Relationships Among Values, Design, Stakeholders, and Beliefs – A Preliminary Analysis of Student Perceptions

Emerging design processes like value sensitive design place greater importance on socio-technical and value considerations. However, there is a lack of consensus on whether technologies or engineering processes are value neutral or laden. This study explores engineering student perceptions related to value considerations and their broader beliefs. Twenty second-year engineering students completed a survey that included value statements, design priorities, Belief in a Just World questionnaire, and subsets of the Portrait Values questionnaire. Students consistently perceived that institutional and stakeholder values need to be considered in the design process but felt their own values had less importance. Some correlations between survey elements aligned with more traditional engineering mindsets while others aligned with more emerging engineering mindsets. Students with a more traditional mindset identified a smaller role for values in engineering design. There is a need for a larger, longitudinal study to more deeply understand student perceptions related to values.