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In this workshop, we introduced participants to the tacit and often hidden skills of doing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand lived experience in engineering education. With the growth of IPA research in engineering education, this workshop was designed to sharpen the skills of participants who come with experience in qualitative research and provide practical guidance to participants who may be novices to qualitative research. The workshop was characterized by an interactive style, in which participants collectively analyze a transcript excerpt from an interview with an engineering student regarding their experience of shame. To strengthen the translation of the workshop, the session was intentionally facilitated by both an expert in conducting IPA research and a highly trained engineer who is at the beginning stages of doing IPA. 

Involvement in professional disciplinary engineering student organizations (PDESOs) positively influences engineering students’ college experience. While extensive research about engineering student societies and organizations has demonstrated various benefits for students, few studies explore professional disciplinary engineering student societies and organizations that provide unique opportunities tailored around specific engineering disciplines. To better understand how participation in PDESOs influences engineering undergraduates, we conducted an exploratory study, interviewing thirteen mechanical engineering undergraduates with six months to three years of experience with PDESOs. The overarching conceptual framework is derived from a combination of motivated identity construction theory and engineering identity, allowing us to see how participation in these organizations contributes to students’ engineering identity and professional development. Participants indicated that involvement in PDESOs provided unique professional development opportunities that enhanced their self-esteem and efficacy and provided a welcoming environment where they experienced a sense of belonging. These results demonstrate that participation in PDESOs contributes to professional development, interpersonal skills, and community engagement, preparing them for the engineering workforce, which contributes to a strengthened engineering identity.

 

This Work-In-Progress paper summarizes insights from early research activities related to a National Science Foundation (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project investigating faculty adoption of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) in engineering classrooms. We are investigating EBIPs in engineering classrooms because, although instructors are interested and willing to adopt them, uptake by engineering faculty is lagging. To understand what is driving limited incorporation of EBIPs, our research objectives are anchored in our overlying goal of examining the lived experience of engineering faculty as they seek out and try innovative teaching practices (i.e., EBIPs) in their courses. This paper reports insights from early exploratory interviews with engineering faculty around their experiences with trying EBIPs. We report on general patterns observed during the early stages of our analysis of the interview transcripts with three engineering faculty (n = 3). We discuss how our analysis informs the next steps of our overarching investigation and briefly discuss the broader significance related to the context of faculty approaches for implementing EBIPs into their engineering courses. 

This paper summarizes the current status of our NSF CAREER investigation of engineering faculty members’ experiences of professional shame. In the first year of this project, we used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to examine the emotional experience among individual faculty members in engineering programs. Our objectives are anchored in our overarching goal to understand the connections between the emotion regulation of engineering faculty and the academic cultures that embed them. This paper focuses on the work that has been completed in the first year of this project examining the individual experiences of engineering faculty with professional shame. We report on general patterns from the early stages of our analysis of interview transcripts with four engineering faculty members (n = 14). We discuss how our IPA work informs the next steps of our overarching investigation, and briefly discuss the broader significance related to the context of faculty wellbeing within engineering education.