The Empathy Project: An Interdisciplinary Research Effort to Develop a Transferable Theory of Empathy in Engineering

工程领域将在应对21世纪世纪复杂的社会挑战方面发挥关键作用，这些挑战的特点是技术方面与社会层面交织在一起。为了使该行业充分承担这一不断扩大的责任，大学和工程教育工作者正在努力改造工程项目，使学生能够有效地参与这些广泛的多学科挑战。该项目通过专注于同情心，使未来的工程师能够有意义地考虑工程工作的社会方面，与广泛的利益相关者接触，并了解社会成员的观点和需求，为这些资格的社会方面做出了重要贡献。在这个跨学科的教育研究项目中，工程教育研究人员与社会工作教育研究人员合作。社会工作领域有着悠久的历史，有目的地发展移情作为学生专业形成的一部分。 该项目的成果将提供必要的证据基础，为未来的努力提供信息，以广泛地将同理心注入工程教育。随着人们对21世纪世纪工程挑战的社会性认识的日益加深，学者们开始探索共情在培养未来工程师中的作用。然而，这些努力的影响受到缺乏概念清晰性和缺乏关于共情在工程中的作用的循证理论的阻碍。本计画发展一个可移转的工程学习与专业形成的共情理论。调查利用跨学科的举措，促进学生的移情取向和技能作为一个窗口，通过它来调查他们在工程教育背景下更广泛的移情经验。该研究建立在先前的试点研究的基础上，并需要通过课堂观察，焦点小组，书面反思和项目工件收集环境和机械工程设计课程的数据。叙事访谈进行，以进一步探讨学生的帐户，位于他们更广泛的教育或生活经验。使用两个互补的解释透镜分析数据。首先，建构主义扎根理论的方法是用来开发一个模型的移情形成方面的作用，学生的整体教育经验和由此产生的影响，他们的专业方式。 第二，叙事分析是用来语境这些发现在学生的不同生活经验，通过使用建构的叙事。从长远来看，该项目将使移情系统，循证整合到工程项目-使该领域更多样化的学生，并提供更有意义的教育经验。

The field of engineering will play a key role in addressing the complex, societal challenges of the 21st century that are characterized by technical aspects interwoven with social dimensions. In order for the profession to fully assume this expanding responsibility, universities and engineering educators are working towards transforming engineering programs so that they prepare students to effectively engage in these broad, multi-disciplinary challenges. This project contributes a crucial component to the social aspects of these qualifications through a focus on empathy that will allow future engineers to meaningfully consider social facets of engineering work, engage with a broad range of stakeholders, and understand the perspectives and needs of members of society. In this interdisciplinary educational research project, engineering education researchers are collaborating with social work education researchers. The field of social work contributes a longstanding history of purposefully developing empathy as part of students' professional formation. The outcomes of this project will provide the evidence-base necessary to inform future efforts to broadly infuse empathy into engineering education. Responding to a growing recognition of the socially situated nature of 21st century engineering challenges, scholars have begun to explore the role of empathy in preparing future engineers. However, the impact of these efforts is impeded by a lack of conceptual clarity and a dearth of evidence-based theory regarding the role of empathy in engineering. This project develops a transferable theory of empathy in engineering learning and professional formation. The inquiry leverages an interdisciplinary initiative that fosters an empathic orientation and skills in students as a window through which to investigate their broader experiences of empathy in engineering education contexts. The research builds on a prior pilot study and entails the collection of data in environmental and mechanical engineering design courses through classroom observations, focus groups, written reflections, and project artifacts. Narrative interviews are conducted to further explore students' accounts as situated in their broader educational or life experiences. Data is analyzed using two complementary interpretive lenses. First, a constructivist grounded theory approach is used to develop a model of empathy formation in terms of its role in students' overall educational experience and resultant impacts on their professional way of being. Second, a narrative analysis is used to contextualize these findings in students' diverse lived experiences through the use of constructed narratives. In the long term, this project will enable the systemic, evidence-based integration of empathy into engineering programs - making the field accessible to a more diverse range of students and providing a more meaningful educational experience.