Standard: Collaborative Research: Changing Ethical STEM Culture through Interdisciplinary Dialogue and Analysis of Humanitarian Information and Communication Technology

National Headquarters American Red Cross, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The humanitarian sector has been engaged in ethical STEM activities for many decades since success in humanitarian practice is based on the ability to deliver aid according to moral and ethical principles. Humanitarian STEM work can thus expose tensions between the ethical imperatives of humanitarian missions (e.g., accountability to those being assisted), and the typical goals of STEM design, development, and use (e.g., efficiency). This project examines the implementation of STEM within a humanitarian environment to offer new understandings, priorities, and directions for changing ethical cultures within the broader STEM arena. It will focus on understanding how humanitarian ethical imperatives are addressed in the design, development, and implementation of STEM, and how understanding of these processes can be translated into frameworks for successfully achieving more ethically-centered STEM cultures. To do so, the Red Cross Global Disaster Preparedness Center will partner with University of Washington to systematically evaluate the Red Cross's efforts to design and develop STEM in alignment with humanitarian ethical imperatives. This human-centered approach will integrate perspectives from practitioners, STEM experts, and aid beneficiaries to reveal practical challenges and solutions for achieving more ethical STEM cultures. This research will provide data and information for improving how STEM technologies can be integrated into humanitarian work in a more ethical manner, and for cultivating more ethical STEM cultures. This project examines how STEM information and communications technologies have been implemented in humanitarian working environments. The goal is to enhance understanding of how humanitarian ethics can be built into the design, development, and implementation of ICTs, and how lessons learned from case studies involving the Red Cross can be used to develop new frameworks for cultivating more ethically-centered STEM cultures. This will be accomplished through analyses of case studies where humanitarian ICT projects have been used to support Red Cross humanitarian work through a combination of literature reviews, secondary data analysis, and interviews with relevant stakeholders across the design, development, and implementation process. Phase 1 involves collecting secondary data, identifying case studies, and developing research instruments. Phase 2 involves analyzing the case studies. Phase 3 involves assembling a practitioner-academic consortium, sharing findings, and facilitating dialogue at Red Cross Global Disaster Preparedness Center workshops to create practical recommendations for ethical design of Humanitarian information and communications technologies. Phases 4 and 5 involve preparing ethically-centered STEM solutions, taking lessons to the humanitarian and academic communities for application and assessment, and disseminating project findings. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.