The development of consciousness and positionality of a recently immigrated international student in engineering education in Canada

The first engineering education institution in the American continent was the Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortification and Design, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [1]. The institution was funded in 1792 in a military context to build forts to protect the Portuguese colony from the local populations [2]. There are connections between engineering and colonization that persist today, and manifest in different ways. For example, for centuries, Canada has relied on settlers for labor. Many immigrants are professionals and students who develop knowledges, skills, and behaviours needed for jobs to support the Canadian economy. Immigrants may arrive with no historical background, ignorant of the history and current colonial situation in Canada. This can make international student immigrants an instrument for maintaining the colonial structure of the state. In the academia, there is not always time to reflect on the systems that the university assists in reproducing. This paper is a personal reflection on my experiences and my role as an international student in engineering education in the colonial Canadian context of the XXI century.