Reframing Design Thinking through Care: A Pedagogical Intervention to Foster Ethical Reflection and Epistemic Sophistication in Engineering Education

This paper explores a one-day inclusive design hackathon delivered as part of a
quality module for undergraduate engineering students. Grounded in praxis, the
intervention drew on ethics of care, reflective practice, and epistemic reflexivity to humanise engineering education by positioning design as an ethical and relational activity. Students were invited to centre lived experience, particularly the needs of people they personally cared about, rather than approaching problems from a detached, purely technical perspective.

The session began with relational framing exercises and guest speakers who
highlighted how design can marginalise or enable. Students worked through the
standard design thinking process, but their reflections revealed emerging awareness of relational, contextual, and ethical dimensions. Rather than focusing solely on technical outcomes, they began to question assumptions, recognise ambiguity, and consider the social impact of their design decisions.

Epistemic reflexivity, understood here as students’ capacity to examine how
knowledge is formed, whose perspectives are included, and how power shapes what counts as a ‘solution’, emerged gradually as students reflected on their own
relationships and responsibilities. Through collaborative prototyping, group dialogue, and reflective activities, students shifted from abstract notions of empathy to a deeper recognition of design as a situated, caring practice.

This intervention illustrates how engineering students’ personal and relational
experiences of care can serve as a foundation for developing ethical awareness and inclusive design practices. The paper concludes by outlining a pedagogical model, Design Thinking with Care, and suggests implications for educators seeking to foster critical, ethical, and context-sensitive learning environments in engineering.