ABSTRACT
Professional codes of conduct are often used in engineering ethics education (EEE), but they tend to be presented as static, legal documents – not subject to negotiation and change. Therefore, codes have received criticism within the debate on EEE. This chapter explores the benefits of including legal as well as aspirational elements of codes in engineering ethics education and argues that, to do so, teaching faculty need to connect codes to a theory of professionalism. They need to contextualize codes into the historical context of four different types of professional organizations (Regulatory, Body of Knowledge, Education, and Affinity Organizations). Because EEE researchers widely agree that the approaches to ethics education are highly variable and directed towards a variety of ends, our goal is to provide a broader and much-needed context of codes and professionalism for engineering ethics educators and researchers.
