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Work in Progress: Toward Understanding Engineering Research Culture

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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

Work-in-Progress Session: Understanding Issues Faced by Graduate Students and Faculty

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44374

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44374

Download Count

259

Paper Authors

author page

Herman Ronald Clements III Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Abstract

This work-in-progress paper provides a preliminary exploration of literature on engineering research culture and engineering research paradigms, with a focus on academic engineering research spaces. I define research as systematic investigation undertaken to establish knowledge claims, and culture as the shared values and beliefs that undergird the social contexts in which research takes place. Engineers occupy a critical role in broadening an understanding of the built, sociotechnical world while developing, designing, and constructing systems that are rooted in dominant society and dominant societal values. While engineering research shares many epistemic and methodological characteristics with traditional scientific fields, engineering research differs from pure, scientific research by applying scientific solutions for global, economic, environmental, and societal needs. These values are made salient in engineering research, as they both limit and invoke the work the community is motivated to research, as well as what work is valued, promoted, and funded. As this paper is a work in progress, I hope to receive and incorporate feedback in this ongoing work. While engineering research is a broad field full of many unique disciplines, I believe that this work can identify unifying cultural characteristics that exist across the field of engineering as a whole and provide better insight into the engineering research enterprise. I would like to explicitly note that this paper does not report on preliminary findings from the first stages of a scoping literature review, but it is a narrative literature review to lay a foundation for further exploration. The themes discussed in this paper include the exclusionary practices, research paradigms, and funding practices present in engineering research.

Clements, H. R. (2023, June), Work in Progress: Toward Understanding Engineering Research Culture Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44374

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