Collaborative Research: Reform and Governance in Engineering Education

Bucknell University, Lewisburg PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses the ways in which the fragmented structure of the engineering profession, and its institutional makeup, both enable and limit efforts to shape and reshape engineering education as practiced within the United States. The study is both historical and contemporary. It examines the broad history of the different ways in which we have tried to improve and regulate engineering education, from the early Progressive Era educational reform traditions built around surveying and reporting on best practices, to the latest form of accreditation regime built around student learning outcomes. In addition to exploring the historical origins of these different approaches to "governing" engineering education, the project will interview engineering educators, educational policymakers, and professional engineers in order to understand, on a very practical level, how policymaking and accreditation actually functions within contemporary institutional settings. The project will have broad impact because STEM workforce development is a central challenge in the present era of economic globalization. Providing engineering educators and policymakers, including Congress itself, with the ability to better shape and control our system of engineering education will enhance our ability to effectively train a skilled STEM workforce in an increasingly competitive global arena. In pursuing this work, the project both draws on and contributes to a diverse literature, including but not limited to those of the sociology of the professions, organizational sociology, and the sociology of science and engineering. Using interview methods as well as historical records, this project will assemble precise descriptions of the ways in which different institutions and stakeholders -- those occupying different positions within engineering professional societies; licensing bodies; accreditation agencies; and engineering education institutions (public and private universities; general universities, engineering schools, and embedded STEM programs within liberal arts colleges and minority serving institutions)-- actually contribute to the shaping of engineering education and policies. Formal techniques for analyzing the interview transcripts (content analysis) will be utilized to bring forth accurate characterizations of how different players both contribute to and navigate through the complex institutional ecology for engineering education in the United States. This formal understanding will be instrumental to the effective governance of engineering education in the US context.