Equity as Rebar: Bridging the Micro/Macro Divide in Engineering Ethics Education

Case studies have been used by engineering ethics educators for several decades, following a path paved by legal educators in the late nineteenth century. Unfortunately, few of these cases connect the micro-ethical decisions of individual engineers with the macro-ethical consequences of their actions, leaving intact a long-standing division between ethics and equity in engineering education. Our paper highlights a curricular intervention aimed at helping bridge this ethics-equity divide. In particular, we document a three-year initiative to replace engineering ethics lectures with open-ended case study workshops. While early assessment results indicate that students found our workshops to be significantly more engaging than their first-year ethical compliance lectures, a recent episode of backlash demonstrates the ease and rapidity with which equity-based interventions can be derailed. Iterative optimization of our workshop in response to this critical incident suggests that engineering educators can bridge ethics with equity if they combine two pedagogical strategies emerging from distinct paradigmatic traditions: (1) infuse critical analyses into case study learning to avoid the pitfalls of moral relativism and (2) shift the tone of discussion from rational argumentation to respectful dialogue by including mindful listening activities.