Abstract Background Use of theory is a quality marker in engineering education research. However, it can be challenging to select an appropriate theoretical framework and explicate how that framework was used. Purpose Using undergraduate STEM disability research as an example, this systematic review develops a framework of theory use in engineering education research. We sought to understand what theoretical frameworks have been used, how frameworks are implemented, and what opportunities exist to strengthen use of frameworks. Method We identified 101 articles, conference papers, and dissertations reporting on undergraduate STEM disability studies conducted in the United States since 2005. We coded their theoretical frameworks on two dimensions: (1) thematically, by framework genre, and (2) whether the framework primarily informed the overall framing of the study, research methods, or an educational intervention. Results We identified 12 genres of theoretical frameworks, the largest of which were universal design; motivation, identity and advocacy; and critical theories. Most studies used these frameworks to frame the entire study ( N = 64), while fewer primarily informed methods ( N = 15) or an educational intervention ( N = 22). While a few theoretical frameworks were used exclusively for methods (e.g., grounded theory) or interventions (e.g., instructional frameworks), most framework categories spanned multiple usage types. Conclusion We call for more explicit labeling of framework use in future work to support common understanding of how frameworks are selected, synthesized, and applied in engineering education research studies. We also encourage researchers to use anti‐deficit frameworks as research about STEM undergraduates with disabilities evolves.
Abstract Background As engineering work has become increasingly globalized, prior studies have examined the intercultural attitudes and competencies of engineering students and practicing engineers. However, we lack tools to study how engineers engage in global work across industries, roles, and organizational contexts. Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop a tool to measure engineers' interest, confidence, and frequency in performing global work tasks. To this end, we designed the Global Task Performance (GTP) indices, which evaluate four dimensions of engagement in global engineering work. Methods Guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory and the Global Engineering Competency (GEC) framework, we developed and refined items through iterative team discussions, advisory board review, and think‐aloud interviews. We administered the Indices as part of an alumni study at three US institutions. Responses ( N = 1223) were analyzed to collect evidence of the instrument's validity. Results Analyses across the GTP indices provided criterion‐related evidence of validity. Confidence and interest in global task performance were associated with global career exposure, cultural intelligence, and identification as global engineers. GTP frequency (current role and across careers) correlated with global career level and self‐reported GEC. Conclusions Our initial validity evidence supports use of the GTP indices for assessing engineers' level of engagement in global work. These indices can inform research evaluating the career impacts of global education experiences and comparing global engagement across industries, roles, and organizational contexts. Understanding the global engagement of engineers can support data‐informed decision making in workforce development, educational program design, and talent evaluation.
Abstract Background The strength with which engineering students identify with engineering—namely, their engineering identity—correlates with their decisions to pursue engineering work after they graduate. Authentic and hands‐on experiences, like participating in research projects and programs, can play a vital role in shaping undergraduate students' engineering identities and career aspirations. Purpose This qualitative study investigated how a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program aided in the development of the engineering identities of its undergraduate student participants and how the students' social identities interacted with their engineering identities through their participation in the REU program. Method We utilized a phronetic iterative approach within this study. Data were collected through virtual interviews with REU program participants. Data were then analyzed utilizing Cunningham and Kelly's (2022; Journal of Pre‐College Engineering Education Research 12(2):57–71) Model for Equity‐Oriented Engineering Learning. Findings Our findings show that the asset‐based pedagogies, socially engaged engineering, and authentic engineering practices embedded within the REU program collectively enhanced the engineering identities of the student participants. Our findings also uncovered how participants' social identities, specifically the women participants' gender identities, were supported through the REU program, further developing their engineering identities. Conclusions This study discerned specific aspects of the REU program that helped develop the engineering identities of the undergraduate students. These program features are transferable to other engineering educational contexts. Therefore, this study aligns with and extends the extant research on engineering identities and education.
