Collaborative Research: Responsible Engineering across Cultures: Investigating the Effects of Culture and Education on Ethical Reasoning and Dispositions of Engineering Students

跨文化负责任的工程：调查文化和教育对工程学生伦理推理和倾向的影响工程比以往任何时候都更具跨文化和国际性，这导致了对适当行动方案的潜在分歧，这可能会阻碍工程工作。尽管国际入学率很高，并且美国项目越来越关注工程的全球维度，但全球工程引起的伦理问题尚未得到充分解决。为了解决这些问题，本项目将评估文化和教育对北美、欧洲和亚洲工程专业学生伦理道德的影响。了解不同的文化背景和教育经历是否以及如何影响专业决策和合作需要实证调查，以开发培训，以解决工程专业学生、从业者、项目和组织在全球化世界中日益遇到的各种挑战。该项目将有利于培养下一代工程师，他们能够在全球范围内专业和道德地工作，并对质量和可持续工程工作的多样性价值做出反应。该项目的目标是确定对工程学生的道德推理和性格影响最大的教育干预措施，这些影响是否在文化和民族群体中有所不同，以及是否/如何修改这些干预措施以有效地应对文化和民族差异。为此，来自科罗拉多矿业学院、匹兹堡大学、代尔夫特理工大学和上海交通大学的研究人员将采用混合方法、准实验、纵向和横断面研究：(1)确定文化和外语对一年级工程专业学生伦理观点的影响；(2)评估四年来文化和教育对这些观点的相对影响；(3)使用跨文化和国家的工程伦理评估工具来检验其跨文化有效性。这个项目的研究结果对于制定有效应对当代工程实践全球化环境的教育干预措施至关重要。他们还将通过识别在现行范式中可能被边缘化的观点，为更具包容性的工程教育的发展做出贡献。最后，该项目对研究生水平负责任的研究教育的发展有影响：尽管STEM领域的研究生团体变得越来越国际化，但有限的工作集中在为来自不同背景的研究生开发文化响应性伦理课程上。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Responsible Engineering Across Cultures: Investigating the Effects of Culture and Education on Ethical Reasoning and Dispositions of Engineering StudentsEngineering is more cross-cultural and international than ever before, resulting in potential disagreements about (in)appropriate courses of action, which can impede engineering work. Despite high rates of international enrollment and an increased focus on global dimensions of engineering in US programs, ethical issues arising from global engineering have been insufficiently addressed. To address these issues, this project will assess the impact of culture and education on ethics among engineering students in North America, Europe, and Asia. Understanding if and how diverse cultural backgrounds and educational experiences affect professional decision-making and collaborations requires empirical investigation, to develop training that addresses the kinds of challenges engineering students, practitioners, programs, and organizations will increasingly encounter in the globalized world. This project will be beneficial for training the next generation of engineers who are competent in working professionally and ethically in the global context and are responsive to the value of diversity in quality and sustainable engineering work. The goal of this project is to identify educational interventions with the greatest effects on ethical reasoning and dispositions of engineering students, whether these effects differ among cultural and national groups, and if/how to modify these interventions to respond effectively to cultural and national differences. To do so, researchers from Colorado School of Mines, University of Pittsburgh, Delft University of Technology, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University will implement mixed-method, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and cross-sectional research to: (1) determine the effects of culture and foreign language on the ethical perspectives of first-year engineering students; (2) assess the relative effects of culture and education on these perspectives over four years; (3) use engineering ethics assessment tools across cultures and countries to examine their cross-cultural validity. Findings from this project will be essential to develop educational interventions that effectively respond to the globalized environments of contemporary engineering practice. They will also contribute to the development of more inclusive engineering education, by identifying perspectives potentially marginalized in the reigning paradigms. Finally, this project has implications for the development of responsible research education at the graduate level: Despite the fact graduate student bodies in STEM fields have become increasingly international, limited work has focused on developing culturally responsive ethics curricula for graduate students from diverse backgrounds.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.