Developing Critically-Conscious Aerospace Engineers through Macro-ethics Curricula

该项目旨在通过将宏观伦理(大范围问题的伦理而不是个人伦理)纳入航空航天工程科学课程，极大地提高学生的批判意识和对社会制度中不公正现象的敏感性，从而服务于国家利益。为了实现这一目标，一个由多个机构组成的教员团队正在与航空航天行业的从业者合作，设计并将变革性的一天宏观伦理课程模块纳入传统的高技术航空航天工程课程。通过创新的评估和不断的修订，项目调查人员正在探索如何有效实施宏观伦理航空航天工程课程，以解决与学生未来工程职业直接相关的具有挑战性的、社会层面的伦理问题。作为研究努力的结果，学生们有望更好地认识到航空航天工程知识为社会公益做出贡献的潜力。此外，学生们可能会更多地意识到他们作为工程师所拥有的为建设更美好世界做出贡献的机构。通过定量和定性的调查分析，研究小组首先旨在建立学生对宏观伦理问题的认识水平。这些发现将被用于创建为期一天的宏观伦理学课程，探索如何更好地为学生在航空航天工程科学课程中解决这些问题做好准备。鉴于宏观伦理观点在很大程度上依赖于社会定位，并在协作学习环境中构建社会，因此将采用社会建构主义理论框架。提出了三个研究问题，并采用基于设计的研究方法来实施和评估拟议干预的影响。第一个问题是：本科生目前对航天工程宏观伦理问题的认识和看法如何？第二个问题试图了解学生感觉他们的教育是不是为解决宏观伦理问题做好了准备？最后，为了评估课程，项目团队问：课程如何影响学生对宏观伦理问题的看法和意识，以及他们参与未来工作的宏观伦理影响的愿望？宏观伦理课程将与在四个不同机构教授航空航天相关课程的教师合作伙伴一起实施和评估。通过这些课程，学生将不仅了解宏观伦理的重要性，而且了解它与航空航天工程课程的技术内容密不可分。该项目不仅有可能影响航空航天工程专业的学生(特别是该领域被边缘化的学生)，而且还可能影响航空航天行业从业人员和社会。调查结果的传播将通过知识共享许可证下的网站和在线研讨会系列进行。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与的学生学习跟踪，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by significantly sharpening student critical consciousness and sensitivity to injustices within social systems through integration of macro-ethics (ethics of large-scale issues as opposed to individual ethics) into aerospace engineering science curricula. To achieve this aim, a team of multi-institutional faculty is partnering with practitioners in the aerospace industry to design and incorporate transformative one-day macro-ethics curricular modules into traditionally highly technical aerospace engineering courses. Through innovative assessment and continuous revision, the project investigators are exploring how a macro-ethical aerospace engineering curriculum can be effectively implemented to address challenging, society-level ethical concerns that are directly relevant to students' future engineering careers. As a result of the research efforts, students are expected to be better equipped to recognize the potential for aerospace engineering knowledge to contribute toward social good. Additionally, students are likely to become more aware of the agency they possess as engineers to contribute to a better world. Using quantitative and qualitative survey analyses, the research team aims first to establish the level of students' awareness of macro-ethical issues. These findings will then be used to inform the creation of one-day macro-ethics lessons that explore ways to better prepare the students to address these issues in aerospace engineering science courses. A social constructivist theoretical framework is to be employed given that macro-ethical perspectives are largely dependent on social positioning and are socially constructed within collaborative learning environments. Three research questions are posited and a design-based research approach employed to implement and evaluate the impact of the proposed intervention. The first question asks: What are undergraduate students’ current awareness and perceptions of macro-ethical issues in aerospace engineering? Question two seeks to understand the ways students feel their education is or is not preparing them to address macro-ethical issues? Finally, to assess the curriculum the project team asks: How does the curriculum impact students’ perceptions and awareness of macro-ethical issues and their desire to engage with the macro-ethical implications of their future work? Macro-ethics lessons are to be implemented and assessed with faculty partners who teach aerospace-related courses at four different institutions. Through these lessons, students will learn not only the importance of macro-ethics, but its inseparability from the technical content of the aerospace engineering curricula. The project has the potential to impact not only aerospace engineering students (particularly those who are marginalized within the field), but also aerospace industry practitioners and society. Dissemination of findings is intended to be through a website under a Creative Commons license as well as an online seminar series. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.