Faculty Members' Conceptualizations of Ethics in the Biomedical Engineering Classroom

In this WIP study, our primary objective is to begin identifying what faculty perceive as important for ethical practice in biomedical engineering. We analyzed two primary data sources to address this objective. First, we analyzed curricular artifacts developed by five biomedical engineering faculty members at a single large Urban Midwestern University in the USA. Second, beginning with codes established by Katz, we analyzed interviews with these same five faculty members to identify ethical considerations salient to faculty mental models. Through these analyses, we identified nine ethical considerations which draw attention to aspects of engineering practice that faculty deem of ethical import. Moreover, these considerations were evident in both curricular artifacts and interviews. The considerations included: Economic; Environmental; Interpersonal; Legal; Organizational; Personal; Professional; Societal; Technological; and Theoretical. We provide descriptions of these considerations along with associated extracts from the curricular artifacts and interviews. These findings can benefit instructors by helping make evident the many and significant ethical considerations salient to engineering. In the future, we aim to more purposefully triangulate the alignment between faculty mental models and the ethical considerations they prioritize in their instruction.