INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHANGES IN EDUCATION
Research Article
Jul 01, 2026 94 67

Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering

Riadh Habash 1 *
1 School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Canada* Corresponding Author
International Journal of Changes in Education, 3(2), 2026, 139-145, https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewIJCE42023793
Online publication date: Sep 30, 2024
Publication date: Jul 01, 2026
Full Text (PDF)

ABSTRACT

The mandate of universities and higher education institutes is to shape students’ ethical wisdom and catalyze sustainable development. However, everyone does not have equal access to higher education which drives the above mindsets, leading to unequal quality of education. Today, most ethics teaching in engineering schools is narrowly micro-ethics and does not attempt to define macro-ethics’ special challenges. Micro-ethics concentrates on concerns related to the individual and the innermost workings of the profession. However, macro-ethics encompasses sustainable development with a focus on the collective social responsibility of the profession and public concerns about technology. This study examined undergraduate engineering programs in 25 major Canadian universities to see if they are adequately prepared to navigate both the micro- and macro-aspects of ethics education. The curricula of the programs show many courses focusing on micro-ethical concepts. The lack of explicit macro-ethical agendas for advancing society invites further work on curricula to enhance the efficacy of the content and delivery modes. This inadequate commitment to socially responsible engineering is conceptualized as a “culture of disengagement”. The study introduces important moments of change to strengthen ethics education. These include twinning engineering and computing ethics; embedding overlapped ethics, sustainability, and responsibility mindsets; and promoting the scholarship of integration through research, synthesis, practice, and teaching. By adopting these approaches to curriculum and pedagogy, the students will effectively cultivate a critical understanding of and obligation to the profession’s collective responsibility and the well-being of the greater society. These changes provide crucial insights into broadening socio-technical-minded prospects of engineering ethics education.

KEYWORDS

micro-ethics macro-ethics culture of disengagement sustainability responsibility scholarship of integration digital scholarship

CITATION (APA)

Habash, R. (2026). Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering. International Journal of Changes in Education, 3(2), 139-145. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewIJCE42023793
Harvard
Habash, R. (2026). Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering. International Journal of Changes in Education, 3(2), pp. 139-145. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewIJCE42023793
Vancouver
Habash R. Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering. International Journal of Changes in Education. 2026;3(2):139-45. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewIJCE42023793
AMA
Habash R. Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering. International Journal of Changes in Education. 2026;3(2), 139-145. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewIJCE42023793
Chicago
Habash, Riadh. "Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering". International Journal of Changes in Education 2026 3 no. 2 (2026): 139-145. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewIJCE42023793
MLA
Habash, Riadh "Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering". International Journal of Changes in Education, vol. 3, no. 2, 2026, pp. 139-145. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewIJCE42023793

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