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HOW AND WHY INSTRUCTORS INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE SOCIAL, POLICY, AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN DESIGN EDUCATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Madhurima Das ,
Jana I. Saadi ,
Marina Santos ,
Gillian Roeder ,
Anastasia K. Ostrowski ,
Stella Lee ,
Cynthia Breazeal ,
Catherine D'Ignazio ,
Maria Yang  and
Aditi Verma
Madhurima Das*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Jana I. Saadi
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Marina Santos
Affiliation:
Wellesley College;
Gillian Roeder
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Anastasia K. Ostrowski
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Stella Lee
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University;
Cynthia Breazeal
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Catherine D'Ignazio
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Maria Yang
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Aditi Verma
Affiliation:
The University of Michigan
*
Das, Madhurima, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America, rimadas@mit.edu

Abstract

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Design and engineering are socio-technical enterprises used to solve real-world problems. However, students in these fields are often under-equipped to consider the ethical and societal implications of their work. Our prior work showed that these societal considerations are more consistently embedded in design pedagogy in non-engineering than in engineering courses at MIT. Here, we examine underlying causes for this through a survey of instructors (231 courses from 29 departments). The main contribution of this work is an analysis of whether and how instructors incorporate social, ethical, and policy considerations in design pedagogy. The majority of respondents (60.6%) included these topics in their courses, primarily through discussion of social justice, identity groups, and ethics. These concepts were included more in non-engineering courses (65.8%) than engineering courses (46.9%). Many instructors, especially in engineering, cited irrelevance as the reason for not engaging with these topics in their courses (86.1% compared to 44.2% in non-engineering). We suggest that instructors question this perception and use the examples provided as a starting point to explore integration of these concepts into their technical content.

Keywords

Design educationSocial responsibilityEthicsEquityJustice
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 2085 - 2094
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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