Benefits, Roles and Tensions: Understanding the Process of Collaboration in Rural Engineering Education Contexts

Malle Schilling; Jacob Grohs

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Community Engagement Division Technical Session 3- Multi- and Inter-disciplinary, Collaboration, and Engagement in Practice
Page Count: 31
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41015
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41015
Download Count: 348

Paper Authors

biography

Malle Schilling Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Malle R. Schilling is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education and a Masters Student in Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. Malle holds a Bachelor’s of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton. Malle is also a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) and is exploring how to recognize students’ assets in rural, K-12 engineering education contexts. Malle’s other research interests include issues of spatial justice and education, asset-based pedagogy, broadening participation, and engineering identity.

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biography

Jacob Grohs Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Jake Grohs is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. His primary research interests focus on systems thinking, applied educational research through multi-stakeholder partnerships, and collaborative change.

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Abstract

Calls from regional commissions and research in rural education have emphasized the importance of collaboration to build economic resilience, support communities, and provide students with access to resources for educational opportunities. This study took place in the context of a partnership in a rural, Appalachian region of Virginia focused on providing recurring hands-on activities for middle school students to explore engineering in classrooms with the support of local engineering industry professionals, university affiliates, and teachers. The purpose of this study is to describe how university affiliates explained collaboration using a process framework of collaboration defined around governance, administration, organizational autonomy, mutuality, and norms of trust and reciprocity. Utilizing a single case study methodology, five semi-structured interviews with university affiliates after the second year of partnership were analyzed using a qualitative thematic analysis approach primarily informed by deductive methods and guided by the theoretical framework. Findings from the analysis suggest that university affiliates understood that there are unequal benefits for participating in the partnership, meaning that some partners got more out of the partnership than they might have been able to contribute. Additionally, participants suggested that each partners’ roles and responsibilities were unclear at times, which could have been clarified and strengthened through building relationships and trust among partners. Finally, participants suggested that tensions were present between what teachers were asked to do in the partnership and what might have been required of them by their schools given school expectations around preparation and testing around standards of learning. This research leads to recommendations around building future partnerships and sustainability of partnerships keeping in mind the importance of relationship building and being responsive to the needs of each partner. Additionally, future research could examine specific partnership roles from lenses related to sensemaking and boundary spanning.

Citation
Format

Schilling, M., & Grohs, J. (2022, August), Benefits, Roles and Tensions: Understanding the Process of Collaboration in Rural Engineering Education Contexts Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41015

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Calls from regional commissions and research in rural education have emphasized the importance of collaboration to build economic resilience, support communities, and provide students with access to resources for educational opportunities. This study took place in the context of a partnership in a rural, Appalachian region of Virginia focused on providing recurring hands-on activities for middle school students to explore engineering in classrooms with the support of local engineering industry professionals, university affiliates, and teachers. The purpose of this study is to describe how university affiliates explained collaboration using a process framework of collaboration defined around governance, administration, organizational autonomy, mutuality, and norms of trust and reciprocity. Utilizing a single case study methodology, five semi-structured interviews with university affiliates after the second year of partnership were analyzed using a qualitative thematic analysis approach primarily informed by deductive methods and guided by the theoretical framework. Findings from the analysis suggest that university affiliates understood that there are unequal benefits for participating in the partnership, meaning that some partners got more out of the partnership than they might have been able to contribute. Additionally, participants suggested that each partners’ roles and responsibilities were unclear at times, which could have been clarified and strengthened through building relationships and trust among partners. Finally, participants suggested that tensions were present between what teachers were asked to do in the partnership and what might have been required of them by their schools given school expectations around preparation and testing around standards of learning. This research leads to recommendations around building future partnerships and sustainability of partnerships keeping in mind the importance of relationship building and being responsive to the needs of each partner. Additionally, future research could examine specific partnership roles from lenses related to sensemaking and boundary spanning.
AU  - Malle Schilling
AU  - Jacob Grohs
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Benefits, Roles and Tensions: Understanding the Process of Collaboration in Rural Engineering Education Contexts
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41015
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41015
ER  -