Culture of Disengagement in Engineering Education?
Culture of Disengagement in Engineering Education?
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DOI：
10.1177/0162243913504305
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发表时间：
2014-01-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Cech, Erin A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Cech, Erin A.
培养有道德的、有社会意识的工程师的重要性已经说了很多，但美国的工程教育真的鼓励新手认真履行他们对公共福利的职业责任吗？与这种参与的理想相反，我认为，在他们的工程教育过程中，学生对公益事业的兴趣实际上可能会下降。本文利用四所高校学生独特的纵向调查数据，考察了(A)学生在工程教育过程中的公益信念是如何变化的，(B)工程项目是否强调参与性，以及(C)这些项目重点是否与学生的公益信念有关。我追踪了四个具体的公益考虑：对学生的职业/伦理责任的重要性，理解技术的后果，理解人们如何使用机器，以及社会意识。提出了一种脱离接触的文化，我发现学生工程专业的文化重点与他们的公益承诺直接相关，学生的公益关怀在他们的工程教育过程中显著下降。然而，这些发现也表明，如果工程项目能够在当地环境中消除脱离的意识形态支柱，它们可能会培养更多参与其中的工程师。
Much has been made of the importance of training ethical, socially conscious engineers, but does US engineering education actually encourage neophytes to take seriously their professional responsibility to public welfare? Counter to such ideals of engagement, I argue that students' interest in public welfare concerns may actually decline over the course of their engineering education. Using unique longitudinal survey data of students at four colleges, this article examines (a) how students' public welfare beliefs change during their engineering education, (b) whether engineering programs emphasize engagement, and (c) whether these program emphases are related to students' public welfare beliefs. I track four specific public welfare considerations: the importance to students of professional/ethical responsibilities, understanding the consequences of technology, understanding how people use machines, and social consciousness. Suggesting a culture of disengagement, I find that the cultural emphases of students' engineering programs are directly related to their public welfare commitments and students' public welfare concerns decline significantly over the course of their engineering education. However, these findings also suggest that if engineering programs can dismantle the ideological pillars of disengagement in their local climates, they may foster more engaged engineers.