“In Our Own Little World”
Invisibility of the Social and Ethical Dimension of Engineering Among Undergraduate Students
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21688481 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jae Hoon Lim (0000-0001-8167-1866, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, corresponding author), Brittany Hunt (0000-0003-2747-6124, University of North Carolina at Charlotte), Brittany D Hunt, Nickcoy Findlater (University of North Carolina at Charlotte), Peter T Tkacik, Peter Tkacik (0000-0002-4752-6291, University of North Carolina at Charlotte), Jerry L Dahlberg, Jerry Dahlberg (0000-0003-2778-5349, University of North Carolina at Charlotte) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 74-74 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science and Engineering Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1353-3452 • E-ISSN: 1471-5546 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11948-021-00355-0 |
| PMID | 34882277 |
| OpenAlex | W4200395863 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 49 |
This paper explores how undergraduate students understood the social relevance of their engineering course content knowledge and drew (or failed to draw) broader social and ethical implications from that knowledge. Based on a three-year qualitative study in a junior-level engineering class, we found that students had difficulty in acknowledging the social and ethical aspects of engineering as relevant topics in their coursework. Many students considered the immediate technical usability or improved efficiency of technical innovations as the noteworthy social and ethical implications of engineering. Findings suggest that highly-structured engineering programs leave little room for undergraduate students to explore the ethical dimension of engineering content knowledge and interact with other students/programs on campus to expand their “technically-minded” perspective. We discussed the issues of the “culture of disengagement” (Cech, Sci Technol Human Values 39(1):42–72, 2014) fueled by disciplinary elitism, spatial distance, and insulated curriculum prevalent in the current structure of engineering programs. We called for more conscious effort by engineering educators to offer meaningful interdisciplinary engagement opportunities and in-class conversations on ethics that support engineering students' holistic intellectual growth and well-rounded professional ethics
Coursework · Curriculum · Discipline · Engineering education · Engineering ethics · Pedagogy · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Engineering · Engineering Education and Curriculum Development · Ethics in Business and Education · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |