Where’s My Code? Engineers Navigating Ethical Issues on an Uneven Terrain

Cindy Rottmann; Doug Reeve; Robin Sacks; Mike Klassen

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Communicating Across Cultural and Epistemological Boundaries
Tagged Division: Liberal Education/Engineering & Society
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--31242
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/31242
Download Count: 498

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Paper Authors

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Cindy Rottmann University of Toronto

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Cindy Rottmann is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include engineering leadership and engineering ethics & equity education.

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Doug Reeve P.Eng. University of Toronto

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Dr. Reeve is the founding Director of the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) established in 2010. Development of personal capability has been central to his work with engineering students for twenty-five years. In 2002 he established Leaders of Tomorrow, a student leadership development program that led to the establishment of ILead in 2010. He is also a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

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Robin Sacks University of Toronto

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Robin is an Assistant Professor with the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of Toronto where she teaches leadership and positive psychology. She served as Director of the Engineering Leadership Project, which aims to understand how engineers lead in industry.

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Mike Klassen University of Toronto

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Mike Klassen is the Assistant Director, Community of Practice on Engineering Leadership at the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) at the University of Toronto. He designs and facilitates leadership programs for engineering students and professionals - with a range of focus from tangible skill development to organizational leadership to complex social problems. Mike is a PhD student in Higher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and has an MA in Higher Education and a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto.

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Abstract

Where’s my code? Engineers navigating ethical issues on an uneven terrain

Context: Claims to professionalism among engineers are rooted in three key elements: a specialized knowledge base, self-regulation, and a commitment to public service. 1-3 These elements have been historically codified into a set of ethical guidelines. 1, 4, 5 While these guidelines—Professional Codes of Ethics—may help engineers appreciate what not to do,4, 5 they are insufficiently specific to guide novice engineers through ethically ambiguous situations. As early 20th century artefacts, they also tend to reproduce structural inequities embedded in the history of the profession, and are thus insufficient guides for historically underrepresented groups of engineers.6-14 The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board’s (CEAB) pairing of ethics AND equity15 demands that we look beyond the codes to help them navigate ethically ambiguous situations and patterns of privilege likely to arise in their professional lives. Our three-year project set out to fill this pedagogical gap by developing anonymous case studies based on the experiences of Canadian engineers grappling with ethical and equity-based issues in their professional lives.

Methodology: We conducted semi-structured career history interviews with 14 engineers deliberately diversifying our sample by discipline, career stage, and other demographic markers. After transcribing the interviews verbatim, we inductively coded them,16, 17 and developed anonymous case studies based on critical incidents shared by each participant. We then tested four completed case studies with 112 undergraduate engineering students. This paper highlights three of the fourteen cases to examine the inequitable terrain on which professional engineers navigate ethical issues in their professional lives.

Results: Our open-ended invitation to share an ethical dilemma resulted in an interesting demographic trend. Gender figured prominently in the experiences of 5/7 women, but only 1/7 men; race figured prominently in the experiences of 2/4 racialized engineers, and 0/10 white engineers; and the only two engineers to mention sexuality were LGBTQ-identified. While not all female engineers raised the issue of gender and not all racialized engineers raised the issue of race, our findings suggest that equity issues are more prevalent in ethical dilemmas faced by historically disadvantaged groups of engineers than in those of their historically advantaged counterparts. We illustrate this finding through the cases of “Tanya,” an engineering intern who reconsiders her technical career after encountering subtle and overt discrimination in the mining industry; “Matthew,” a junior engineering operator who is asked to cover for a senior colleague who fell asleep on the job; and “Awande,” an industrial engineering student who is shocked and angered when her professor introduces the mechanization of an industry historically driven by slave labour as though it is a neutral example of engineering optimization.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that equity issues are deeply engrained in engineering ethics and as such, it behoves us as engineering educators to move beyond simply exposing students to their respective ethical codes. We also need to help them navigate the challenging ethical situations they are likely to encounter in their professional lives, paying close attention to the systemic inequities structured into the profession.

