Author: Xiaofeng Tang, Eduardo Mendieta, Thomas A. Litzinger
Publisher: Science and Engineering Ethics
Publication Year: 2022
Summary: The following article discusses how a lack of training in ethical theories and related pedagogy has kept many engineering faculty members from teaching data ethics, an important aspect of engineering research that has become more salient in recent years. This paper describes the development of a module, which includes concepts, cases, policies, and best practices, to support the teaching of ethical data practice. Based on a user-oriented design approach and a moral literacy framework, the module was designed to be used in different courses and co-curricular activities for students of varying levels of competence to improve their ability to identify and analyze ethical problems associated with the handling of research data. It seeks to encourage ethical reflection on researchers’ data practice through the idea of an “ecology of data,” which highlights the co-production of data by multiple, interconnected, and heterogeneous actors.