmental Media Association (EMA) gold seal (Plastic Pollution Coalition) did not lay such concerns to rest. "After the movie frenzy fades, how do we avoid tonnes of Barbie dolls going to landfill?", Alan Pears asked in The Conversation. Waste Online highlighted the "Not-So-Pretty Side of Plastic Toys", Tatler headlined "How Barbie is making climate change worse", and in Medium, Eric Young even aimed to show "How To Save The World from the Toxicity of Barbie!" (with an exclamation rather than a question mark). Based on a 2022 study by Sarah Levesque, Madeline Robertson, and Christie Klimas, Pears noted that "every 182 gram doll caused about 660 grams of carbon emissions, including plastic production, manufacture and transport" (Pears 2). According to Duke Ines, CEO of Lonely Whale, a campaign devoted to protecting the oceans, "80% of all toys end up in a landfill, incinerators, or the ocean" (Mendez 3). Discarded toys make up around 6% of all plastic in landfills (Levesque et al. 777). There are estimates that, by 2030, in the US emissions from plastic production will supersede those from coal (Pears 2). Mattel seems to have recognised the problem. In 2021, the company announced its "The Future of Pink Is Green" campaign as part of its "goal to use 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials and packaging by 2030" ("Mattel Launches" 2). The efforts include educational vlogger episodes and Mattel PlayBack, a toy return program aimed at recycling materials in toy production. With Barbie, this is difficult, though. As Dorothea Ruffin and others have noted, the dolls are composed of different kinds of plastics. The heads consist of hard vinyl, with water-based spray paint used for the eyes; the torso is manufactured from ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene-styrene), the arms of EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate), and the legs of polypropylene and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) (Ruffin 2). This makes recycling difficult, perhaps even unfeasible. So in effect, I agree with environmental educator Kristy Drutman that Mattel's eco-friendly self-presentation currently qualifies as greenwashing (Mendez 2). With Lyon's and Maxwell's description of the practice as "selective disclosure of positive information about a company's environmental or social performance, without full disclosure of negative information on these dimensions, so as to create an overly positive corporate image" (9) as reference point, it becomes clear that Mattel's strategy perfectly fits this pattern. Their recycling efforts concern only a small number of the Barbie dolls they produce, and even those are only partly fashioned from salvaged material. Both the release of the "Eco-Leadership" set and the "The Future of Pink Is Green" campaign seem designed primarily to bolster the company's reputation. Conspicuous Consumption and the Malibu Dream House A central component of the problem is the scale of plastic toy consumption, as Levesque et al. observe. Mattel sells around 60 million Barbies annually (Ruffin 2). This amounts to over one billion dolls since 1959 (ETX Daily UP 2). What the scientists call "the overproduction and purchase of toys" (Levesque et al. 791) testifies to the continued centrality of "conspicuous consumption", the demonstrative, wasteful squandering of resources which, as Thorstein Veblen already noted in 1899, signifies and produces social distinction (Veblen 53; cf. 43-72). As he argued, "an unremitting demonstration of ability to pay" (Veblen 54) was and is central for upholding not only one's social standing, but also one's self-esteem. This is at the core of Mattel's business model: stimulating repeated purchases by issuing and marketing ever-new, "must-have" dolls, clothing, and other accessories. These tend to normalise an upper-class lifestyle, as Barbie's sports car, horse, and dream house attest. The Malibu Dream House, part of the Barbie universe since 1962, plays a specific role in this context. It symbolises fun, conspicuous leisure, and glamour. With its spectacular beaches, its exclusiveness, and its proximity to Hollywood celebrity culture, Malibu represents the apex of social aspiration for many people. Houses are also sexy, as Marjorie Garber observes in Sex and Real Estate. "Real estate today has become a form of yuppie pornography. … Buyers are entering the housing market with more celerity (and more salaciousness?) than they once entered the marriage market" (Garber 3, 4). The prominence of the house in the Barbie movie is thus not incidental. Malibu is among the most expensive locations in the US. The median property value is US$4.25m. Due to its beachfront location, its "iconic design" and "cultural value", local brokerage Ruby Home estimated that "the price of the doll's DreamHouse [could be] an eye-watering $10 million" (McPherson). With the understatement typical of the profession, the author of the article writes: "unsurprisingly, Barbie’s home would only be available to high-net-worth buyers". This does more than reinforce classism. The richest segment of the global population also has an inordinately large carbon footprint and overall negative impact on climate change. According to Oxfam, the richest 1% produced 16% of global consumption emissions in 2019. The propagation of Malibu Dream House living thus does not exactly rhyme