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Evolution of Students’ Varied Conceptualizations About Socially Responsible Engineering: A Four Year Longitudinal Study

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Abstract

Engineers should learn how to act on their responsibility to society during their education. At present, however, it is unknown what students think about the meaning of socially responsible engineering. This paper synthesizes 4 years of longitudinal interviews with engineering students as they progressed through college. The interviews revolved broadly around how students saw the connections between engineering and social responsibility, and what influenced these ideas. Using the Weidman Input–Environment–Output model as a framework, this research found that influences included required classes such as engineering ethics, capstone design, and some technical courses, pre-college volunteering and familial values, co-curricular groups such as Engineers Without Borders and the Society of Women Engineers, as well as professional experiences through internships. Further, some experiences such as technical courses and engineering internships contributed to confine students’ understanding of an engineer’s social responsibility. Overall, students who stayed in engineering tended to converge on basic responsibilities such as safety and bettering society as a whole, but tended to become less concerned with improving the lives of the marginalized and disadvantaged. Company loyalty also became important for some students. These results have valuable, transferable contributions, providing guidance to foster students’ ideas on socially responsible engineering.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1158863. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Additionally, the authors are grateful to Dr. Eisenhart from the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education for guidance and feedback, and Whitney Thomas for being a reality check from the student perspective.

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Correspondence to Greg Rulifson.

Appendices

Appendix 1: First Round Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    Just to confirm, what are your major and year in school? And how is engineering going? What are some things you have liked or enjoyed? Found difficult or frustrating?

  2. 2.

    What interests you the most about engineering? What led you to choose engineering as a major? Did you seriously consider other majors?

  3. 3.

    What is your current vision for an ideal engineering career?

  4. 4.

    Describe experiences in your life prior to college or during college that influenced your view of the engineering profession.

  5. 5.

    Describe experiences in your life prior to college or during college that influenced how you understand social responsibility. (What is your definition for SR?)

  6. 6.

    In what ways do you feel you help others?

    • At any scale: globally, locally, within your family/friends

    • How and why are you involved? What are the benefits you see for them and yourself?

    • If not: what are some reasons for not helping?

  7. 7.

    What are some important social issues to you?

    • What were some of your influences that made these important issues to you?

    • How do you see yourself involved in addressing these issues?

    • Do you see engineering playing a role in addressing these issues?

  8. 8.

    Does your sense of social responsibility move you towards, away, or neither from an engineering career?

  9. 9.

    Is there one issue that you feel particularly passionate about trying to address? Why?

    • Can your engineering abilities help with this goal?

    • Can other majors in engineering better help you to reach this goal?

  10. 10.

    How confident are you that you will get an engineering degree and practice engineering after graduation? What are your main concerns?

  11. 11.

    Is there anything else you would like to share, or questions you have?

Appendix 2: Second Round Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    Going way back, what did you do over the summer?

    OR: How was [reference previous interview] over the summer? Give me some highlights.

    1. a.

      Follow-up if an engineering internship or activities related to social responsibility

  2. 2.

    Are you still a _______ major? And how is the second year going? What are some things you have enjoyed? Found difficult or frustrating?

  3. 3.

    Do you have any new particular interests within _______ engineering?

  4. 4.

    Ideal career

    1. a.

      Is your ideal career still [reference previous interview]?

    2. b.

      OR: Have you discovered an ideal career?

  5. 5.

    What are some specific qualities of a job that you are looking for? What influences made these qualities important?

    1. a.

      Which of these qualities are deal breakers/makers, most important?

  6. 6.

    Describe experiences in this past year of college that influenced your view of the engineering profession.

    1. a.

      What do you think engineering employers are looking for in an interview? Do you think this would be different for an employee, after you are hired?

  7. 7.

    What is your definition of social responsibility?

    1. a.

      Describe experiences in this past year that have influenced this understanding of social responsibility.

    2. b.

      If very different from previous definition: what do you think influenced these changes?

  8. 8.

    Helping others

    1. a.

      Are you still involved in [reference previous interview]?

      1. i.

        YES: Describe some of your experiences with that in the past year.

      2. ii.

        NO: Why not? Are there other activities you are involved with instead?

    2. b.

      What are some new ways you have been involved with helping others in the past year?

      1. i.

        If none or few or difficult question to answer: what are some reasons you did not help others (much) in the last year?

  9. 9.

    Important Social issues

    1. a.

