Taking ‘day to day’ ethics seriously outside the academy: Experiences from STS and Communication
Saturday, May 20, 10:30 am – Noon
The Liberal Education / Engineering and Society Division of ASEE has evolved with the needs of the engineering community to ensure our students and professional engineers are given holistic training that is more than technical proficiency. In that evolution, members of the LEES division bring a diversity of expertise as scholars, activists, and teachers to contend with the ethical, political, and cultural complexity of technoscience. Yet, the efforts in the LEES division do not often move beyond the classroom, leaving a gap in our understanding in how to learn with industry and professional societies to support our work on “Ethics in the Global Innovation Helix”.
Our workshop acts as an open space for dialogue with participants as we consider the “day to day ethics” in our learning and work communities. Our moderators will facilitate discussions and share some of their experiences where relevant. Patrice M. Buzzanell is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida and works, in part, on engineering ethics, everyday ethical processes, as well as design thinking for the professional formation of engineers in North America and East Asia. Carla Zoltowski, Assistant Professor of Engineering Practice at Purdue, has studied perceptions of engineering ethics and how students and professionals can partner to produce the next generation of ethical engineers. Megan Kenny Feister, Assoc. Prof. at CSUCI, who has conducted studies in organizational communication, engineering teams, and ethical identities. She and her collaborators highlight both individual ethical activity and the influence of organizational context on ethical reasoning and action. These insights indicate that engineering ethics training in higher education may be inadequate to the task of preparing individuals to see the influence group dynamics have on their commitments to “doing good.” Sean Ferguson has spent a decade teaching engineering students to adopt more critical awareness to ethical questions in design, socio-technical relationships, international development, innovation, and community capacity building. That experience encouraged a shift from textbook case studies in ethics to exploration of mundane, lived experiences as sources for developing essential professional competencies and ethical commitments. They briefly share their two perspectives before leading a group workshop built around a set of starting questions and new questions shared by the participants:
● What are ethical considerations and professional skills left unaddressed within higher education?
● What are more impactful, convincing interventions to encourage students and professional engineers to understand the dynamics between social factors and technology?
● How would we prepare engineers to incorporate social and environmental concerns into the “day to day” ethics of their jobs–from coursework to organizational reform?
Workshop Strategy
[0-20] What are ethical considerations and professional skills left unaddressed or undervalued within higher education or within employee training and mentoring programs?
● [5] Invitation
● [10] Sharing day-to-day ethics; Small team or peer share activity; collected verbally and written forms (anonymity protection)
● Collected Scenarios reintroduced throughout workshop
[20-60] What are more impactful, convincing interventions to encourage students and professional engineers to understand the dynamics between social factors and technology?
Organizational Network Mapping:
● [5-7] [5-7] As an individual: In your own organization, who are the most important people who a) determine organizational norms and b) direct technical aspects of the work?
● [5-7] As an individual: Who do you talk to when you are concerned about an ethical scenario? Are they the same as the first map?
● [10-20] As teams: Are there similarities between individual’s maps at each table? Differences?
● [5-7] Short Break while moderators gather maps and similarity/differences
[60-85] How would we prepare engineers to incorporate social and environmental concerns into the “day to day” ethics of their jobs–from coursework to organizational reform?
● [5-7] Review collected maps posted on walls/tables
● [10] Individual brainstorming of interventions
● [1] Describe “Yes, but…” “Yes, and…”
● [10] “Yes, and sharing” among team/pairs
● [Remainder] Share with group interventions among team/pairs
[END] Follow up Plan
Facilitators:
Megan Kenny Feister, California State University Channel Islands
Sean Michael Ferguson, California State University Channel Islands
Patrice Buzzanell, University of South Florida
Carla Zoltowski, Purdue University