Mapping the engineering education research landscape in Ireland and the UK

The growth of Engineering Education Research (EER) has led to claims about it becoming a globally connected field of inquiry. This paper presents data on the development of EER within the UK and Ireland with the aim of contributing towards our understanding of the field. A computer-aided process was used to extract the names of authors, affiliated with UK and Irish institutions, that had published in a sample of 13 different EER journals in the years 2018 and 2019. We identified 122 UK authors and 17 from the Republic of Ireland. Selected experts in both countries were contacted to obtain complementary data that were used to build a picture of the research landscape in which EER practitioners function. Similarities and differences between EER in both geographic contexts were identified. In both there were few institutions listed as having EER centres, and it was more common for participants to refer to individual researchers. There also appeared to be a lack of formal PhD programmes and funding opportunities in EER within both countries. Whilst recognition for EER in the UK was primarily associated with teaching awards and fellowships, in Ireland EER outputs appeared to be as valued as disciplinary research activities. The overall portrait that emerges from the data collected suggests that in both the UK and Ireland, EER does not benefit from a national support infrastructure but rather, is typically carried out by individuals or small groups of researchers.