Abstract Background Interdisciplinary Engineering Education (IEE) is critical for fostering innovation; however, its implementation often faces resistance from entrenched disciplinary structures. China's School of Future Technology (SFT) initiative represents a significant policy experiment to institutionalize IEE, offering a unique context to examine how organizational legitimacy is constructed amid tension between radical innovation and traditional academic norms. Purpose This study investigates the mechanisms through which SFTs establish IEE within universities by examining how actors configure, create, maintain, and disrupt work to shape distinct institutionalization pathways, moving beyond curriculum design to explore program‐level institutionalization. Method We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of 12 SFTs from 2021 to 2024. Data drawn from 36 official annual progress reports were analyzed using a hybrid deductive‐inductive coding approach guided by the Human‐in‐the‐Loop (HITL) protocol. This enabled mapping of evolutionary trajectories and identification of distinct patterns of institutional work. Results The analysis identified nine themes and revealed that institutionalization is not monolithic but manifests through four distinct pathways. Each pathway represents a unique strategic configuration of institutional work that evolves through a three‐phase trajectory to balance the competing demands of educational innovation and institutional legitimacy effectively. Conclusions This study contributes a typology of IEE institutionalization by demonstrating that reform requires alignment of strategic pathways with specific institutional contexts. Crucially, we highlight that disrupting work is not merely destructive but a persistent mechanism necessary to prevent the decoupling of policy from practice. These findings provide a theoretical framework and practical implications for engineering educators navigating complex educational reforms.
Abstract Background Creativity is essential for engineering design, yet its assessment remains challenging due to the resource‐intensive nature of traditional evaluation methods. Purpose/Hypothesis(es) This study investigates the potential of automatic item generation (AIG) using large language models (LLMs) to create psychometrically sound items for the design problem task (DPT), which measures creative thinking in engineering. Design/Method We developed and validated engineering design problems across three domains: ability difference and limitations (e.g., assisting people with learning impairments), transportation and mobility (e.g., reducing traffic congestion in mega cities), and social environments and systems (e.g., improving access to clean water in remote areas). The study comprised three phases with samples matched on race and ethnicity: (1) content validation with a diverse sample of 40 engineers evaluating item clarity and validity; (2) item administration to 462 engineering students; and (3) response evaluation by 65 expert raters assessing originality and effectiveness. Results Results demonstrated that LLM‐generated items achieved comparable or higher content validity rates than expert‐written items (43% vs. 20% success). Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis supported a unidimensional model for fluency, originality, and effectiveness scores, with excellent reliability estimates (.92–.95). While fluency showed minimal correlation with originality ( r = −.11) and effectiveness ( r = −.04), originality and effectiveness were strongly positively correlated ( r = .73). Conclusions The present research advances our understanding of automated assessment generation in engineering education, provides empirical evidence for the psychometric properties of AI‐generated engineering creativity tasks, and offers a scalable approach for measuring creative thinking in engineering classrooms.
Abstract Background The need for interdisciplinary training is increasingly important, but assessing the effects of interdisciplinary education initiatives remains challenging. One of the leading difficulties is identifying and selecting the best instrument or technique for a given purpose. Purpose To help researchers and educators identify available options and determine the best options for their purposes, we conducted a literature review and created a heuristic table of available techniques. Our review addresses the questions: (1) What domain‐general techniques and instruments exist for assessing interdisciplinary learning or knowledge? (2) What research scenarios, populations, and questions are each technique or instrument most applicable to? Scope/Methods We systematically conducted a state‐of‐the‐art review to identify relevant tools for assessing aspects of interdisciplinary knowledge or learning outcomes. A total of 2435 documents were identified in ERIC and Web of Science, and their titles and abstracts were screened using five inclusion criteria. This was supplemented by snowball searching and hand searching. Results Twenty‐nine studies published between 2000 and January 2025 were included in the final analysis. The dataset is primarily from the United States and based on undergraduate student populations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) contexts. It is nearly equally split between quantitative and qualitative data sources. Conclusions Assessing interdisciplinary learning remains the “black hole” that Boix Mansilla described in 2005. Advancements in interdisciplinary training for engineers will require greater attention to assessing learning and knowledge in order to understand the impacts and outcomes of such training. We offer recommendations for researchers and educators to advance assessment of interdisciplinary learning.
