Exploring Ethical Motivation in an Undergraduate Engineering Ethics Course

Abstract

This Work-in-Progress Research paper investigates ethical motivation in engineering students across a single semester of an interdisciplinary engineering ethics course. Ethical motivation is the process of deciding to act upon an ethical decision based on one’s valuing of ethics, as well as one’s ability to prioritize moral concerns and professional values over personal interests. To prepare students to prioritize ethical and professional obligations, ethical training needs to help students become aware of, align, and act upon both their personal and professional values. This study operationalizes ethical motivation using Nancy Tuana’s moral literacy framework and James Rest’s four component model of morality. To assess engineering students’ ethical motivation, we collected quantitative and qualitative data from an engineering ethics course offered in Spring 2022. This paper describes the theoretical frameworks guiding this study, the data collection procedures, and the planned data analyses. The goal of this study is to contribute to understanding ethical formation in engineering education. Prior research on ethical formation in engineering has largely focused on ethical judgment and ethical sensitivity. We expand on prior work by exploring the role of ethical motivation in engineering students’ ethical formation. Findings from this study will provide insights into how students internalize professional values into their views of engineers’ roles and ultimately into their future practice as engineers.