Pluralism As a Critical Engineering Tool

Anyone who has ever sat at a Thanksgiving meal knows the importance of being able to engage in conversation with those we disagree with in good faith. Large gatherings are more likely than not to bring together people with different viewpoints and bridging these differences while maintaining positive group dynamics is a skill critical to developing trust and understanding.

Many might ascribe the character traits required to navigate these challenges successfully—patience, humility, empathy, curiosity, etc—as intrinsic to individual people. But these abilities can also be developed through practice.

That’s the foundational principle at Duke behind the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging. Universities run on dialogue, as the exchange of ideas fuels learning and new discoveries, and the school’s bylaws even urge “a respectful spirit of dialogue and understanding.”

One aspect of this ideal is the embracing of pluralism—the coexistence and collaboration of people with different skills, experiences, perspectives and demographic features toward good ends. As part of a recent two-day “Intellectual Friendship” Colloquium, Rich Eva was invited to share what pluralism within engineering teams might be able to teach the broader academy about constructive dialogue across difference.

“For design purposes, to create good technology, you need design teams with diverse perspectives,” said Eva, director of Duke Engineering’s Character Forward Initiative. “You need pluralism.”

Eva shared his insights as part of a panel session on the morning of Saturday, March 8 called “Pluralism: Disciplinary Perspectives and Institutional Approaches.” Joining him in the discussion was Polly Ha, director of Transformative Ideas and professor of history in the Divinity School; Angel Parham, professor of sociology at University of Virginia; and Malachi Hacohen, professor of History, Religion, and German Studies.

To further make his point, Eva recounted an anecdote from industry. There was a home appliance company, he said, that made washing machines that sold extremely well everywhere around the world except for the Middle East. They couldn’t figure out why they struggled in that area for a long time. After investigating, they discovered that the machines didn’t handle washing burqas well and that the power frequency used didn’t match exactly with the machine.

As director of Duke Engineering’s Character Forward program, these questions get to the very heart of the school’s mission to apply knowledge in service to society. Eva is actively working with faculty across Duke Engineering to incorporate humility, curiosity, empathy, justice, resilience and other character traits into courses across all topics and levels.

While pluralism, Eva says, is something that every good engineering team embraces, it isn’t necessarily taught or focused on within engineering curricula as much as it should be. Part of the reason for that is that many engineering faculty don’t feel equipped to talk about these non-technical issues. His job, then, is to give them the tools they need to gain that level of comfort.

“Helping people feel seen or understood is crucial to teamwork,” Eva said. “For example, we can help students—engineering students or any other students—learn to practice verbal cues and active listening strategies that help others feel heard. This will prove beneficial to students’ future teams and clients regardless of what field they enter.”