Abstract Background Students who perceive a mismatch between their disciplinary environment and their values, beliefs, and “fit” may lead them to consider other fields that better align with their ways of being and sense of belonging. Purpose The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the complexities of establishing a sense of belonging for a Latina post‐traditional student enrolled in a Hispanic‐Serving Institution. Design/Method Eight rounds of narrative interviews spanning 6 years were collected from one Latina. Data were analyzed using an analysis of narratives to organize the storied data into salient narrative themes. Results Across the interviews, Kitatoi's sense of belonging was continuously contested through institutional and disciplinary mechanisms, specifically fixed views of ability and cultural norms of effortless achievement. These were not isolated experiences but patterned processes across time that positioned her on the outskirts. Engineering instructors' rhetoric reproduced exclusionary assumptions of who naturally belonged, positioning achievement as effortless and innate rather than developed. Belonging was not structurally cultivated but individually negotiated, shifting the labor from the institution and onto her. Kitatoi negotiated her sense of belonging by dissociating from the institutional environment that imposed a particular mold of engineers, focusing on her intellectual interest in the course topics and advocating for equitable treatment. Conclusions Her story advances our understanding of belonging as relationally produced, structurally mediated, and labor‐intensive. Her story also demonstrates how servingness can fracture at the disciplinary level, especially for Latinx students with intersecting identities.
Abstract Background In response to the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, a K–12 workforce development initiative was launched to embed microelectronics education across US school districts. To promote sustainability, the initiative employed a district‐wide vertical alignment strategy that progressively integrates microelectronics content and engineering‐related career experiences from kindergarten through high school. While vertical alignment is often used for curriculum planning, its broader potential as a systems‐level strategy remains underexplored. Purpose This study investigated how vertical alignment functions within a K–12 engineering workforce development initiative, focusing on enablers/barriers toward expanding and sustaining integration efforts. The research questions addressed stakeholder experiences with the alignment process and how microelectronics instruction/curriculum developed across schools, grades, and disciplines. Design/Method A collective case study was conducted across seven school districts. Data included semi‐structured interviews with educators and leaders, district‐level planning documents, and process evaluation surveys. Thematic analysis examined patterns of district readiness, stakeholder engagement, leadership dynamics, and external facilitation. Results The vertical alignment process served as both a curriculum synchronization tool and a coordinator of strategic levers for promoting systemic change. It revealed instructional gaps, promoted collaboration, and fostered scaffolded progressions from engineering exposure to career readiness. District plans emphasized coherence, career relevance, and cross‐disciplinary integration. Leadership and external facilitation were identified as critical supports. Conclusions Vertical alignment at the school district‐scale can function as a practical systems‐level strategy for embedding workforce‐aligned content into educational practice in more lasting ways. Lessons from this study offer actionable insights for better sustaining engineering and technical workforce initiatives at scale.
Entrepreneurial mindset (EM) integration within engineering education is used as an approach to prepare students for the complexity of global challenges. The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) 3Cs framework for EM has been used extensively to guide the integration of EM into engineering education. However, the limited literature supporting its components has presented challenges for both educators and researchers in its application and assessment. Three scoping reviews were conducted using three databases, with each review corresponding to one of the 3Cs: Curiosity, Creating Value, and Connections. We used detailed search strings for each of the Cs and screened and identified papers based on inclusion and exclusion criteria at both the abstract and full‐text levels. The final set of articles were classified using four criteria: Definitions, Frameworks, Instruments, and Theories. The study's findings are presented as high‐level themes for each C. Curiosity emerged as an intrinsic motivation, a behavior, and a utility. Creating Value was characterized as a process leading to a positive outcome; a value‐generating force for individuals, organizations, and society; and a spectrum of value types. Lastly, Connections encompassed those made between elements for a specific purpose, those demonstrated through modality (such as verbal, graphical, or experimental), and collaborations between people. Our findings indicate that the practitioner‐centered 3Cs framework is associated with well‐established entrepreneurship theories. With this work, researchers and practitioners can support their 3Cs‐based implementations and research studies, which will expand upon the existing scholarship in engineering entrepreneurship.