References: 1. Andrews, G.C., Canadian Professional Engineering and Geoscience: Practice and Ethics. Fifth ed. 2014, Toronto: Nelson. 472. 2. Larson, M.S., The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis. 1977, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 309. 3. Marston, D.L., Law for Professional Engineers: Canadian and Global insights. Fourth ed. 2008, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. 4. Tang, X. and D. Nieusma. Institutionalizing ethics: Historical debates surrounding IEEE's 1974 Code of Ethics. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2015. Seattle, WA. 5. Vesilind, P.A., Evolution of the American Society of Civil Engineers code of ethics. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 1995. 121(1): p. 4-10. 6. Jaffee, E.M. and D.M. Riley. "It kind of chose me": Agency and influence in women's decision to major in engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2010. Louisville, KY. 7. Riley, D.M. The island of other: Making space for embodiment of difference in engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2013. Atlanta, GA. 8. Riley, D.M. and A.L. Pawley. Complicating difference: Exploring and exploding three myths of gender and race in engineering education. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2011. Vancouver, BC. 9. Riley, D.M., A.E. Slaton, and A.L. Pawley, Social justice and inclusion: Women and minorities in engineering, in Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research, A. Johri and B.M. Olds, Editors. 2015, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. p. 335-356. 10. Faulkner, W., Doing gender in engineering workplace cultures. II Gender in/authenticity and the in/visiblity paradox. Engineering Studies, 2009. 1(3): p. 169-189. 11. Faulkner, W., Doing gender in engineering workplace cultures 1: Observations from the field. Engineering Studies, 2009. 1(1): p. 3-18. 12. Herkert, J.R. Yogi meets Moses: Ethics, progress and the grand challenges for engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2011. Vancouver, BC. 13. Seron, C.S., et al. "I am not a feminist, but:" Making meanings of being a woman in engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2011. Vancouver, BC. 14. Tonso, K.L., Student engineers and engineer identity: Campus engineer identities as figured world. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2006. 1(2): p. 273-307. 15. CEAB, Accreditation Criteria and Procedures 2008, 2008, Engineers Canada: Ottawa, ON. p. 24. 16. Denzin, N.K., The interpretive process, in The Qualitative Researcher's Companion, A.M. Huberman and M.B. Miles, Editors. 2002, Sage: Thousand Oaks. p. 349-366. 17. Denzin, N.K. and Y.S. Lincoln, Strategies of qualitative inquiry. 2nd ed. 2003, Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Citation
Format

Rottmann, C., & Reeve, D., & Sacks, R., & Klassen, M. (2018, June), Where’s My Code? Engineers Navigating Ethical Issues on an Uneven Terrain Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--31242

TY - CPAPER
AB - Where’s my code? Engineers navigating ethical issues on an uneven terrain

Context:
Claims to professionalism among engineers are rooted in three key elements: a specialized knowledge base, self-regulation, and a commitment to public service. 1-3 These elements have been historically codified into a set of ethical guidelines. 1, 4, 5 While these guidelines—Professional Codes of Ethics—may help engineers appreciate what not to do,4, 5 they are insufficiently specific to guide novice engineers through ethically ambiguous situations. As early 20th century artefacts, they also tend to reproduce structural inequities embedded in the history of the profession, and are thus insufficient guides for historically underrepresented groups of engineers.6-14 The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board’s (CEAB) pairing of ethics AND equity15 demands that we look beyond the codes to help them navigate ethically ambiguous situations and patterns of privilege likely to arise in their professional lives. Our three-year project set out to fill this pedagogical gap by developing anonymous case studies based on the experiences of Canadian engineers grappling with ethical and equity-based issues in their professional lives.

Methodology:
We conducted semi-structured career history interviews with 14 engineers deliberately diversifying our sample by discipline, career stage, and other demographic markers. After transcribing the interviews verbatim, we inductively coded them,16, 17 and developed anonymous case studies based on critical incidents shared by each participant. We then tested four completed case studies with 112 undergraduate engineering students. This paper highlights three of the fourteen cases to examine the inequitable terrain on which professional engineers navigate ethical issues in their professional lives.

