Methods for Conducting a Scoping Literature Review on Institutional Culture and Transformational Change in Engineering Education

Kassandra Fernandez; Amy G Buhler; Sindia M Rivera-Jimenez

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Reviewing Emergent Topics and Theory in Engineering Education
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)
Page Count: 7
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--43639
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/43639
Download Count: 290

Paper Authors

biography

Kassandra Fernandez University of Florida orcid.org/0000-0003-1101-5219

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Kassandra Fernandez is a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida,
where they are pursuing their PhD in Engineering Education (EED). They graduated from Miami Dade
College with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and from the University of Florida with an M.S. in Microbiology and Cell Science. Before embarking on their PhD journey, they worked as a science teacher at a
Title I school in Homestead, Florida and as an adjunct professor of Microbiology at a Hispanic-serving
community college in Miami, Florida. As an educator, they utilized equitable teaching practices and
encouraged student agency to ensure positive learning outcomes. Their doctoral research focuses on social responsibility in science and engineering, with special emphasis placed on the importance of science
communication and policy advocacy. They are also interested in the intersection of institutional culture
and transformational change towards cultivating more inclusive and equitable access for underrepresented
minority students in STEM fields. Outside of their research, they are the President of the Policy Advocacy
in Science and Engineering (PASE) student organization at the University of Florida.

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biography

Amy G Buhler University of Florida

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Amy Buhler is an engineering librarian at University of Florida’s Marston Science Library. As the liaison
librarian for Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Education, and
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Amy provides collection management, library instruction, literature search assistance, and research consultations for the faculty, students and staff of these departments.
Her research relates to assessment of information seeking behaviors, library instruction, and the creation
and marketing of library services. She has been a member of the UF faculty since 2001 and holds an
M.S.L.S from University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill and a BA from University of Florida.

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biography

Sindia M Rivera-Jimenez University of Florida

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Dr. Rivera-Jimenez is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering Education (EED) and ´
an affiliate faculty to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida. Her research
focuses on understanding the role of engineering communities while enacting their agency in participatory
and transformational change. She is particularly interested in broadening the participation of minoritized
communities by studying the role of professional development in shaping organizational cultures. As
an education practitioner, she also looks at evidence-based practices to incorporate social responsibility
skills and collaborative and inclusive teams into the curriculum. Dr. Rivera-Jimenez graduated from ´
the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez with a B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. She earned ¨
an NSF RIEF award recognizing her effort in transitioning from a meaningful ten-year teaching faculty
career into engineering education research. Before her current role, she taught STEM courses at diverse
institutions such as HSI, community college, and R1 public university

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Abstract

There are a variety of urgent calls for institutional initiatives and actions to transform engineering education. For a transformational change to occur, the initiatives must alter the culture of the institutions (Eckel, Hill, and Green, 1998). In this work in progress, we detail the methods used to conduct a scoping literature review (ScR) concerning the current state of the literature surrounding institutional culture and transformational change in engineering education at institutions of higher learning in the United States. As institutional culture and transformational change are currently underexplored topics in the engineering education literature, we investigated the larger body of computer science and engineering literature in the United States. Once completed, this study aims to reveal the current trends, theories, and potential gaps in the literature regarding these topics.

Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology for conducting scoping reviews informed the development of our scoping review protocol, which similarly includes five stages: (1) identify the research questions, (2) identify relevant studies, (3) select relevant studies, (4) chart the data, and (5) collate, summarize, and report results (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005). University librarians who specialize in conducting systematic reviews aided in the refinement of this protocol. From the research question and aim of the study, three main inclusion criteria were created: (1) the literature must discuss both organizational culture and transformational change, (2) discussion of transformational change must describe the institution where the change happened, and (3) the literature must emphasize the agents of transformational change. Additional inclusion and exclusion criteria were created in collaboration with both the librarians and reviewers. These criteria guided the search for existing literature in the following online databases: Elsevier (Engineering Village – Compendex and Engineering Village – INSPEC), ProQuest (ERIC and Education Database), Scopus, and Web of Science. These six databases were selected as they often include publications relevant to the field of engineering education. After the search was conducted, the inclusion and exclusion criteria were turned into questions to inform a three-step screening process (title, abstract, and full text) used by reviewers to determine whether a publication was eligible for the study. Reviewers were assigned to review papers through Covidence, a cloud-based systematic literature review management platform. There are currently two primary reviewers and a third additional reviewer to resolve any conflicts or disagreements if they should arise. Before each review cycle, the inclusion and exclusion criteria are revisited, revised, and agreed upon by the three reviewers. This screening process is performed iteratively, allowing for critical reflection at each stage to drive the resulting findings by the reviewers in consultation with content matter experts.

