Engineering Students’ Human Values as Rhizomatic Lines of Sustainability

Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir, Mariana Cernicova-Buca, Vasile Gherheș and Liliana Cismariu
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Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir: Department of Teaching Training, Politehnica University Timisoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania
Mariana Cernicova-Buca: Department of Communication and Foreign Languages, Politehnica University Timisoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania
Vasile Gherheș: Department of Communication and Foreign Languages, Politehnica University Timisoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania
Liliana Cismariu: Department of Communication and Foreign Languages, Politehnica University Timisoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-27

Abstract: The study reports on research carried out at the five major technical higher institutions in Romania. It views the human values students bring with them to the educational setting as rhizomatic lines, in the Deleuzian sense, and aims at identifying the intensity of each value, respectively, at grasping the correlations between the students’ values and their projection concerning postgraduation life, including nomadic (i.e., migration) intentions. Such an approach is novel in educational research. The 1782 valid responses collected after applying an online questionnaire were subjected to multivariate statistical analyses. The results unfold the research stages, from intensity-identification concerning the 18 values included in the questionnaire to the factor extraction and correlation findings that highlight strata beneath the upper layer of responses. The values boil down to three nodes of the rhizome, anchoring the Romanian engineers-to-be in the present setting and allowing them to grow in a sustainable manner, i.e., to become professionals, socially accepted, and belonging to a group. The findings are useful to professors, who need to constantly check their assumptions about the profile of the young generation, to better ground their partnership relation with students in moral realities that are relevant and help learners face disruption, crisis, incertitude.

Keywords: higher education; engineering students; rhizome; social sustainability; values; multivariate statistics; factors mining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7417-:d:411201

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