Developing and Evaluating a Cultural Competency Module for Systems Engineering Students

This report presents the design, delivery, and evaluation of a teaching module integrated into the undergraduate systems engineering curriculum at the Australian National University (ANU). Developed in collaboration with the Bandalang Indigenous Design Studio and inspired by Dr kate harriden’s Decolonise Your Mind course, this module addresses a critical gap in traditional engineering education: the lack of formal training regarding Indigenous contexts and cross-cultural engineering projects. The module was integrated into a compulsory second-year systems engineering course, where a group of students took part in an agricultural technology project focused on designing native gain monitoring systems for a First Nations industry partner. Using a mixed-methods research approach, this study also evaluates the outcomes of the module. The results indicate that the module successfully improved students’ cultural capability, challenged Western biases and engineering approaches, and highlighted co-design and shared decision-making processes. The findings show that engineering cannot be separated from cultural, historical, and relational accountability. It provides improvements to the module, and demonstrates the opportunity for further integration of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into the engineering curriculum.