Institutional Transformation: Intersections of Moral Foundations and Ethics Frameworks in STEM Enculturation

这个项目考察了本科生和研究生之间伦理推理的价值基础。迄今为止，在STEM学生中发展道德和负责任的研究文化的策略在很大程度上强调了形成道德决策的正式道德培训和经验，以及激励个人将决策策略付诸实践的条件。很少有人关注学生的内在价值观如何指导他们的职业行为，或者这些价值观如何影响他们对STEM学科的吸引力和培训。这限制了在培养具有道德素养的学生和机构文化方面结合内部和外部因素的道德培训协议的发展。该项目由一个21世纪研究密集型、为西班牙裔服务的机构的跨学科团队领导，该项目对指导个人的隐性价值观与道德教育和培训的显性内容和经验的交集如何影响道德推理产生了基本的理解。实际上，该项目开发了理解学生在学科文化过程中协商个人价值观和道德理性的方式的方法，这对于在STEM中增加和保留不同的观点尤其重要。本项目采用本科生和研究生调查，职业道德规范和课程模块的语言编码和关键词分析，以及从研讨会、焦点小组和访谈中收集的定性数据的对应分析来调查STEM学生的道德推理。它有三个主要目标：(1)确定个人价值观与人口统计学差异和学科选择相关的程度，(2)分析STEM学生经历内部和跨领域的明确伦理框架，以及(3)了解内部价值观和正式伦理框架之间的交集，以及它们如何影响学科文化和伦理推理。通过对传统和跨学科STEM项目的学生进行道德基础问卷调查，检查个人价值观及其人口统计学相关性。通过对专业团体、课程模块和其他道德经验来源的道德规范进行语言编码和关键词分析，对学生接受的正式道德培训进行分析。个人伦理和正式伦理培训之间的交叉点是通过使用对应分析来分析通过pi主导的伦理研讨会、焦点小组和与学生参与者的代表性样本的个人访谈收集的参与者数据。分析将集中在个人价值观是否和在多大程度上映射到学科价值观，以及价值观是如何协商和建立的。结果将与对照组数据进行比较，并评估以确定学生如何适应纪律规范。该项目推进了STEM伦理知识，扩展了道德基础理论，并加深了对为什么一些代表性不足的群体留在STEM而另一些群体退出的理解。该项目由CISE和ENG董事会资助。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。

This project examines the value foundations that inform ethical reasoning among undergraduate and graduate students. To date, strategies for developing cultures of ethical and responsible research among STEM students have largely emphasized the formal ethical training and experiences that shape ethical decision-making and the conditions under which individuals are motivated to put decision-making strategies into practice. Much less attention has been given to the ways students’ internal values guide their professional conduct or how these values affect their attraction to and training within a STEM discipline. This has limited the development of ethical training protocols combining internal and external factors in cultivating ethically literate students and institutional cultures. Led by an interdisciplinary team at a 21st century research-intensive, Hispanic-serving institution, this project generates fundamental understanding about how the intersection of the implicit values that guide individuals and the explicit content and experiences of ethics education and training matter for ethical reasoning. Practically, the project develops methods for understanding the ways students negotiate personal values and reason ethically amid the disciplinary enculturation process, which is especially crucial to increasing and retaining diverse perspectives within STEM. This project employs surveys of undergraduates and graduate students, linguistic coding and keyword analysis of professional ethics codes and curriculum modules, and correspondence analysis of qualitative data collected from workshops, focus groups, and interviews to investigate ethical reasoning among STEM students. It has three main objectives: (1) identify the extent to which individual values correlate with demographic differences and disciplinary choices, (2) analyze explicit ethical frameworks within and across STEM student experiences, and (3) understand intersections among internal values and formal ethical frameworks and how they affect disciplinary enculturation and ethical reasoning. Individual values and their demographic correlates are examined by administering the Moral Foundations Questionnaire to students in a mix of traditional and interdisciplinary STEM programs. The formal ethical training students receive is analyzed by applying linguistic coding and keyword analysis to ethics codes from professional bodies, curriculum modules, and other sources of ethics experience. Intersections between individual ethics and formal ethical training are studied by using correspondence analysis to analyze participant data collected through PI-led ethics workshops, focus groups, and individual interviews with a representative sample of student participants. Analyses will focus on whether and to what extent personal values map onto disciplinary values and the ways values are negotiated and established. Results will be compared to control-group data and assessed to determine how students enculturate to disciplinary norms. This project advances knowledge of STEM ethics, expands moral foundation theory, and enhances understanding of why some under-represented groups remain in STEM while others drop out. This project has been funded by the CISE and ENG directorates.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.