Qualitative Engineering Education Researchers and our Relationships with Data: Exploring our Epistemologies and Values as a Community
- Conference
- Location
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Minneapolis, MN
- Publication Date
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August 23, 2022
- Start Date
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June 26, 2022
- End Date
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June 29, 2022
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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20
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--41088
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/41088
- Download Count
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524
Paper Authors
Nadia Kellam Arizona State University
Dr. Nadia Kellam (she/they) is Associate Professor of Engineering within The Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). She is a faculty in the Engineering Education Systems and Design (EESD) PhD program and currently advises three doctoral students. Dr. Kellam is an engineering education researcher and a mechanical engineer. She is also deputy editor of the Journal of Engineering Education and co-chair of the newly formed American Society of Engineering Education’s Committee on Scholarly Publications. In her research she is broadly interested in developing critical understandings of the culture of engineering education and, especially, the experiences of marginalized undergraduate engineering students and engineering educators. She is a qualitative researcher who uses narrative research methods and positioning theory to understand undergraduate student and faculty member’s experiences in engineering education.
Madeleine Jennings Arizona State University, Polytechnic Campus
Madeleine Jennings (they/them) is a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University in the Engineering Education Systems & Design program. Their research focuses on the critical assessment of the engineering institution's role within the neoliberal US nation-state. They also research the experiences of marginalized communities within the US engineering institution with a focus on the LGBTQIA+ community.
Abstract
In this research paper, we will continue to develop an understanding of our epistemologies and values of our qualitative engineering education research community through an analysis of relationships with our data in recently published articles. Qualitative research has become more commonplace and valued in engineering education in recent years. However, some tensions are apparent within qualitative research as some people within our community (researchers and consumers of our research) are more positivist leaning while others embrace more constructivist, postmodern, and critical ways of engaging as researchers. The purpose of this paper is to consider some of these tensions in our community through considering researchers relationships and use of data in journal publications. The research question guiding this study was: Through an analysis of qualitative, engineering education manuscripts published in 2019, what is our relationship with data and what might this tell us about our values and epistemologies?
Journal articles that are qualitative, engineering education, and published in 2019 were identified through database searches of Engineering Village and Google Scholar resulting in 27 journal articles from nine journals. The analysis followed a process presented in the book, Reconceptualizing Qualitative Research [1] and involved multiple readings of each journal article and considerations of the types and amounts of data, the relationships between researchers and the data, the types of questions authors tried to answer with their data, how authors worked with and learned from their data, and how data was analyzed.
The results suggest a range of types and amounts of data collected by engineering education researchers who seem to have diverse epistemological leanings. Moreover, the relationships between researchers and data ranged from a desired separation between the two to a process of co-construction with participants. The insights gained from this analysis suggest epistemological tensions between and among researchers and faculty in our community.
Kellam, N., & Jennings, M. (2022, August), Qualitative Engineering Education Researchers and our Relationships with Data: Exploring our Epistemologies and Values as a Community Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41088
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