Portuguese engineering practice: Two empirical studies and a 15th century perspective

In his much-cited book, Engineering Education, John Heywood argues that engineering educators need to have a defensible epistemology on which to base their teaching. As a contribution to the epistemological study of the scope of engineering practice the authors compare two empirical studies of Portuguese engineering. The first of these was carried out with the support of the Ordem dos Engenheiros and appeared as a book published in Portuguese in 1999. The second study appeared as a chapter in an internationally published book on Global Engineering Practice in 2013. Focusing on the sociotechnical aspects of engineering, the authors indicate common points in the findings of the two studies and set them in the context of research into sociotechnical interaction of engineers in other national contexts. In addition the two contemporary studies are further contextualized by an actor network representation based on the concept of heterogeneous engineering developed by sociologist John Law to describe the technological development found in 15th century Portuguese maritime expansion. The authors conclude that engineering educators would benefit from awarding more importance to the sociotechnical aspects of engineering practice when setting out the competences to be acquired in engineering courses.