And then I made some pockets of change

What stories can we tell to think higher engineering education futures with? How can we imagine what practices are possible? How can we transgress what hasn’t served us, other critters, and the planet? These are questions that inspired us to develop a workshop in which we used collage-making to visualize narratives on current states of engineering education, as well as to transgress them to envision other possible futures. Grounded in Holland et al.’s (1998) theory of Figured Worlds and Lönngren and Berge’s concept of Emotional Positioning, the workshop explored figured emotional worlds operating in engineering classrooms and imagined possible futures. Here, we 1) map out the progression of the activity, 2) share examples of collages and their stories, and 3) provide multiple dimensions of reflection, discussing the uses of collages and how they prompted us to imagine, tell, and transgress stories about current and possible futures of higher engineering education. Updated with minor typographical corrections: June 30, 2025.