with "eco- leadership". Barbie and Settler Colonialism The wasteful, environmentally detrimental lifestyle of the very wealthy is part and parcel of US settler colonialism. Unlike other forms of colonialism, settler colonialism attempts to replace the Indigenous population. The term does not only signify a devastating past but names an ongoing process, since Native people have not in fact "disappeared". Lorenzo Veracini puts it succinctly: "settler colonialism is not finished" (Veracini 68-94). As Patrick Wolfe famously wrote, "'settler-colonial state' is Australian [and US] society's primary structural characteristic rather than merely a statement about its origins… . Invasion is a structure not an event" (163). Malibu is traditional Chumash territory. The name derives from the Ventureño Chumash word Humaliwo, meaning "where the surf sounds loudly" (Sampson). The Chumash were forcibly deprived of their land by the Spanish Mission system in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Deborah A. Miranda has movingly detailed the traumatic effects of this violence in her memoir Bad Indians. But the Chumash are not gone. In fact, the Wishtoyo Chumach Foundation, whose mission it is to "protect and preserve the culture, history, and lifeways of Chumash and Indigenous peoples, and the environment everyone depends on", runs Chumash Village, "with a goal of raising awareness of Chumash people's historical relationship and dependence upon the natural environment as a maritime people", right in Malibu (Wishtoyo Chumach Foundation). None of this is mentioned by Mattel or the Greta Gerwig movie, which does not only signal a missed opportunity to demonstrate "eco-leadership". Rather, such an omission is typical for settler colonial culture. In order to buttress their claim to the land, settlers try to write Indigenous people out of North American history through a strategy White Earth Ojibwe scholar Jean O'Brien has called "firsting", that is, claiming the European settlers were there first, they "discovered" something, etc. The opening of the movie is a classic example. To the voiceover of "since the beginning of time – since the first little girl ever existed", it shows not Native inhabitants, but European American children in vaguely historical, possibly nineteenth century settler clothing. At other points, Barbie's and Ken's cowboy outfits, their glaring whiteness, references to Davy Crockett and, as Stentor Danielson mentioned in their presentation on "Barbieland's Fantasy Ecology: Terra Nullius on the Pink Beach" at the conference "'You Can Be Anything': Imagining and Interrogating Barbie in Popular Culture", to the Black Hills aka Mount Rushmore, clearly mark them as settlers. J.M. Bacon has coined the term "colonial ecological violence" to reference the ways in which environmental degradation and settler colonialism are inextricably intertwined (59). Effectively combatting environmental pollution thus also requires addressing settler colonial economic, social, and cultural structures. As Dina Gilio-Whitaker has forcefully argued, the success of environmental justice movements in the US, especially vis-à-vis the fossil fuel industry, may depend on building coalitions with Indigenous activists. Some of the most promising examples actually come from California, where beaches have been protected from corporate development because sacred Native sites would have been negatively affected (148). "It may well be that organizing around Native land rights holds the key to successfully transitioning from a fossil-fuel energy infrastructure to one based on sustainable energy", Gilio-Whitaker concludes (149). "Effective partnerships with allies in the environmental movement will provide the best defence for the collective well-being of the environment and future generations of all Americans, Native and non-Native alike" (162). This is a far cry from any policy Mattel has so far advertised, not to mention implemented. Conclusion In different respects, the promise of "Eco-Leadership" Barbies rings hollow. Not only do they suggest an extremely limited understanding of environmental concerns and challenges, Mattel's breezy pronouncements are clearly at odds with its simultaneous boosting of conspicuous consumption, let alone the focus on financial profit generally characteristic for its managerial decisions. In light of the enormous environmental problems generated by the manufacturing and disposal of the dolls, the waste-intensive upper-class lifestyle Barbie outfits and accessories promote, and finally the de-thematising of capitalism and settler colonialism both in Mattel's Barbie discourses and the 2023 Barbie movie, the company's attempts to project an ecologically conscious image seem primarily designed to capitalise on an increasing awareness of ecological problems in Mattel's target audience, rather than constituting a serious reconsideration of its unsustainable corporate strategies. References Bacon, J.M. "Settler Colonialism as an Eco-Social Structure and the Production of Colonial Ecological Violence." Environmental Sociology 5.1 (2019): 59-69. Brockington, Dan, and Rosaleen Duffy. "Introduction: Capitalism and Conservation: The Production and Reproduction of Biodiversity Conservation." In Capitalism and Conservation, eds. Dan Brockington and Rosaleen Duffy. 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