We are currently conducting our first round of screening in the study selection (third stage) of the scoping review protocol. After the removal of duplicates, 999 publications were found by searching in the six selected databases. This number is expected to be further reduced with each step of the screening process. When this scoping review is complete, the resulting publication will contain an analysis of the literature and synthesis of our findings, and present the prominent themes, theories, and potential gaps in the literature. This publication is expected to unite disparate lines of research on institutional culture and transformational change, challenge the assumptions in the field, and change the way engineering education views transformational change.

Citation
Format

Fernandez, K., & Buhler, A. G., & Rivera-Jimenez, S. M. (2023, June), Methods for Conducting a Scoping Literature Review on Institutional Culture and Transformational Change in Engineering Education Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43639

TY - CPAPER
AB - There are a variety of urgent calls for institutional initiatives and actions to transform engineering education. For a transformational change to occur, the initiatives must alter the culture of the institutions (Eckel, Hill, and Green, 1998). In this work in progress, we detail the methods used to conduct a scoping literature review (ScR) concerning the current state of the literature surrounding institutional culture and transformational change in engineering education at institutions of higher learning in the United States. As institutional culture and transformational change are currently underexplored topics in the engineering education literature, we investigated the larger body of computer science and engineering literature in the United States. Once completed, this study aims to reveal the current trends, theories, and potential gaps in the literature regarding these topics.

Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology for conducting scoping reviews informed the development of our scoping review protocol, which similarly includes five stages: (1) identify the research questions, (2) identify relevant studies, (3) select relevant studies, (4) chart the data, and (5) collate, summarize, and report results (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005). University librarians who specialize in conducting systematic reviews aided in the refinement of this protocol. From the research question and aim of the study, three main inclusion criteria were created: (1) the literature must discuss both organizational culture and transformational change, (2) discussion of transformational change must describe the institution where the change happened, and (3) the literature must emphasize the agents of transformational change. Additional inclusion and exclusion criteria were created in collaboration with both the librarians and reviewers. These criteria guided the search for existing literature in the following online databases: Elsevier (Engineering Village – Compendex and Engineering Village – INSPEC), ProQuest (ERIC and Education Database), Scopus, and Web of Science. These six databases were selected as they often include publications relevant to the field of engineering education. After the search was conducted, the inclusion and exclusion criteria were turned into questions to inform a three-step screening process (title, abstract, and full text) used by reviewers to determine whether a publication was eligible for the study. Reviewers were assigned to review papers through Covidence, a cloud-based systematic literature review management platform. There are currently two primary reviewers and a third additional reviewer to resolve any conflicts or disagreements if they should arise. Before each review cycle, the inclusion and exclusion criteria are revisited, revised, and agreed upon by the three reviewers. This screening process is performed iteratively, allowing for critical reflection at each stage to drive the resulting findings by the reviewers in consultation with content matter experts.

We are currently conducting our first round of screening in the study selection (third stage) of the scoping review protocol. After the removal of duplicates, 999 publications were found by searching in the six selected databases. This number is expected to be further reduced with each step of the screening process. When this scoping review is complete, the resulting publication will contain an analysis of the literature and synthesis of our findings, and present the prominent themes, theories, and potential gaps in the literature. This publication is expected to unite disparate lines of research on institutional culture and transformational change, challenge the assumptions in the field, and change the way engineering education views transformational change.
AU - Kassandra Fernandez
AU - Amy G Buhler
AU - Sindia M Rivera-Jimenez
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Methods for Conducting a Scoping Literature Review on Institutional Culture and Transformational Change in Engineering Education
UR - https://peer.asee.org/43639
DO - 10.18260/1-2--43639
ER -