Askarinejad, HosseinKC, Birendra2025-01-142025-01-142024https://hdl.handle.net/10182/17960CONTEXT One of the common graduate attributes of tertiary students involve appreciation of the societal and cultural issues and the consequent responsibilities. In New Zealand and some other commonwealth countries, cultural considerations would include two dimensions of bi-culturalisms and multiculturalism concepts. PURPOSE OR GOAL In recent years, university class compositions usually consist of students who come from significantly diverse cultural groups. Review of literature shows that even though there are some studies on integration of cultural concepts in teaching, but there are still limited works on practical methods for incorporating cultural concepts in the context of engineering and construction. In this paper, a case study of integrating the cultural aspects in a particular engineering course is discussed. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS The integration of cultural aspects in teaching can be approached through several methods. In this case study, the focus is to incorporate discussions and examples from diverse cultural contexts relevant to engineering and construction practices. The cultural concepts were incorporated in the teaching contents, class activities and within a course assignment/project. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES The outcomes and lessons learned from this experience are discussed through the authors’ autoethnographic reflection. The students generally engaged well in the class and in the project. They investigated various traditional buildings or historical engineering/construction techniques from different cultures and communities including Māori case studies. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY The practical examples of cultural/traditional engineering and construction cases discussed here can be used by educators and can be potentially integrated in teaching relevant engineering or construction courses. The students' projects and their findings and reflections highlighted the fact that engineering and construction, like many other fields, have always been a collective human endeavour shaped by diverse cultural contributions. This realization would not only enhance the students’ cultural awareness, motivation and sense of connection with engineering but also highlights how sustainability and cultural significance can inspire innovative practices in engineering and construction.9 pages© 2024 Hossein Askarinejad & Birendra KC: The authors assign to the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) and educational non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to AAEE to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web (prime sites and mirrors), on Memory Sticks, and in printed form within the AAEE 2024 proceedings. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.construction educationcultural integrationengineering educationConference Contribution - published