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Ethics Across the Curriculum: Prospects for Broader (and Deeper) Teaching and Learning in Research and Engineering Ethics

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“Sometimes the difference between celebration and lament can be very small.”— thanks to Jim Grote.

Abstract

The movements to teach the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and engineering ethics at technological universities are often unacknowledged aspects of the ethics across the curriculum (EAC) movement and could benefit from explicit alliances with it. Remarkably, however, not nearly as much scholarly attention has been devoted to EAC as to RCR or to engineering ethics, and RCR and engineering ethics educational efforts are not always presented as facets of EAC. The emergence of EAC efforts at two different institutions—the Illinois Institute of Technology and Utah Valley University (UVU)—provide counter examples. The remarkably successful UVU initiative gave birth to EAC as a scholarly movement and to the associated Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum. EAC initiatives at the Colorado School of Mines, however, point up continuing institutional resistances to EAC. Finally, comparative reflection on successes and failures can draw some lessons for the future. One suggestion is that increasing demands for accountability and pedagogical research into what works in teaching and learning offers special opportunities.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all those at Utah Valley University and Colorado School of Mines who have contributed to the EAC activities at both institutions. UVU’s Ethics Across the Curriculum has received support from many individuals including administrators Presidents Kerry Romesburg and Matthew Holland; Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs Lucille Stoddard, Ian Wilson, and Jeff Olsen; Ethics Center Directors David Keller and Brian Birch; Ethics Center Coordinators Amanda Peterson, Susanna Garcia, and Don LaVange; and numerous faculty members including Jill Jasperson, Rick McDonald, Michael Minch, Shannon Mussett, Sharon Staples, Barbra Wardel, Jonathan Westover, and Joe Wixom. Numerous additional faculty and community volunteers have served on the UVU EAC advisory board. At CSM recognition for their contributions is tendered especially to administrators Arthur Sacks, Steven Castillo, and Thomas Boyd; co-director Roel Snieder; fellow LAIS faculty member Sandy Woodson; EAC support staff Mirna Mattjik and Diane Witters; and a list of advisors that includes (but should not be limited to) Derrick Morgan, Chuck Stone, Chester Van Tyne, and Wendy Harrison.

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  1. School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Carl Mitcham

  2. Liberal Arts and International Studies, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 80401, USA

    Carl Mitcham

  3. Utah Valley University, Orem, UT, USA

    Elaine E. Englehardt

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Mitcham, C., Englehardt, E.E. Ethics Across the Curriculum: Prospects for Broader (and Deeper) Teaching and Learning in Research and Engineering Ethics. Sci Eng Ethics 25, 1735–1762 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9797-7

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