ABSTRACT

Responsible Engineering Across Cultures: Investigating the Effects of Culture and Education on Ethical Reasoning and Dispositions of Engineering Students

Engineering is more cross-cultural and international than ever before, resulting in potential disagreements about (in)appropriate courses of action, which can impede engineering work. Despite high rates of international enrollment and an increased focus on global dimensions of engineering in US programs, ethical issues arising from global engineering have been insufficiently addressed. To address these issues, this project will assess the impact of culture and education on ethics among engineering students in North America, Europe, and Asia. Understanding if and how diverse cultural backgrounds and educational experiences affect professional decision-making and collaborations requires empirical investigation, to develop training that addresses the kinds of challenges engineering students, practitioners, programs, and organizations will increasingly encounter in the globalized world. This project will be beneficial for training the next generation of engineers who are competent in working professionally and ethically in the global context and are responsive to the value of diversity in quality and sustainable engineering work.

The goal of this project is to identify educational interventions with the greatest effects on ethical reasoning and dispositions of engineering students, whether these effects differ among cultural and national groups, and if/how to modify these interventions to respond effectively to cultural and national differences. To do so, researchers from Colorado School of Mines, University of Pittsburgh, Delft University of Technology, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University will implement mixed-method, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and cross-sectional research to: (1) determine the effects of culture and foreign language on the ethical perspectives of first-year engineering students; (2) assess the relative effects of culture and education on these perspectives over four years; (3) use engineering ethics assessment tools across cultures and countries to examine their cross-cultural validity. Findings from this project will be essential to develop educational interventions that effectively respond to the globalized environments of contemporary engineering practice. They will also contribute to the development of more inclusive engineering education, by identifying perspectives potentially marginalized in the reigning paradigms. Finally, this project has implications for the development of responsible research education at the graduate level. Despite the fact graduate student bodies in STEM fields have become increasingly international, limited work has focused on developing culturally responsive ethics curricula for graduate students from diverse backgrounds.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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