ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the implications of the accreditation of engineering ethics education locally. The authors debate the gap between (a) how ethics is conveyed in accreditation documents and processes and (b) what ethics means at the local level in engineering education. They aim to problematize the ‘impersonality’ of ethics hidden in the bureaucratically operationalized documents at the level of educational programs and the potential ‘personality’ of ethics in engineering education, particularly viewed from the perspective of different positionalities at the local level. Both levels are complex and contextual. Accreditation of engineering education programs includes varied definitions and requirements, often broad, ill-defined, and implicit. The authors discuss the implications of what engineering ethics education is and aims to be for the local level – expressly considering the dimensions of the university, the course, the teacher, the student, and the graduate. The authors argue that the local levels are not homogeneous, and that all these issues hold implications for how graduates understand ethics and respond to ethical issues in their future workplaces.