Work‐integrated learning (WIL) is a pedagogical approach combining classroom learning with practical experience. Despite its growing popularity, there is a need for a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics, trends, and outcomes of intervention studies. This systematic review explores the current research on WIL intervention studies, examining publication venues, research aims, methodologies, and outcomes, as well as the implications and challenges. The structured and predefined PRISMA process was used to identify relevant studies published in peer‐reviewed journals and conference proceedings, ensuring rigor, precision, and replicability. A typological framework was developed and applied to extract and categorize data from the included studies, which were then synthesized to identify patterns and trends. The review included 22 studies between 2014 and 2023. Although the study quality was generally low across journal articles and conference proceedings, the included studies nevertheless provided essential insights. International interest in this topic is evident, growing, and exploratory, with a potential bias toward individual factors and little consideration of institutional or cultural factors. The methodologies included various approaches, but the lack of unifying frameworks suggests that the outcomes are likely context‐dependent. The benefits of WIL were numerous and multifaceted, while the challenges highlighted the complexity institutions and industry partners face. This study provides a comprehensive overview of current research on WIL intervention studies. The findings highlight the importance of theoretical underpinnings, research aims, and methodologies in WIL research. The results have implications for educators, policymakers, and researchers seeking to improve the effectiveness of WIL programs.
Background Humanitarian engineering (HE) education programs train students to work alongside marginalized communities to improve infrastructure and technology disparities. However, the impact of HE education on students' capacity to challenge systemic inequality is unclear. The transformational resistance framework (TRF) can illuminate how education shapes students' seeds of resistance-their emerging ability to identify inequitable systems in their work and engage in oppositional behaviors that resist, subvert, and transform these systems.Purpose This study explores how HE students develop seeds of resistance to systemic inequality and how HE graduate education influences this development.Design/Method We conducted 164 interviews with 46 students from seven US-based HE graduate programs over 2 years, focusing on their educational experiences, views on social justice and inequality, and career goals. To analyze the data, we used a grounded theory approach informed by the principles of TRF.Results This research revealed patterns in the engineering practices that students engaged in as they began learning about and identifying inequitable systems and structures: some engineering practices stifled their resistance capacity (such as students maintaining emotional, physical, and social distance from project impacts), while others nurtured their resistance capacity (such as students using multidisciplinary perspectives on social good to analyze and improve HE practices). These engineering practices emerged as school policies, curricula, and cultural norms influenced students' responses to the inequitable systems they encountered.Conclusions This work contributes to understanding the relationship between HE education and students' ability to challenge inequitable systems in engineering.
Background Uncertainty is ubiquitous in engineering and design, and having students engage with uncertainty can be fruitful for learning. This paper introduces the idea of intersubjective uncertainty and shows that learners in the makerspace routinely leveraged uncertainty to further their own goals.Purpose/Hypothesis(es) This paper investigates how students in a school makerspace made bids to produce and leverage intersubjective uncertainty within collaborative project work, and how uptake of uncertainty bids was intertwined with participants' positionality.Design/Method Data collection took place through participant observation, field note-taking, and video recording in a high-school makerspace. Interaction analysis of one focal group's video-recorded interactions identified and examined intersubjective uncertainty bids and their uptake in relation to participant positionalities.Results Students made intersubjective uncertainty bids to further open space in the discourse to discuss their interests and goals. There was great variability in whose uncertainty bids were taken up or not by the group, in ways connected to positionality (status). Uptake of uncertainty was related to further discussion and pursuit of those ideas and goals.Conclusions Attention to intersubjective uncertainty and how students leverage it to pursue learning and social goals can extend existing perspectives on uncertainty in engineering education, offering insights into more equitable and effective pedagogies in project- and inquiry-based learning.
