Abstract
The literature on engineering ethics education highlights the diversity of goals and topics employed in its instruction. The contribution aims to examine the conceptualisation of engineering ethics education in terms of how it is defined and how its goals are articulated. The research is conducted in cooperation with the national accrediting body Engineers Ireland. It is based on interviews with instructors teaching courses self-identified by engineering programmes as having a strong ethical component and evaluators serving on accreditation panels. The main findings confirm the existence of a varied and uneven understanding of engineering ethics education. The study encountered conflicting views and lack of clarity as to what falls under the scope of engineering ethics education, especially when considering the topics of sustainability and safety. In terms of goals, instructors emphasize fostering responsibility, enabling agency and developing broad and critical thinkers, while value sensitive design was found to have a lesser conceptual prominence. The study also found that engineering ethics is preponderantly defined through its connection to engineering practice, rather than in its theoretical dimension. The chapter is envisioned to contribute to debates tracing the conceptual domain of engineering ethics education, given that clarifying educational goals is an important prerequisite for employing and designing consistent instructional methods.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Abbreviated as L1 to L16.
- 2.
Abbreviated as E1 to E5.
References
Barry, B. E., & Herkert, J. R. (2014). Engineering ethics. In A. Johri & B. M. Olds (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of engineering education research (pp. 673–692). Cambridge University Press.
Baum, R. J. (1980). Ethics and engineering curricula. The Hastings Center, Institute of Society, Ethics, and the Life Sciences.
Bielefeldt, A. R., Canney, N. E., Swan, C., Knight, D. (2016, June), Efficacy of macroethics education in engineering. 2016 ASEE annual conference and exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Bowen, W. R. (2009). Prioritising people: Outline of an aspirational engineering ethic. In I. Poel & D. Goldberg (Eds.), Philosophy and engineering: Philosophy of engineering and technology (Vol. 2). Springer.
Colby, A., & Sullivan, W. (2008). Ethics teaching in undergraduate engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 97(3), 327–338.
Conlon, E., & Zandvoort, H. (2011). Broadening ethics teaching in engineering: Beyond the individualistic approach. Science and Engineering Ethics., 17(2), 217–232.
Davis, M. (1999). Ethics and the university. Routledge.
DeCuir-Gunby, J. T., Marshall, P. L., & Mcculloch, A. W. (2011). Developing and using a codebook for the analysis of interview data: An example from a professional development research project. Field Methods, 23, 136–155.
Desha, C., & Hargroves, K. C. (2014). Higher education and sustainable development: A model for curriculum renewal. Routledge.
Devon, R. (1999). Toward a social ethics of engineering: The norms of engagement. Journal of Engineering Education, 88, 87–92.
Godfrey, E., & Parker, L. (2010). Mapping the cultural landscape in engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 99(1), 5–22.
Harris, C. E. (2008). The good engineer: Giving virtue its due in engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 14, 153–164.
Harris, C. E. (2013). Engineering ethics: From preventive ethics to aspirational ethics. In D. Michelfelder, N. McCarthy, & D. Goldberg (Eds.), Philosophy and engineering: Reflections on practice, principles and process. Philosophy of engineering and technology (Vol. 15). Springer.
Harris, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., & Rabins, M. J. (2009). Engineering ethics: Concepts and cases (4th ed.). Cengage.
Haws, D. R. (2001). Ethics instruction in engineering education: A (mini) meta-analysis. Journal of Engineering Education, 90(2), 223–229.
Herkert, J. R. (2002). Continuing and emerging issues in engineering ethics education. The Bridge, 32(3), 8–13.
Herkert, J. R. (2005). Ways of thinking about and teaching ethical problem solving: Microethics and macroethics in engineering. Science and Engineering Ethics, 11, 375.
Hess, J., & Fore, G. (2018). A systematic literature review of US engineering ethics interventions. Science and Engineering Ethics, 24(2), 551–583.
Hillerbrand, R., & Roeser, S. (2016). Towards a third ‘practice turn’: An inclusive and empirically informed perspective on risk. In M. Franssen, P. Vermaas, P. Kroes, & A. Meijers (Eds.), Philosophy of technology after the empirical turn. Springer.
Holsapple, M. A., Carpenter, D. D., Sutkus, J. A., Finelli, C. J., & Harding, T. S. (2012). Framing faculty and student discrepancies in engineering ethics education delivery. Journal of Engineering Education, 101, 169–186.
Kanemitsu, H. (2018). New trends in engineering ethics – A Japanese perspective. In A. Fritzsche & S. Oks (Eds.), The future of engineering. Philosophy of engineering and technology (Vol. 31). Springer.
