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Presentation
Conceptualizing a Theory of Ethical Behavior in Engineering
ASEE’S Virtual Conference: At Home with Engineering Education
  • Luan Minh Nguyen, Iowa State University
  • Cristina Poleacovschi, Iowa State University
  • Kasey M. Faust, University of Texas at Austin
  • Kate Padgett-Walsh, Iowa State University
  • Scott G. Feinstein, Iowa State University
  • Cassandra J. Rutherford, Iowa State University
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Version
Accepted Manuscript
Publication Date
6-22-2020
Abstract

Traditional engineering courses typically approach teaching and problem solving by focusing on the physical dimensions of those problems without consideration of dynamic social and ethical dimensions. As such, projects can fail to consider human rights, community questions and concerns, broader impacts upon society, or otherwise result in inequitable outcomes. And, despite the fact that students in engineering receive training on the Professional Code of Ethics for Engineers, to which they are expected to adhere in practice, many students are unable to recognize and analyze real-life ethical challenges as they arise. Indeed, research has found that students are typically less engaged with ethics—defined as the sensitivity and judgment of microethics and macroethics, sensitivity to diversity, and interest in promoting organizational ethical culture—at the end of their engineering studies than they were at the beginning. As such, many studies have focused on developing and improving the curriculum surrounding ethics through, for instance, exposing students to ethics case studies. However, such ethics courses often present a narrow and simplified view of ethics that students may struggle to integrate with their broader experience as engineers. Thus, there is a critical need to unpack the complexity of ethical behavior amongst engineering students in order to determine how to better foster ethical judgment and behavior. Promoting ethical behavior among engineering students and developing a culture of ethical behavior within institutions have become goals of many engineering programs. Towards this goal, we would like to present an overview of the current scholarship of engineering ethics and propose a theoretical framework of ethical behavior using a review of articles related to engineering ethics from 1997-2020. The review engages in theories across disciplines including philosophy, education, and psychology. In this work-in-progress paper, we present a subset of initial results based on a review of the first 50 articles out of the systematically selected 409 articles from Springer, Engineering Village, and EBSCO-Education Full Text. Preliminary results identify two major kinds of drivers of ethical behavior, namely individual level ethical behavior drivers (sensitivity to microethics, sensitivity to macroethics, implicit understanding, and explicit understanding) and institutional drivers (sensitivity to diversity and institutional ethical culture). Our preliminary results indicate that a sensitivity to both microethics and macroethics as well as the implicit and explicit understanding of ethics are essential in promoting ethical behavior amongst students. Furthermore, while drivers of ethical behavior at the individual level is important, one should not ignore the roles of the drivers of ethical behavior at the institutional level in promoting a collective ethical culture within organizations. The review also points to a need to focus on increasing students’ macroethical sensitivity to topics such as sustainability and protection of human rights. This research thus addresses the need, driven by existing scholarship, 2 to identify a conceptual framework for explaining how ethical judgment and behavior in engineering can be further promoted

Comments

This presentation is published as Nguyen, L.M., Poleacovschi, C., Faust, K.M., Padgett-Walsh, K., Feinstein, S.G., Rutherford, C., "Conceptualizing a Theory of Ethical Behavior in Engineering" ASEE’S Virtual Conference: At Home with Engineering Education. June 22-26, 2020. Paper ID#30127; https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10186850. Posted with permission.

Copyright Owner
American Society for Engineering Education
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Luan Minh Nguyen, Cristina Poleacovschi, Kasey M. Faust, Kate Padgett-Walsh, et al.. "Conceptualizing a Theory of Ethical Behavior in Engineering" ASEE’S Virtual Conference: At Home with Engineering Education Vol. Paper ID# 30127 (2020)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kate-padgett-walsh/13/