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Ethics Education in STEM in Eastern Europe, Moral Development or Professional Education?

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Building Inclusive Ethical Cultures in STEM

Part of the book series: The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology ((ELTE,volume 42))

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Abstract

In the Soviet Union, STEM education was high-quality. On the one hand, the ambition to have technological predominance and to be in a world-leading position guaranteed relevant financing; on the other hand, less ideological influence allowed the field to develop. At the same time, ethics was highly ideologized and linked to the image of the ‘Soviet people’ rather than to professional behavior, and STEM ethics was seen more as a matter of quality and safety.

The changes that have occurred over the past 30 years have influenced higher education in general and STEM ethics education in particular. While in the Soviet Union, there were unified curricula for the teaching of all subjects, including philosophy, ethics, and STEM, the destruction of the Soviet hemisphere cultivated different approaches to STEM ethics in former Soviet Union republics, now independent countries.

This chapter presents preliminary evidence of the ethics culture in STEM education in the former Soviet countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) | European Commission (europa.eu), Home | National Academies

  2. 2.

    Members of the ERA are members of the European Union, form the group of former Soviet countries namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, see: European research area (ERA) | European Commission (europa.eu)

  3. 3.

    ERC: European Research Council | (europa.eu)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

    Aive Pevkur

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  1. Aive Pevkur
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Correspondence to Aive Pevkur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA

    Elisabeth Hildt

  2. Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA

    Kelly Laas

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, AET, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Eric M. Brey

  4. Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA, USA

    Christine Z. Miller

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Pevkur, A. (2024). Ethics Education in STEM in Eastern Europe, Moral Development or Professional Education?. In: Hildt, E., Laas, K., Brey, E.M., Miller, C.Z. (eds) Building Inclusive Ethical Cultures in STEM. The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51560-6_8

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