Collaborative Proposal: Early Career Engineers' Views of Ethics and Social Responsibility: Trends, Influences, and Contexts

协作性建议：早期职业工程师的伦理和社会责任观：趋势、影响和背景公众摘要针对工程教育和专业实践中对伦理缺乏重视的常见担忧，创建并评估了各种基于课程的正式干预措施和非正式或课外计划，以提高工程学毕业生的社会和伦理承诺。此外，许多雇主提供或要求进行道德、合规和相关主题的培训。之前对这类经历的影响的研究大多集中在工科学生，尤其是本科生。很少有研究跟踪这些学生进入职场，以研究这些经历在职业生涯早期的影响。这个项目探索了早期职业工程师在从本科工程学位课程过渡到工作场所(或研究生学习)的过程中，对道德和社会责任的看法是如何变化的，以及这些观念是如何形成或影响的。它还询问这些感知如何根据个人的工程学科、背景和当前的专业背景而变化。具体优先调查代表不足的群体在感知和经验方面的差异。除了对工程教育和职业道德方面的文献和实践产生影响外，该项目的发现还揭示了雇主如何更好地将入职计划、职业发展机会和组织氛围与年轻专业人员的观点和看法相结合，从而对劳动力发展产生影响。本研究同时使用调查(定量)和访谈(定性)研究方法。数据收集分两个阶段进行。第一个研究阶段将从调查和访谈先前研究的参与者开始，这些参与者现在是早期职业专业人员和/或正在攻读研究生学位。在这些调查和访谈中，参与者的反应可以与他们作为工科学生之前的反应进行比较，从而清楚地看到他们的看法随着时间的推移以及从学校到专业实践的转变。在研究的第二阶段，将对一组新的参与者进行调查和访谈，这将使参与者群体更大、更多样化。将使用适当的统计技术来调查调查数据集中的纵向变化和群体一级的结果，同时将使用专题和现象学方法来分析访谈数据。这一分析将揭示年轻职业工程师对社会和道德责任的看法是如何由他们在本科学习中的经历和他们当前的背景形成的。这项提议是由CISE理事会通过ER2计划资助的。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Collaborative Proposal: Early Career Engineers' Views of Ethics and Social Responsibility: Trends, Influences, and ContextsPublic AbstractResponding to frequent concerns about a lack of attention to ethics in engineering education and professional practice, a variety of formal course-based interventions and informal or extracurricular programs have been created and assessed to improve the social and ethical commitments of engineering graduates. Additionally, many employers offer or require training in ethics, compliance, and related topics. Most prior research into the impacts of such experiences has focused on engineering students, especially undergraduates. There have been very few studies that have tracked these students as they enter the workforce in order to study the impacts of these experiences early in their careers.This project explores how early career engineers’ perceptions of ethics and social responsibility change in the transition from undergraduate engineering degree programs to the workplace (or graduate studies) and how those perceptions are shaped or influenced. It also asks how those perceptions vary depending on an individual’s engineering discipline, background, and current professional setting.Specific priority is given to investigating differences in perceptions and experiences among underrepresented groups. In addition to contributing to the literature and impacting practices in engineering education and professional ethics, the findings from this project have implications for workforce development by revealing how employers can better align onboarding programs, professional development opportunities, and organizational climate with the views and perceptions of young professionals.This study uses both survey (quantitative) and interview (qualitative) research methods. Data is being gathered in two phases. The first study phase will begin by surveying and interviewing participants from a prior study who are now early career professionals and/or pursuing graduate degrees. The responses of participants in these surveys and interviews can be compared to their prior responses as engineering students, making visible how their perceptions have changed over time and across the transition from school to professional practice. In the second phase of the study, a new group of participants will be surveyed and interviewed, which will allow for a larger and more diverse participant pool. Appropriate statistical techniques will be used to investigate longitudinal changes and group-level results in the survey data set, while thematic and phenomenographic approaches will be used to analyze the interview data. This analysis will shed light on how young career engineers’ perceptions of social and ethical responsibility are shaped by their experiences in their undergraduate studies and their current contexts.This proposal was funded through the ER2 program by the CISE directorate.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.