Results:
Our open-ended invitation to share an ethical dilemma resulted in an interesting demographic trend. Gender figured prominently in the experiences of 5/7 women, but only 1/7 men; race figured prominently in the experiences of 2/4 racialized engineers, and 0/10 white engineers; and the only two engineers to mention sexuality were LGBTQ-identified. While not all female engineers raised the issue of gender and not all racialized engineers raised the issue of race, our findings suggest that equity issues are more prevalent in ethical dilemmas faced by historically disadvantaged groups of engineers than in those of their historically advantaged counterparts. We illustrate this finding through the cases of “Tanya,” an engineering intern who reconsiders her technical career after encountering subtle and overt discrimination in the mining industry; “Matthew,” a junior engineering operator who is asked to cover for a senior colleague who fell asleep on the job; and “Awande,” an industrial engineering student who is shocked and angered when her professor introduces the mechanization of an industry historically driven by slave labour as though it is a neutral example of engineering optimization.

Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that equity issues are deeply engrained in engineering ethics and as such, it behoves us as engineering educators to move beyond simply exposing students to their respective ethical codes. We also need to help them navigate the challenging ethical situations they are likely to encounter in their professional lives, paying close attention to the systemic inequities structured into the profession.

References:
1. Andrews, G.C., Canadian Professional Engineering and Geoscience: Practice and Ethics. Fifth ed. 2014, Toronto: Nelson. 472.
2. Larson, M.S., The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis. 1977, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 309.
3. Marston, D.L., Law for Professional Engineers: Canadian and Global insights. Fourth ed. 2008, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
4. Tang, X. and D. Nieusma. Institutionalizing ethics: Historical debates surrounding IEEE&#39;s 1974 Code of Ethics. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2015. Seattle, WA.
5. Vesilind, P.A., Evolution of the American Society of Civil Engineers code of ethics. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 1995. 121(1): p. 4-10.
6. Jaffee, E.M. and D.M. Riley. &quot;It kind of chose me&quot;: Agency and influence in women&#39;s decision to major in engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2010. Louisville, KY.
7. Riley, D.M. The island of other: Making space for embodiment of difference in engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2013. Atlanta, GA.
8. Riley, D.M. and A.L. Pawley. Complicating difference: Exploring and exploding three myths of gender and race in engineering education. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2011. Vancouver, BC.
9. Riley, D.M., A.E. Slaton, and A.L. Pawley, Social justice and inclusion: Women and minorities in engineering, in Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research, A. Johri and B.M. Olds, Editors. 2015, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. p. 335-356.
10. Faulkner, W., Doing gender in engineering workplace cultures. II Gender in/authenticity and the in/visiblity paradox. Engineering Studies, 2009. 1(3): p. 169-189.
11. Faulkner, W., Doing gender in engineering workplace cultures 1: Observations from the field. Engineering Studies, 2009. 1(1): p. 3-18.
12. Herkert, J.R. Yogi meets Moses: Ethics, progress and the grand challenges for engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2011. Vancouver, BC.
13. Seron, C.S., et al. &quot;I am not a feminist, but:&quot; Making meanings of being a woman in engineering. in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2011. Vancouver, BC.
14. Tonso, K.L., Student engineers and engineer identity: Campus engineer identities as figured world. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2006. 1(2): p. 273-307.
15. CEAB, Accreditation Criteria and Procedures 2008, 2008, Engineers Canada: Ottawa, ON. p. 24.
16. Denzin, N.K., The interpretive process, in The Qualitative Researcher&#39;s Companion, A.M. Huberman and M.B. Miles, Editors. 2002, Sage: Thousand Oaks. p. 349-366.
17. Denzin, N.K. and Y.S. Lincoln, Strategies of qualitative inquiry. 2nd ed. 2003, Thousand Oaks: Sage.

AU - Cindy Rottmann
AU - Doug Reeve P.Eng.
AU - Robin Sacks
AU - Mike Klassen
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Where’s My Code? Engineers Navigating Ethical Issues on an Uneven Terrain
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/31242
DO - 10.18260/1-2--31242
ER -