Keirl, S. (2003). Ethics and technology education: Another ac-prac or an education for humanity? In G. Martin & H. Middleton (Eds.), Initiatives in technology education: Comparative perspectives (pp. 148–161). Griffith University.
Lofland, J. (2009). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis. Wadsworth.
Lynch, W. T., & Kline, R. (2000). Engineering practice and engineering ethics. Science Technology and Human Values, 25(2), 195–225.
Martin, D. A. (2020). Towards a sociotechnical reconfiguration of engineering and an education for ethics: A critical realist investigation into the patterns of education and accreditation of ethics in engineering programmes in Ireland. Doctoral Thesis, Technological University Dublin. https://arrow.tudublin.ie/engdoc/126/
Martin, D. A., & Polmear, M. (2023). The two cultures of engineering education: Looking Back and moving forward. In S. H. Christensen, C. Mitcham, A. Buch, C. Didier, M. Murphy, & E. Conlon (Eds.), Engineering, social sciences, and the humanities: Have their conversations come of age? Philosophy of engineering and technology series. Springer Nature.
Martin, M. W., & Schinzinger, R. (2013). Ethics in engineering (4th ed.). Mcgraw-Hill Book.
Martin, D. A., Conlon, E., & Bowe, B. (2019). The role of role-play in student awareness of the social dimension of the engineering profession. European Journal of Engineering Education, 44(6), 882–905.
Martin, D.A., Conlon, E., Bowe, B. (2018). A Constructivist Approach to the use of Case Studies in teaching Engineering Ethics. In: Auer, M., Guralnick, D., Simonics, I. (eds) Teaching and Learning in a Digital World. ICL 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 715. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73210-7_23
Martin, D. A., Conlon, E., & Bowe, B. (2021a). A multi-level review of engineering ethics education: Towards a socio-technical orientation of engineering education for ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 27(5), 60–98.
Martin, D. A., Conlon, E., & Bowe, B. (2021b). Using case studies in engineering ethics education: The case for immersive scenarios through stakeholder engagement and real life data. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 26(1), 47–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/22054952.2021.1914297
Michelfelder, D. P., Wellner, G., & Wiltse, H. (2017). Designing differently: Toward a methodology for an ethics of feminist technology design. In S. O. Hansson (Ed.), The ethics of technology: Methods and approaches (p. 193–218). Rowman & Littlefield.
Mitcham, C. (2017). Engineering ethics: From thinking small to deep and big. Colorado School of Mines Distinguished Lecture.
Nair, I., & Bulleit, W. M. (2020). Pragmatism and care in engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 26, 65–87.
Ornstein, A. C., & Hunkins, F. P. (2013). Curriculum foundations, principles and issues (6th ed.). Allyn and Bacon.
Polmear, M., Bielefeldt, A. R., Knight, D., Canney, N., & Swan, C. (2019). Analysis of macroethics teaching practices and perceptions in engineering: A cultural comparison. European Journal of Engineering Education, 44, 1.
Pritchard, M. S. (2005). Perception and imagination in engineering ethics. International Journal of Engineering Education, 21(3), 415–423.
Reed, P. A., Hughes, A., Susan, P., & Stephens, D. I. (2004). The status of ethics in technology education. In R. B. Hill (Ed.), Ethics for citizenship in a technological world (pp. 163–186). Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Riley, D. (2013). Hidden in plain view: Feminists doing engineering ethics, engineers doing feminist ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 19, 189–206.
Riley, D., Pawley, A., Tucker, J., & Catalano, G. D. (2009). Feminisms in engineering education. NWSA, 21(2), 21–40.
Schmidt, J. A. (2014). Changing the paradigm for engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 20(4), 985–1010.
van de Poel, I. R., & Royakkers, L. M. M. (2011). Ethics, technology, and engineering: An introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.
Verbeek, P. P. (2008). Morality in design: Design ethics and the morality of technological artifacts. In P. E. Vermaas, P. Kroes, A. Light, & S. A. Moore (Eds.), Philosophy and design: From engineering to architecture (pp. 91–103). Springer.
Walczak, K., Finelli, C. J., Holsapple, M. A., Sutkus, J. A., Harding, T. S., & Carpenter, D. D. (2010). Institutional obstacles to integrating ethics into the curriculum and strategies for overcoming them. Proceedings of the 2010 ASEE annual conference and exposition, Louisville, KY.
Whitbeck, C. (1998). Ethics in engineering practice and research. Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Martin, D.A., Conlon, E. (2023). What Is Engineering Ethics Education? Exploring How the Education of Ethics Is Defined by Engineering Instructors. In: Fritzsche, A., Santa-María, A. (eds) Rethinking Technology and Engineering. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 45. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25233-4_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25233-4_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-25232-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-25233-4
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)