Systematic literature review of the factors influencing development of engineering education researchers

Sarah  Dart; Amy  Young; Emma-Lee Steindl

doi:10.1002/jee.70030

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Systematic literature review of the factors influencing development of engineering education researchers

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Systematic literature review of the factors influencing development of engineering education researchers

Sarah Dart, Amy Young and Emma-Lee Steindl

Journal of Engineering Education, Vol.114(4), pp.1-44

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.70030

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Abstract

engineering education research

faculty development

systematic review

Background Given the increasing number of researchers engaging in engineering education research (EER) globally, there is intensifying interest in researcher development. Purpose This study systematically reviewed the literature guided by the research question: “What are the key factors and how do they influence the development of engineering education researchers?” The review aimed to contribute practical recommendations for enhancing engineering education researcher development and suggest future research directions. Scope/Method Database search with the application of screening criteria and a quality assessment resulted in 49 papers being included in the systematic review. Results Mapping the context of included papers showed that scholarly activity was increasing over time, that research on participants operating outside of the United States and Australia was underrepresented, and that studies were dominated by qualitative approaches applied to small sample sizes. The key factors influencing engineering education researcher development aligned to the following themes (and subthemes indicated in brackets): environment (funding, employment context, and recognition of impact); community (socialization and collaboration); knowledge acquisition (development pathways and engaging in a new research paradigm); and personal attributes (motivation and identity transition). Conclusions Recommendations are made for enhancing engineering education researcher development for researchers, EER leaders, and institutional leaders. Future research should seek to examine development experiences in a wider range of national contexts, ask more questions aligned to the size and significance of phenomena that require greater implementation of quantitative methods, and ask more comparative research questions that can foster understanding of what strategies have the greatest impact according to individual circumstances.

Details

Title: Systematic literature review of the factors influencing development of engineering education researchers
Authors: Sarah Dart (Corresponding Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Amy Young - Queensland University of Technology
Emma-Lee Steindl - Queensland University of Technology
Publication details: Journal of Engineering Education, Vol.114(4), pp.1-44
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1002/jee.70030
ISSN: 2168-9830
Copyright note: © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Engineering Education published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Engineering Education. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Grant note: This work was supported by a Queensland University of Technology Women in Research grant.
Organisation Unit: School of Education and Tertiary Access; STEM in Education Research Theme
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991155036702621
Output Type: Journal article

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