      Are there any social issues you are addressing currently? In what ways?

    2. b.

      In our last interview, you mentioned [reference previous interview] as an important issue. Have you become/stayed involved with addressing this issue?

    3. c.

      What were some of your influences that made these important issues to you?

    4. d.

      Do you see engineering playing a role in addressing these issues?

  10. 10.

    Is there one issue that you feel particularly passionate about trying to address? Why?

    1. a.

      Can your engineering abilities help with this goal?

    2. b.

      Can other majors in engineering better help you to reach this goal?

  11. 11.

    Do you expect social responsibility will be part of your future engineering career? How strongly? In what ways?

  12. 12.

    Does your sense of social responsibility move you towards, away, or neither from an engineering career? In what ways? Has this changed significantly since last year?

  13. 13.

    Is there anything else you would like to share, or do you have any questions?

Appendix 3: Third Round Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    Are you still a _______ engineering major? (If not: why did you switch? [Move to LEAVER set of questions if major is now outside of engineering])

  2. 2.

    Tell me about the last year, some highlights and events or activities that were especially important to you.

  3. 3.

    Read the eighteen characteristics I emailed you (see below).

    1. a.

      Select the five characteristics that you think are most representative of engineers.

    2. b.

      Are there additional characteristics that you typically associate with engineers?

    3. c.

      Select the five characteristics that you think are most representative of you.

    4. d.

      Are there additional characteristics that you typically associate with yourself?

      care

      fairness

      positivity

      commitment

      flexible

      respect

      confidence

      high expectations

      sensitivity

      consideration of others

      integrity

      thoughtfulness

      curiosity

      judgment

      thoroughness

      empathy

      persistence

      tolerance

  4. 4.

    What are the responsibilities of an engineer? Why do you think so?

    1. a.

      Who are engineers responsible for?

  5. 5.

    What is the engineer’s role in impacting people in society? **reword (how does, could, or should an engineer impact society?)

  6. 6.

    What are some ways that you think about social responsibility?

    • Has your understanding changed much in the last year? Why do you think that is?

    • How has it changed during college? Why do you think that is?

    • How could any person act on this understanding of SR? [non-engineering]

  7. 7.

    How do you think your ideas around personal social responsibility influence your ideas about professional responsibility and vice versa?

    • If different from responsibilities of an engineer, ask how they deal with the difference.

  8. 8.

    How does engineering play a role in social issues?

  9. 9.

    Think aloud through the drawbacks and benefits of incorporating social responsibility into your engineering career.

    • How about pro bono work?

  10. 10.

    As a practicing engineer in the future, how do you expect to incorporate your personal sense of social responsibility with your professional practice, if at all?

  11. 11.

    Is there anything else you would like to share, or do you have any questions?

Appendix 4: Fourth Round Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    Are you still a _______ engineering major?

  2. 2.

    Tell me about the last year: some highlights and events or activities that were especially important to you.

  3. 3.

    What are your plans for the coming year following graduation?

  4. 4.

    What is your current vision for an ideal engineering career?

    • What factors would make a job personally rewarding to you?

  5. 5.

    What will be your responsibilities as an engineer? Think narrowly and broadly about the term ‘responsibilities.’

    • Who will you be responsible for as an engineer?

  6. 6.

    What are some ways that you think about social responsibility?

    • Has your understanding changed much in the last year? Why do you think that is?

    • How have your ideas about social responsibility generally changed during college? Why do you think that is?

  7. 7.

    How do you think your ideas around personal social responsibility influence your ideas about professional responsibility and vice versa?

    • If different from responsibilities of an engineer, ask how they deal with the difference.

  8. 8.

    In what ways do you believe that you might be serving or helping people and/or society in some way during your career?

    • To what extent is this helping aspect of the job important to you?

    • How does the importance of helping compare with other factors such as salary, location, who you work with, etc.?

  9. 9.

    In what ways do you believe that your vision of how you might help society and/or people through your career as an engineer has changed since you began college? What experiences have contributed to these changes?

  10. 10.

    After you graduate, in what ways might you like to help people and/or society outside your work?

  11. 11.

    Is there anything else you would like to share, or do you have any questions?

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Rulifson, G., Bielefeldt, A.R. Evolution of Students’ Varied Conceptualizations About Socially Responsible Engineering: A Four Year Longitudinal Study. Sci Eng Ethics 25, 939–974 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0042-4

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