Collaborative Research: Reform and Governance in Engineering Education

本项目探讨了工程专业的支离破碎的结构及其制度构成，使美国国内工程教育的塑造和重塑成为可能，同时也限制了这种努力。这项研究既有历史意义，也有当代意义。它考察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，以调查和报告最佳实践为基础，到围绕学生学习成果建立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，以便在非常实际的层面上了解政策制定和认证在当代机构环境中的实际作用。该项目将产生广泛的影响，因为STEM劳动力的发展是当今经济全球化时代的核心挑战。为工程教育工作者和政策制定者，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舞台上有效培养熟练的STEM劳动力的能力。在进行这项工作的过程中，该项目既借鉴了各种文献，也为其做出了贡献，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。利用访谈方法和历史记录，该项目将对不同机构和利益相关者（在工程专业协会中占据不同职位的人）的方式进行精确描述；授权机构;认证机构;和工程教育机构（公立和私立大学、普通大学、工程学院以及文理学院和少数民族服务机构内的嵌入式STEM项目）——实际上有助于工程教育和政策的形成。分析面试记录的正式技术（内容分析）将被用来准确地描述不同的参与者如何为美国工程教育的复杂制度生态做出贡献和导航。这种正式的理解将有助于美国工程教育的有效治理。

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.