Supporting Engineering Education Scholars

NSF CAREER: The Overlooked Barrier - Exploring how Engineering Education Research Teams Negotiate Epistemic Differences (2022 to present)

Engineering education strives to transform the field of engineering by integrating research and practice. These efforts often involve groups of individuals from fields such as engineering, sociology, and psychology and from different roles within a university (e.g., faculty, administration, student support staff). Each of these team members bring their own approaches to the generation, expression, and application of knowledge. These differences in thinking are key to the success of engineering education; however, they can create tensions that prevent many groups from achieving their core goals. These tensions are often associated with ineffective communication or project management, which overlook the more fundamental differences around what counts as knowledge and how knowledge is generated – epistemic differences. The goal of this project is to explore how research teams navigate these epistemic differences and engage in critical conversations to make research decisions.

Learn more about my project NSF Grant Numbers 2346868 and 2144698.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

Grantees 2025.pdf

Space and documents support critical conversations

The physical and virtual attributes of team's meeting spaces may be supporting or restricting critical interations. Without these critical interactions we cannot realize the value of true interdisciplinary collaborations. Effectively leveraging the venue (e.g., meeting space and documents), like creating a shared agenda can provide a space for all team members to contribute, keep track of goals, and document decisions.

There is value in sharing partially developed ideas

It can be valuable to share ideas that you are thinking through with your research team. By thinking aloud, you give others the opportunity to build on your initial thoughts. These ideas can be integrated and may lead to a new solution or approach.

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NSF Collaborative Research: Supporting Transitioning Engineering Education Scholars (2017 to 2022)

This project was a collaboration with five other early-career engineering education researchers, Dr. Alexandra Coso Strong, Dr. Walter Lee, Dr. Cheryl Bodnar, Dr. Erin McCave, and Dr. Courtney Smith-Orr. "We focused on better understanding the experiences of early career engineering education faculty working to impact change in engineering education, locally and more broadly. From the development of doctoral programs and departments to the identification of critical research areas, engineering education has grown as an established field with an increased number of early career faculty aligning themselves with the field. These early career faculty can be found in diverse roles and contexts, resulting in the emergence of new challenges. For instance, in an effort to pursue impact within their roles, these scholars have found themselves responsible for defining their own promotion structures and/or negotiating the legitimacy of the work.

This project advanced understanding of existing structures for facilitating change (or the lack thereof) in engineering education and is one of the few studies within engineering education focused exclusively on faculty agency or professional agency.

A key outcome of the project is a contextualized theory of professional agency towards impact in engineering education. The theory describes the process that early career engineering education scholars engage in to take strategic actions towards impact. We developed the theory using a longitudinal study of our experiences as six early career engineering faculty as we transitioned into and pursued impact within new faculty roles. We also interviewed other early career engineering education faculty and gathered data from graduate students on the academic job market." (Text is from NSF Project Outcomes Report; see # 1738262 for more details.)

Learn more about our work NSF Grant Numbers # 1738262/1663909/1664217/1664038/1664016/1664008

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

A visual representation of the dynamics and factors of negotiated legitimacy among early career engineering education scholars.* Visual is from article published in Studies in Engineering Education

Local support networks are critical for early career faculty

Early career engineering education scholars who are transitioning into a new role often find themselves negotiating their legitimacy as faculty members, researchers, educators, and administrators. This work examined this transition through an multiphase, multi-method, longitudinal research design grounded in collaborative autoethnography and collaborative inquiry. During this transition, we sought to 1) understand the expectations of our roles, 2) establish our visibility, and 3) fulfill our own purpose within their institiutions. Our experiences led us to use various support-seeking strategies.