The teachability of ethics in design schools: An investigation of the exposure of design students to ethical ideals in relation to their future professional conduct

This research was aimed at investigating whether graphic design and industrial design students exposed to ethical ideals during their college experience are likely to reflect such exposure in their professional behavior after graduating. Along with inquiring into this fundamental and highly complex question, the study also explored the internal functioning of this possibly existing phenomenon by investigating which factors could potentially enhance or inhibit the chances for its occurrence.; Qualitative methods of research were employed in the fieldwork at two design schools, the Institute of Design in Chicago and the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Data were mostly obtained through extensive, in-depth interviews, on-site observations, and reading of archives and other printed materials. Forty-four subjects participated in this study, most of whom belonged to at least one of three major groups of respondents: design professionals, design professors, and design students.; A significant amount of evidence indicated that design schools and professors indeed have in most cases a critical role in helping develop their students' ethical sensibility. The exposure of design students to ethical ideals was, however, found to not be a sufficient, nor even a necessary condition, but nevertheless a highly desirable component in order to enhance the likelihood that design students will later manifest ethical concerns in their future professional work. In addition, this research identified and analyzed the role of eighty-four factors as being potentially capable of affecting the outcome of the studied phenomenon. These potential factors were classified into four basic categories: factors related to the overall cultural environment; those related to the general schooling environment; those related to the professors; and those factors related to the students themselves. Also included is a survey of thirty-seven instructive metaphors and analogies that emerged during the investigations and help shed light on the internal functioning of the studied phenomenon of nurturing ethical ideals in design students. Finally, a supplementary survey is provided of thirty-two ethical ideals identified in the actual teachings of the design schools on which this research was based.; After confirming the feasibility of teaching ethics in design schools and identifying the circumstances in which this seems indeed possible, this investigation concludes with a call for a new philosophy of design education for the twenty-first century, one in which ethics is assigned a central place in the determination of both educational planning and practice.