Editorial

I write this editorial after chairing, with Andrew Guzzomi, the Research in Engineering Education Symposium – Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference 2021 (REES AAEE 2021), attended by 333 delegates. With the support of the communities of the Research in Engineering Education Network and the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, researchers and practitioners in-person and online connected around the world and around the clock to advance engineering education research and practice.

1. Best Paper volume 25

The Best Paper in the Australasian Journal of Engineering Education Volume 25, announced at REES AAEE 2021, is awarded to Cassandra McCall, Ashley Shew, Denise R. Simmons, Marie C. Paretti, and Lisa D. McNair for the paper titled ‘Exploring student disability and professional identity: navigating sociocultural expectations in U.S. undergraduate civil engineering programs’ (2020). The Australasian Association for Engineering Education supports open access for the winning paper.

2. Papers in this issue

The Australasian Journal of Engineering Education publishes research that is relevant in Australasia and/or internationally. The Australasian and the international voices are each important and complementary. Just as REES AAEE 2021 combined and connected the Research in Engineering Education Symposium with the annual conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, Volume 25 of the Australasian Journal of Engineering Education presents a highly international special issue in Issue 1 emerging from the Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2019, and papers from Australasian authors in Issue 2.

The four papers in Volume 26, Issue 2 of the Australasian Journal of Engineering Education span the life of an engineer. Prieto and Holbrook (2021) in ‘Why we should capitalise on early childhood interest in engineering: changes in students’ interest over the school years’’ report a large-scale survey of Australian primary, secondary and university students. They measured attitudes towards school science subjects and engineering activities, perceptions of engineering, and influences on career choices. The results reveal opportunities for readers interested in increasing the numbers of students studying engineering.

Currie, Henderson, and Hoult (2021) explore training of university engineering educators in ‘Diffusion of innovation in an Australian engineering school’. Findings will be of interest to academic developers in engineering faculties. Munn et al. (2021) in ‘Asset management competency requirements in Australian local government: a systematic literature review’ confirm that asset management in Australian local government remains a fallow field for researchers.

Pons (2021)extends the papers on ethics, which appeared in Issue 1. In ‘Towards a descriptive framework of the engineering ethical worldview’, based on analysis of survey data from 2276 engineers in New Zealand, Pons proposes a framework in which engineers develop a professional world view, comprised of four values: wider responsibility to society, organizational integrity, team interactions with others, and personal identity with moral purposefulness (p205-206). An engineer’s professional world view develops over time, along with awareness of the need for professional judgement to achieve ethical agency (p 208). The framework is based on engineers’ perspectives and is likely to be valuable for researchers investigating the development of ethical practice during an engineer’s career.

3. Editorial team update

It is my pleasure to share that Kacey Beddoes has accepted my invitation to become a Deputy Editor for the Journal, having served until recently as an Associate Editor.

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to the Editorial Team, the Advisory Committee, all reviewers, and the authors.

The following researchers reviewed for the Journal during 2020: Mirjam Jonkman, Ian Cameron, Scott Daniel, Laura Robinson, Julie Mills, Jolanta Szymakowski, Andrew Drain, Cindy Rottmann, Sasha Nikolic, Fatima Monteiro, David Knight, Ines Direito, Jeremy Smith, Michael Loui, Vitomir Kovanovic, Leslie Dawes, Martin Peterson, Nicola Sochacka, Roger Carrick, Anne Gardner, Xiaofeng Tang, Elyssebeth Leigh, Jun Shen, Qin Zhu, Michael Klassen, Margot Vigeant, Brent Jesiek, James Trevelyan, Erik De Graaff, Willy Sher, Justin Hess, Angela Bielefeldt, Johanna Lonngren, Kim Blackmore, Roger Hadgraft, David Dowling, Lisette Kanse, Gordon Hoople, Sonia Ferns, Miguel Romá, Serkan Ozel, Homero Murzi, Piyanuch Silapachote, Andrew Nafalski, Nathan Canney, Francisco Arcega, Andrea Mazzurco, Francisco Zamora-Polo, Louis L. Bucciarelli, Elizabeth Reddy, Julia Thompson, Komkrit Chomsuwan, Faisal Hai, Alison Kerr, Marcus Wilson, Cecilia Chan, Andrew Valentine, Arunee Eambaipreuk, Julia Lamborn, Anna Friesel, Christian Kautz, Rosalie Goldsmith, Enda Crossin, Shannon Chance, Jonathan Beever, Diana Adela Martin.

The University of Western Australia is gratefully acknowledged for the photograph on the front cover of Volume 26.