Background Studies of faculty engagement in efforts to innovate and impact how engineering students are educated and experience their education focus on majority populations, overlooking the influences of role type and institutional context. To support more faculty, stories of underexplored populations must be elevated.Purpose/Hypothesis This study examines the strategic actions of engineering instructional faculty to support their students' experiences at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs). Particularly, it seeks to identify the factors influencing faculty actions using the Contextualized Theory of Professional Agency for Impact in Engineering Education.Design/Method As part of a larger case study, we conducted semi-structured interviews exploring the experiences of 17 instructional faculty from six HSIs across two US regions. We analyzed the data using narrative analysis techniques and persona development methods from design research.Results The resulting five personas, fictionalized faculty representations, revealed six factors that influenced their agency toward educational change. A faculty member's social identity, perceptions of their professional autonomy, motivation for being an instructional faculty, and any preconceived notions they held about students influenced their agency. Feedback from students, departments, and institutions also influenced their agency, either reinforcing their motivation to pursue change efforts or driving adaptive strategic actions.Conclusions The findings from this study enhance our understanding of faculty populations at the margins, whose work affects the experiences of a high number of diverse learners. The resulting personas and influencing factors can guide the creation of tailored professional development programs to promote educational change within these institutions.
Background Previous attempts to measure engineering students' understandings of ethics and social responsibility have yielded conflicting results, in part because of the multidimensional nature of ethics-related outcomes.Purpose Determining how students experience ethical situations and the variations in those experiences can lead to more targeted teaching interventions and more effective measures that account for students' varied perspectives and exposures. This paper aims to address this need by categorizing the qualitatively different ways that engineering students experience ethical situations.Design/Method We used phenomenography to categorize interview excerpts with 30 senior engineering students in which we asked participants to describe one or more experiences that they had with ethical situations as an individual, student, or professional.Results Our analysis yielded eight categories of description for how engineering students experience ethical situations. The categories form a two-dimensional outcome space, with one axis defined by the scale of their experience (ranging from being focused on the individual level to society more broadly) and the second focused on the types of ethical engagement the participant exhibited during the experience.Conclusions This study found that undergraduate engineering students' experiences of ethical situations were not limited to situations on the individual level, but also included experiences concerned with the organizational or societal level. The most comprehensive categories of description in our study featured experiences in which students demonstrated reflective engagement with ethics and referenced societal concerns and often stemmed from authentic project-based coursework or workplace encounters, such as internships.
Background Community cultural wealth (CCW) has become more widely used as a theoretical framework in engineering education research. However, limited studies illustrate the use of CCW within the classroom, and it is unknown how engineering students would interpret or respond to the framework.Purpose/Hypothesis The goal of the study was to understand how students of color conceptualize the forms of capital and make connections between capital and their own lives, following a CCW-based intervention.Design/Method A classroom intervention involving four written reflections and one lecture based on CCW was incorporated into a technical engineering elective taught during a month-long study abroad course for students from one US university. This paper considers responses from the final reflection, which we deductively coded for the six forms of CCW capital and inductively coded to analyze students' perceptions of each.Results Following the intervention, students described how their lived experiences provided them with valuable forms of capital that can help them reach their personal and professional goals. All six forms of capital resonated with students, and they shared concrete ideas for how they planned to use their identified assets after returning home from study abroad.Conclusions Counterstories emerged from the students in their responses to the reflection prompts. The detail provided in the reflections and framing of certain life experiences as assets suggest that students benefitted from learning about the framework. We recommend further development of CCW-based interventions for the classroom and in extracurricular settings.
Background Commitment to degree and career are commonly connected to developing identity in the discipline and feelings of confidence (self-efficacy) about disciplinary practices. While these psychosocial factors are well studied in engineering, they are less often linked to specific learning experiences. In design education, such experiences include framing agency-the ability to use one's agency to frame design problems.Purpose We extend typical models of persistence intentions to examine the effects of engaging in design problem framing. We conjectured that framing agency relates to engineering identity and engineering design self-efficacy. We sought to answer the following research questions: To what extent do framing agency constructs predict first-year and senior students' design self-efficacy, engineering identity, and persistence intentions? Does this vary for students from privileged and minoritized genders or from privileged and minoritized racial/ethnic groups?Methods We used a previously tested survey to measure framing agency, engineering identity, engineering design self-efficacy, persistence intentions, and demographics. We employed structural equation modeling on a national sample (n = 636 first-year students; n = 355 seniors).Results Overall, engineering identity predicted persistence intentions for all students, but design self-efficacy did not. Specific framing agency constructs, especially individual consequentiality, explained variance in self-efficacy and identity across models. For women/non-binary students, shared consequentiality predicted engineering identity and design self-efficacy. For students from minoritized racial/ethnic groups, learning as consequentiality and individual consequentiality predicted career persistence intentions.Conclusions Providing students with multiple opportunities to develop design problem framing skills may play a role in broadening participation.
