Understanding Australian and United States Engineering Education Research (EER) contexts

ABSTRACT

Engineering education research (EER) is a growing and increasingly globally connected field. Understanding cultural and contextual factors is fundamental to EER and further is critical to enabling fruitful international collaborations. The purpose of this research is to understand how engineering education researchers experience and understand EER in Australia and the United States to better facilitate future international collaborations. This research draws on eight interviews conducted with participants who had significant experience carrying out EER in both the United States and Australia and ranged in their career status. Two key domains of comparison emerged from the data: 1) The landscape: Structure and resources of EER in each context, and 2) How the landscape plays out: Implications on EER studies and collaborations. Our analysis finds extremely different research environments for EER in Australia and the United States, the implications of which can be explained in par by resource dependency theory and institutional isomorphism. Our results can inform and enhance future collaborations across these national contexts and help researchers identify opportunities for symbiotic research relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering education research
• comparative research

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through grant number OISE 1658604. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions in this article are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the NSF [1658604].

Notes on contributors

Jessica R. Deters

Jessica Deters is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Materials Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech.

Teirra K. Holloman

Teirra Holloman is a Postdoctoral Associate focused on equity in engineering graduate education at Virginia Tech. She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech.

Ashlee Pearson

Ashlee Pearson is a Lecturer in Engineering and Computing Education in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology's Teaching and Learning Laboratory at The University of Melbourne.

David B. Knight

David Knight is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He also serves as Special Assistant to the Dean of Engineering for Strategic Plan Implementation and Director of Research of the Academy of Global Engineering at Virginia Tech.