Abstract
<strong>Background:</strong> There is limited research exploring the experiences of engineering education scholars transitioning into faculty positions. It is an opportune time to explore these transitions because there is a growing number of scholars identifying with the community, a growing number of doctoral programs being developed, and growing interest in hiring people with engineering education expertise. <strong>Purpose/Hypothesis:</strong> The purpose of this study is to examine the transitions experienced by our research team of early career engineering education faculty. We describe and systematically analyze our personal experiences to capture the significant events and isolating factors that impacted our transitions. <strong>Design/Method:</strong> We engaged in a multiphase, multi-method, longitudinal research design grounded in collaborative autoethnography and collaborative inquiry. We leveraged Transition Theory and a multiple case study approach to examine written reflections recorded monthly for two years and ultimately identify the incidents that were critical to defining our experiences within our new roles. <strong>Results:</strong> While we each held positions in different institutional contexts, we found ourselves negotiating our legitimacy as faculty members, researchers, educators, and administrators. Three themes emerged: 1) understanding the expectations of our roles, 2) establishing our visibility, and 3) fulfilling our own purpose within our institutions. In response to these experiences, we sought support from others within our institutional context and among the engineering education community. Yet, the success of this support-seeking strategy varied across our group. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> The results of this work signify a need to support early career engineering education scholars in the development of local support networks as well as in their attempts to negotiate their legitimacy in faculty positions. Continued education of administrators and faculty members on the differences between engineering education research and scholarship will be helpful in ensuring that early career engineering education faculty have the support and resources necessary to succeed as researchers and educational change agents.
Highlights
There is limited research exploring the experiences of engineering education scholars transitioning into faculty positions
Research Design The study described in this paper aims to explore the following research question: How do early career engineering education scholars experience transitions into faculty roles at varied institutions? To capture the significant events of our transitions and to isolate specific factors that impacted our experience, we needed a methodology that enabled a focused investigation of our experiences entering a diverse set of faculty roles and institutional contexts
When reviewing the series of prompts that were developed as part of our reflection process, we found that our responses to one question from our monthly reflections, “In what ways do you feel like a faculty member? In what ways do you not feel like a faculty member?”, provided the necessary level of detail and context to allow for identification of key events within the transition
Summary
There is limited research exploring the experiences of engineering education scholars transitioning into faculty positions. Three themes emerged: 1) understanding the expectations of our roles, 2) establishing our visibility, and 3) fulfilling our own purpose within our institutions In response to these experiences, we sought support from others within our institutional context and among the engineering education community. Conclusions: The results of this work signify a need to support early career engineering education scholars in the development of local support networks as well as in their attempts to negotiate their legitimacy in faculty positions. EESs have their own unique challenges; in particular, EESs are embedded within the system (i.e., the engineering education system) that they are trying to change This tension impacts the resources available and experiences of faculty within the field. Examinations of faculty development and engineering education literature reveal three main areas where the uniqueness of engineering education may impact the experiences of early career faculty: (1) the history of pathways into engineering education, (2) the potential for professional isolation, and (3) the need to advocate for one’s work as an interdisciplinary scholar
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