Decolonial Fthics in Training in Computational Flingineering. A Qualitative Study of Professors' and Students' Perspectives

ABSTRACT

We present an exploratory study that aims to diagnose the Engineering in Computational Technologies students' level of awareness with respect to the impact of the accelerated use of technology and the exponential growth that private socio-digital platforms have in everyday life because of the COVID-19 confinement. We research possible deterministic postures in the students' positions that could impede their ethical analysis of the social and environmental effects of the advance of data capitalism, among which racialization, algorithmic sexualization, and discrimination, as well as the erosion of the Commons on the Internet, stand out. The theoretical approach comes from a decolonial ethical framework, and the methodology of this study is qualitative. It consists of, in the first phase of the implementation, two focus groups with engineering students between the ages of 19 and 22 from different semesters and genders. In a second phase, we include eight in-depth interviews with professors from the School of Engineering and the School of Humanities who teach disciplinary and general education subjects in two campuses of a private university in Mexico.