Minneapolis, MN
August 23, 2022
June 26, 2022
June 29, 2022
17
10.18260/1-2--41564
https://peer.asee.org/41564
313
Kay Neeley is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society in the Department of Engineering and Society in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, where she has been on the faculty since 1979. She received a B.A. in English from the University of South Carolina (1976) and a M.A. (1979) and PhD (1989) in English from the University of Virginia, with specializations in the teaching of composition at the college level and the literary history of science and technology. She has served twice as the chair of the Liberal Education/Engineering and Society (LEES) Division of ASEE and received that division's Olmsted Award for outstanding contributions to liberal education for engineers. Her current research projects focus on humanistic education for engineers as a system that transcends particular courses and institutions; the interdependence of ethics, communication, and STS in engineering; and establishing a collective identity for the diverse community engaged in teaching and researching engineering communication.
Engineering Communication in ASEE 2000-2020: A Historical Approach to Defining a Collective Enterprise
Most papers on engineering communication, including those presented at the annual conferences of ASEE, focus on pedagogical practices or curricular developments at a particular point in time rather than considering engineering communication pedagogy and research as a collective enterprise that has evolved over time. The study reported in this paper draws on papers published in the proceedings of the annual conferences of ASEE to develop an understanding of engineering communication as a system that has evolved over time and across institutions. In addition to identifying the distinctive needs of the engineering communication community, the paper traces the history of engineering communication in ASEE from 2000-2020 and proposes and applies a preliminary set of criteria for assessing the value of and characterizing the functions of the papers. The criteria include (1) the depth and diversity of expertise of the author(s), (2) the paper’s scope, (3) grounding in previous research, (4) rigor in assessment of outcomes, and (5) the extent to which the paper establishes general principles and strategies that can be used by other institutions. The categories range from descriptive (the most basic level of contribution) to integrative (combining multiple forms of expertise) and transferable (potential broad utility for the engineering communication community). Over time, descriptive papers have become less numerous, and the corpus of papers on communication has shifted toward a balance between descriptive papers on the one hand and integrative/transferable papers on the other. These criteria, categories, and historical perspective provide a foundation for seeing engineering communication research and pedagogy as a collective enterprise whose success depends on many factors other than what happens in individual classrooms. They should help authors, especially newcomers to engineering communication, design their work for maximum impact and also have the potential to inform the decision-making processes of administrators who make decisions about the design and funding of engineering communication instruction.
Neeley, K., & Alley, M. (2022, August), Engineering Communication in ASEE 2000-2020: A Historical Approach to Defining a Collective Enterprise Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41564
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