Investigation of an equity ethic in engineering and computing doctoral students

Background: Research shows that engineering and computing students who are marginalized by race and/or gender and experience social suffering often wish to challenge social inequities through their vocation, an attribute we refer to as an equity ethic. This study explores how doctoral engineering and computing students develop this attribute even when they do not directly experience social suffering. Purpose/Hypothesis: We explored the relationship between (a) doctoral engineering and computing students' experiences with social suffering and their development of an equity ethic and (b) their equity ethic and career interests. Design/Method: We present a thematic analysis of the transcripts of in-depth, semistructured interviews with 18 engineering and computing PhD students, coding for experiences with social suffering, degree of equity ethic, and their career interests. Results: Students with an equity ethic who aspired to reduce inequities within their disciplines personally experienced or witnessed social suffering within and outside academia. Students with “high potential” for developing this attribute who aspired to help others with their disciplines acknowledged social suffering. While both those with an equity ethic and those with high potential saw inequities as socially caused, those with an equity ethic reported more impactful experiences with social suffering, resulting in greater empathy and responsibility to respond. Several students described neither altruistic nor social justice concerns (students with low potential) and did not experience social suffering directly or indirectly. Those with an equity ethic or high potential often showed interest in academia. Conclusions: Most participants expressed concerns for helping others in their occupations. This result suggests a nascent equity ethic that could be cultivated through intentional programmatic efforts.