Workshop: Building an Inclusive Foundation of Engineering Education Research Scholarship for Future Growth

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

Over the past couple of decades, the engineering education research community has seen significant growth in terms of participation from ever increasing number of scholars, practitioners, and institutions. Akin to any maturing academic entity, the community is morphing from a relatively close-knit community of practice into what can be seen as a network of practice. The increase in number of participants and areas of study has brought with it the challenge of consolidating and synthesizing the knowledge and different voices in the field so that future work can be innovative and impactful. This project creates foundational knowledge in the form of a handbook that will help achieve this goal. Through a series of workshops, this project will bring together a broad range of participants engaged with engineering education who will contribute to the handbook. This confluence of scholars will also bring to light work that is published in journals, conferences, or books that are not necessarily the go-to sources although they are very relevant. This workshop brings together scholars who have not necessarily collaborated before thereby strengthening the field. The workshop catalyzes mentorship among senior and junior scholars and sharing of ideas among the community. The project contributes to the intellectual mission by addressing three objectives. First, a representative body of knowledge is co-produced through review of scholarship in the different areas of engineering education research. Second, to develop an inclusive and comprehensive handbook, this project maps the boundaries of engineering education research and the major areas of scholarship within the field. This is achieved through input from a broad range of participants and analysis of publications and working papers across journals and conferences. Finally, through its engagement of scholars that have traditionally not been represented in engineering education research, this effort will catalyze new scholarly collaborations and strengthen the network of practice by bringing together participants from different academic sub-communities, institutions, and nations in small teams to produce the chapters that will constitute the body of knowledge. The handbook produced as a result of this project will be released under the Creative Commons License and will be freely available to readers. 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.