Culture of Disengagement in Engineering Education?

Much has been made of the importance of training ethical, socially conscious engineers, but does US engineering education actually encourage neophytes to take seriously their professional responsibility to public welfare? Counter to such ideals of engagement, I argue that students’ interest in public welfare concerns may actually decline over the course of their engineering education. Using unique longitudinal survey data of students at four colleges, this article examines (a) how students’ public welfare beliefs change during their engineering education, (b) whether engineering programs emphasize engagement, and (c) whether these program emphases are related to students’ public welfare beliefs. I track four…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• FW
  Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
• GA
  Georgia Agricultural Experiment Stations
• UO
  University of Massachusetts Amherst