Cultivating Responsible Wellbeing in STEM: Social Engagement through Personal Ethics

在 STEM 中培养负责任的福祉：通过个人道德参与社会参与

• 批准号: 1449489
• 负责人: Marcel Castro-Sitiriche
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2020-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1449489&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cultivating; Responsible; Wellbeing; STEM; Social

Although engineering is commonly understood as a "technical" enterprise -- many associate it with electronic devices, high performance materials, and modern infrastructure, for example -- equally important is an understanding of the many social contexts in which engineering is practiced, and the related social impacts. This project engages students (both undergraduate and graduate) and faculty in deep experiences in which they directly consider social, ethical, and global issues (SEGIs) as essential aspects of their educational, research, and career development activities. As a result, it empowers participating students and faculty to function in novel and non-traditional settings and roles, using a combination of traditional and non-traditional skills and sensitivities. Example outcomes include: an undergraduate student choosing a service-learning elective to enhance her engineering design project; a graduate who works as a professional engineer playing the role of honest broker to mediate between a community and a large developer; a graduating student founding a non-profit organization to create new technologies for use in a "developing country" a researcher deploying his or her knowledge and skills to design a research project that addresses a specific social, regional, or community need. In these and other ways, this project engages traditionally under-represented populations and marginalized communities, particularly from Puerto Rico, Haiti, and several other countries from Latin America. And, reflecting this international orientation, this project deploys four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Haitian Creole.The concept of Responsible Wellbeing (RW), particularly as articulated by Robert Chambers, combines with a virtue approach to ethics to unify, philosophically and normatively, this project's activities. Essentially, this approach holds that both personal happiness and societal wellbeing converge at a point between scarcity/poverty and the extreme/unlimited pursuit of material and monetary wealth. Reaching such a point requires exercising self-imposed moderation. In the context of engineering it can be realized through making conscious choices in engineering design and research applications while drawing on key principles such as Appropriate Technology (AT), Value Sensitive Design (VSD), and Human Capabilities (HC). The four activities sponsored by this project integrate RW throughout the educational and research missions of the College of Engineering through (1) development of new teaching materials, case studies, and strategies for intermediate and capstone courses in the College of Engineering; (2) delivery of a series of seminars, workshops, and conferences that introduce participants to the principles of RW, AT, VSD, and HC, all of which are encapsulated in a general reader made available to all participants; (3) support of several independent research projects that respond to a specific societal or community context, and embed the concepts of RW, AT, VSD, and/or HC, together with alternative career fairs that assist participants with their pursuit of opportunities that meaningfully engage with SEGIs; and (4) execution of an innovative developmental assessment plan that guides and tracks overall project progress, using a framework of five stages: awareness, evaluation, integration, anticipation, and value realization. The PIs are collectively experienced with several prior projects in engineering ethics, engineering education, and appropriate technology upon which this project builds.

虽然工程通常被理解为一种“技术”企业-许多人将其与电子设备，高性能材料和现代基础设施联系在一起，例如-同样重要的是了解工程实践的许多社会背景以及相关的社会影响。该项目使学生（本科生和研究生）和教师在他们直接考虑社会，道德和全球问题（SEGI）作为其教育，研究和职业发展活动的重要方面的深刻经验。因此，它使参与的学生和教师能够在新颖和非传统的环境和角色中发挥作用，使用传统和非传统技能和敏感性的组合。成果实例包括：一名本科生选择服务研习选修课程，以加强其工程设计项目;一名毕业生作为专业工程师，扮演诚实的经纪人角色，在社区和大型开发商之间进行调解;一名即将毕业的学生成立了一个非营利组织，为“发展中国家”创造新技术。一个研究人员部署他或她的知识和技能，以设计一个研究项目，解决特定的社会，地区或社区的需要。通过这些和其他方式，该项目吸引了传统上代表性不足的人口和边缘化社区，特别是来自波多黎各、海地和其他几个拉丁美洲国家的人口和社区。为了反映这一国际化方向，该项目使用了四种语言：西班牙语、英语、法语和海地克里奥尔语。“负责任的福祉”（RW）的概念，特别是罗伯特·钱伯斯（Robert Chambers）所阐述的概念，与道德的美德方法相结合，在实践上和规范上统一了该项目的活动。从本质上讲，这种方法认为，个人幸福和社会福祉都集中在稀缺/贫困和极端/无限制地追求物质和货币财富之间。要达到这一点，需要自我克制。在工程背景下，它可以通过在工程设计和研究应用中做出有意识的选择来实现，同时借鉴适当技术（AT），价值敏感设计（VSD）和人类能力（HC）等关键原则。该项目赞助的四项活动通过以下方式将RW融入工程学院的教育和研究任务：（1）开发新的教材，案例研究以及工程学院中级和顶级课程的策略;（2）举办一系列研讨会、讲习班和会议，向与会者介绍RW、AT、VSD和HC的原则，所有这些都包含在一个通用的读者提供给所有参与者;（3）支持几个独立的研究项目，响应特定的社会或社区背景，并嵌入RW，AT，VSD和/或HC的概念，以及替代的职业博览会，帮助参与者追求有意义地参与SEGI的机会;以及（4）执行创新的发展评估计划，使用五个阶段的框架（意识、评估、整合、预期和价值实现）来指导和跟踪整个项目的进展。PI集体经验与工程道德，工程教育和适当的技术，这个项目的基础上建立了几个先前的项目。