Collaborative Research: Reform and Governance in Engineering Education

这个项目探讨了工程专业的结构及其机构构成如何使塑造和重塑美国国内的工程教育的努力成为可能，也是如何限制的。这项研究既是历史的，也是当代的。它考察了改进和法规对工程教育产生影响的不同方式的广泛历史，从早期进步时代建立的以调查和报告最佳实践为基础的教育改革传统，到以学生学习成果为基础的最新形式的认证制度。除了探索这些管理工程教育的不同方法的历史渊源外，该项目还将采访工程教育家、教育政策制定者和专业工程师，以了解当代机构环境中的政策制定和认证职能。该项目将为工程教育工作者和政策制定者提供更好地塑造和控制我们的工程教育体系的能力，从而有助于理解STEM劳动力发展。这将对我们在竞争日益激烈的全球环境中有效地培养一支熟练的STEM劳动力的能力产生广泛的影响。在开展这项工作的过程中，该项目既借鉴并贡献了各种文献，包括但不限于职业社会学、组织社会学和科学与工程社会学的文献。利用访谈方法和历史记录，本项目将收集不同机构和利益相关者参与工程专业学会、许可机构、认证机构和工程教育机构(公立和私立大学；普通大学、工程学院以及文科学院和少数族裔服务机构内的STEM嵌入课程)的方式的准确描述。将利用正式的面试成绩单分析技术(内容分析)，准确描述不同参与者如何为美国复杂的工程教育机构生态做出贡献并在其中导航。这种正式的理解将有助于在美国的背景下有效地管理工程教育。

This project addresses the ways in which the 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 improvements and regulations have impacted 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 policymaking and accreditation functions within contemporary institutional settings. The project will contribute to understanding STEM workforce development by providing engineering educators and policymakers with the ability to better shape and control our system of engineering education. This will have broad impact on 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 engage 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). 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.