Towards a collaborative strategy to research the teaching of ethics within the engineering curriculum across south african higher education institutions

Engineering ethics provides a trans-disciplinary focus for a research project linking the different engineering disciplines within engineering education. Engineering ethics is positioned as providing a context and rationale to the technical skills and knowledge developed throughout the engineering curriculum. This research project aims to identify differences in conceptual approaches to the teaching of ethics within engineering. The paper focuses on developing a conceptual framework for the teaching of ethics within engineering that models a collaborative research methodology. An expanded conception of the teaching of ethics within engineering provides the opportunity to demonstrate synergy between the teaching of ethics within engineering and the Engineering Council of South Africa's (ECSA) Exit Level Outcomes (ELOs). This provides a context to the pilot project research into the tools and strategies for teaching ethics to engineering students, in preparation for a longer-term project.