Collaborative Research: Reform and Governance in Engineering Education

该项目解决了工程专业的碎片化结构及其机构组成的方式，使和限制努力塑造和重塑工程教育在美国的实践。这项研究既是历史的，也是当代的。它探讨了我们试图改善和规范工程教育的不同方式的广泛历史，从早期的进步时代教育改革传统，围绕调查和报告最佳实践，以最新形式的认证制度，围绕学生的学习成果。除了探索这些不同的方法来“管理”工程教育的历史渊源，该项目将采访工程教育工作者，教育政策制定者和专业工程师，以了解，在一个非常实际的水平，决策和认证实际上是如何在当代机构设置的功能。该项目将产生广泛的影响，因为STEM劳动力发展是当今经济全球化时代的一个核心挑战。为工程教育工作者和决策者，包括国会本身，提供更好地塑造和控制我们的工程教育体系的能力，将提高我们在竞争日益激烈的全球竞技场中有效培训熟练的STEM劳动力的能力。在追求这项工作的过程中，该项目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，以及科学和工程的社会学。利用访谈方法和历史记录，本项目将对不同机构和利益相关者-在工程专业协会、许可机构、认证机构和工程教育机构中占据不同地位的机构和利益相关者-的方式进行精确描述。（公立和私立大学;普通大学、工程学院以及文科学院和少数民族服务机构中的嵌入式STEM项目）--实际上有助于工程教育和政策的形成。正式的技术分析面试成绩单（内容分析）将被用来带来如何不同的球员都有助于和导航通过复杂的制度生态在美国工程教育的准确表征。这种正式的理解将有助于工程教育的有效治理在美国的情况下。

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.