Exploring the Discursive Construction of Ethics in an Introductory Engineering Course

Engineering education must prepare students to assume professional responsibility for the societal impact of technology. However, research suggests that most engineering students do not receive adequate training for assuming this responsibility. In this paper, I explore why this may be so. Using a discourse analytic approach on ethnographic field notes and interview data, I explore how ethical reflection is articulated in an introductory engineering course in Sweden. The preliminary results suggest that – despite the teachers’ intentions – ethical reflection is articulated as something that is easy, not very important, for which there are no valid quality criteria, and which cannot be improved. Three factors seem to have contributed to this articulation: 1. low requirements for passing the tasks that included ethical reflection; 2. focus on general requirements for essays and reports at university, rather than on the quality of ethical reflection; and 3. lack of constructive feedback on ethical reflection