Enhancing Technologists’ Ethical Awareness Through Critical Design | CPI Poster Presentation 2022
Abstract
In light of significant issues in the technology industry, such as algorithms that worsen racial biases, the spread of online misinformation, and the expansion of mass surveillance, it is increasingly important to teach the ethical implications of tech development. As such, it is crucial to examine how educational institutions respond in preparing future graduates to navigate common ethical decisions, assumptions, and pitfalls they may encounter in the workforce. My doctoral research investigates the potential for cross-disciplinary, sociotechnical pedagogical approaches to transform and reinforce the importance of ethics and responsible design in tech development. One way I do this is by designing, facilitating, and surveying the participants of various workshops, modules, and video tutorials related to ethics and responsible design in undergraduate engineering courses at the University of Waterloo. Critical Design, the main methodology of these curricular interventions, is an arts-based research practice that “challenges hegemonies and dominant ideologies in contexts of science and technology, social inequality, and unchallenged disciplinary norms” (Malpass, 2017). This ongoing research hopes to demonstrate how sociotechnical pedagogical approaches can help prepare future technologists to critically analyze and mitigate the complex social, environmental, and economic challenges in the context of their work.
References
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