Background The complexities of Latino/a/e/x racial identity remain underexplored in the context of engineering education. Here, we examine the experiences of five Latinas with engineering aspirations, focusing on how they understand their racialized identities and racial inequity in STEM.Purpose To attend to the within-group heterogeneity in the Latino/a/e/x population in engineering and examine how this diversity shapes sensemaking about race and racial inequity. We leverage a longitudinal dataset to gain insight into what factors impact participants' critical consciousness over time.Method Grounded in Critical Race Theory, we performed a secondary thematic analysis of 3 years of interviews with five Latinas with engineering aspirations. Drawing on Bonilla Silva's Tri-Racial hierarchy and Freire's Critical Consciousness frameworks, we explored how Latinos/as/es/xs' positioning in the US racial hierarchy supports or hinders their critical consciousness development.Results Participants' skin color, language, and parents' country of origin were salient aspects of how they understood their racial identity, which positioned them as either White, racially ambiguous, or brown. This shaped their experiences in engineering spaces, engagement with hegemonic STEM narratives, and perceptions of racial inequities. We found that the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism in 2020 prompted an important shift in their critical consciousness development.Conclusions Our findings have implications for research and practice. Researchers should consider (i) employing critical and intersectional frameworks to historicize and contextualize Latino/a/e/x racial identity and dispel the "myth of the monolith", and (ii) developing interventions that disrupt color-evasive rhetoric/practices and support the critical consciousness raising of STEM faculty and students.
Background The complexity of engineering practice highlights the need to make students aware of their responsibility as future professionals. However, integrating this concept into the engineering curricula remains a challenge.Purpose The study explores how engineering students conceptualize their responsibilities as future professionals and identifies which challenge-based learning (CBL) course components they attribute to their current views.Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 first-year engineering students following a CBL course on ethics and data analysis. Data were analyzed thematically using a conceptual lens that categorizes responsibilities by scope (micro/macro) and orientation (subject/object).Results Students articulated a broad range of responsibilities with notable balance between micro (n = 27) and macro (n = 28) dimensions, suggesting CBL's potential to address both scopes of professional obligation. However, a pronounced 4.5:1 asymmetry emerged between subject-oriented responsibilities (actions and values internal to individuals and the profession) and object-oriented responsibilities (structural reform and institutional change). Students showed limited conception of their role in transforming engineering practice itself. Influential CBL components included real-life challenges, stakeholder analysis, value-mapping, foresight exercises, and client sessions.Conclusion While CBL appears effective at fostering micro/macro balance, the subject/object asymmetry reveals an "agency gap" in engineering ethics education. The findings call for pedagogical approaches that prepare graduates not only to act ethically within existing structures but also to engage in individual and collective action for reforming engineering practice and the profession. The study contributes to broadening engineering ethics education.
Background The experiences of the disabled community are notably absent from engineering education scholarship, with existing research often treating this group as a monolith. Intersectionality provides a critical framework for addressing this gap, illuminating the complexities of disability within ableist contexts by focusing on how intersecting systems of oppression affect individual experiences.Purpose Broadened use of intersectionality frameworks is needed to better understand the breadth of experiences within the disabled community. This study captures the nuanced dynamics of disabled identity negotiation by focusing on how individuals' identities intersect to shape their undergraduate engineering journey.Design/Methods This paper shares the narratives of two disabled, Black international women enrolled in undergraduate engineering programs. It was designed using narrative research methods and guided by Crip Theory and Critical Race Feminism.Results The narratives highlight the complex interplay of disability, race, gender, and nationality within the US-based undergraduate engineering education landscape. Findings underscore the multifaceted challenges they encounter, which are amplified not only by their intersecting marginalized identities but also by the prevailing cultural and structural norms within engineering education.Conclusions This paper emphasizes the need to raise awareness around intersectionality within the disabled community to provide nuanced support to Black international women in undergraduate engineering education. Implications include discussion around deconstructing identity monoliths when considering support resources for students.
