Engineering Education Research Briefs 2.0: Scholars and Scholarship – Details, episodes & analysis

Join us as we discuss engineering education in Australia, with a focus on the career path of Dr. Anne Gardner, an Associate Dean at the University of Technology Sydney. Dr. Gardner shares her journey into engineering education, her current research projects, leadership roles, and the focus areas of the engineering education community in Australia. We also discuss collaborations with scholars in Australia and the upcoming engineering education conference - Austaliasian Engineering Education (A2E2). 

Dr. Mark Guzdial of the University of Michigan and Dr. Adrienne Decker of the University at Buffalo share their definitions of computing education and computer science education and how these disciplines fit or in some cases do not yet fit in engineering education. Listen to this engaging discussion about the history of computing, a preview of the state of computing education, and some aspirations of the future of these disciplines in engineering education. 

Name Drop

Barbara Ericson

Katie Cunningham

Bahare Naimipour

Aman Yadav

Sean Mackay

Holliday Sims

This episode we talk with Dr. Julia Williams about her pathway to and through engineering education and more specifically about her experience with change in engineering education.

“I saw opportunities for change all around me. And as I struggled, sometimes, to make change happen; other times hitting it out of the park maybe. I thought, gee there are things that we do to make change happen that aren’t really written down anywhere.”

This episode explores the pathway of Dr. Ruth Streveler and her confidence to move out of her lane into innovation. Her words are inspiring and they challenge the community to pick up the baton in conceptual change towards a new model. 

“Trust yourself. And look for opportunities, and ... have an entrepreneurial mindset... [The mindset] isn’t necessarily for something you are going to sell or a product you are going to develop, but what you want to do with your career.”

This episode introduces the new hosts of Research Briefs, Dr. Jeremi London and Dr. Monique Ross, to the internationally followed podcast audience. 

“I’m really excited about this new direction, in that we will carry on many of the wonderful things that Ruth started but also begin to make it our own…”

This episode rebroadcasts Dr. Ruth Streveler’s June 2020 conversation with Dr. Jeremi London – who shares her fascinating research on ‘impact’.

“I started to look at what makes studying impact so difficult and realized that it was very value-laden and it’s a discussion on what is something worth.  And discussions on worth are always really tough to have.” - Jeremi London

This episode rebroadcasts Dr. Ruth Streveler’s conversation with Dr. Shawn Jordan, who shares how he uses storytelling principles in his research in an effort to broaden participation in engineering.

Watch this practice in action!

“One of the key points of storytelling, and particularly oral tradition storytelling, is that they believe whenever you tell a story, even if it is someone else’s story, that part of you is in that story because it’s being told through your lens.  And that, to me, is one of the things is so transformational as both a research approach as well as a teaching approach, because if we can get underrepresented students not only learning but telling stories of people in engineering pathways then that might help shift their identities as well.” - Shawn Jordan

This episode is a rebroadcast of Dr. Ruth Streveler’s interview with Dr. Nadia Kellam, who continually pushes the boundaries of “appropriate” research topics and methods.  Learn more about narrative methods, and I-poems, and hear about Nadia’s courage to keep doing what feels right, even in the face of strong opposition by trusted mentors.

“I don’t know where … [the courage to do the risky thing] came from; [I am sure part of] it was a mom that was a feminist and pushed us to do good things and be authentic to yourself. … [With] some of those experiences … I started to learn that it was okay to do what felt right to me and to take that risk.” - Nadia Kellam

This conversation between Dr. Ruth Streveler and Dr. Emily Dringenberg took place during the development of a socially-embedded framework for learning.

Opinion Piece by host Dr. Ruth Streveler 

DOI: 10.18260/3-1-1153-36030

This episode was produced by the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. The theme music was composed and performed by Patrick Vogt.

Should we think of ‘smartness’ as a verb instead of an adjective? Host Dr. Ruth Streveler interviews Dr. Emily Dringenberg, assistant professor of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University about her research about deeply held beliefs.

This episode was produced by the School of Engineering Education at Purdue, and features music composed by Patrick Vogt.