In many engineering ethics classes, codes of ethics are presented as if they are self-evident yardsticks for gauging ethical decisions in engineering. In this article, we argue that focusing solely on the content of ethics codes without examining the professional contexts in which codes are created – and are made meaningful – misses important opportunities to understand the engineering profession's ethical aspirations and how such codes affect engineers’ professional identities. Our analysis demonstrates a ‘contextualized reading’ of an engineering code of ethics through a historical case study consisting of two successive episodes: In the first episode, we show how engineers’ yearning for ethical support and their competing interpretations of professional interests catalyzed the creation of the first Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Code of Ethics in 1974; the second episode of the case documents the complex institutional processes followed by IEEE members to ensure compliance with the code of ethics in professional practice. For engineering studies scholars, tracing the historical context of codes of ethics offers a pathway to understand engineers’ ‘existential struggles’ – that is, how engineers responded to major challenges and crises as a profession – at a particular historical moment. For engineering ethics educators, revealing how ethics codes operate in the institutional context of professional organizations prepares students to appreciate the ethical horizon of the profession they inherit as well as to redirect or expand that horizon moving into the future.

在许多工程伦理学课程中，道德规范的出现就像是衡量工程中道德决策的不言而喻的准绳。在本文中，我们认为，仅关注道德规范的内容而未检查创建规范并使其具有意义的专业环境，就失去了理解工程专业的道德愿望以及此类规范如何影响工程师的职业认同的重要机会。 。我们的分析通过一个由两个连续情节组成的历史案例研究，证明了对工程道德规范的“情境解读”：在第一情节中，我们展示了工程师对道德支持的向往以及他们对职业利益的相互解释如何促进了1974年第一个电气与电子工程师协会（IEEE）道德规范的创建；案例的第二集记录了IEEE成员遵循的复杂机构流程，以确保遵守专业实践中的道德守则。对于工程研究学者而言，追溯道德规范的历史背景提供了一条途径，以了解工程师在特定的历史时刻的“生存斗争”，即工程师如何应对职业中的重大挑战和危机。对于工程道德教育者，