2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work in Progress: Developing an Ethnographic Observation and Reflection Template: An Example from Studying Epistemic Differences within EER Teams

Presented at Student Division (STDT) Technical Session 2: Student Success and Resources

WIP: Developing an Ethnographic Observation and Reflection Template: An Example from Studying Epistemic Differences within EER Teams

In this work-in-progress paper, we describe the process we used to develop a fieldnotes template to support our ethnographic study of how interdisciplinary engineering education research teams use their unique perspectives to negotiate epistemic differences. We observed six virtual team meetings of an established interdisciplinary engineering education research team. The meetings we observed occurred between December 2019 and April 2020. In addition to conducting and discussing observations, our research team read empirical and theoretical articles to gain an understanding of Longino's critical contextual empiricism model. We also co-constructed pictorial systems maps to gain an understanding of and define the social reality were are studying. These efforts directly supported our discussions about how the group interacted, the types of conversations they had, and instances that suggested possible differences in epistemic identities. From our initial observations, discussions as a team, and consideration of the social reality, we created a template for taking field notes from the observations of team meetings. These field notes have three sections to help guide our observations and analysis. The sections focus on relevant identification and classification of the meeting purpose and date, specific instances of epistemic discussions, and reflection questions to help us interpret these interactions. We are currently testing our template by observing more team meetings and discussing how the template works and does not work.

Authors

Ms. Isabel Anne Boyd http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6244-9335 University of Tennessee, Knoxville [biography]

Isabel is a third-year student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville studying biomedical engineering. She has conducted several mixed methods research projects centered around diversity and inclusion in engineering and is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineering Education.
Chulin Chen University of Tennessee, Knoxville [biography]

Chulin Chen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his BS and MS in Industrial Engineering and his research interests focus on applying industrial engineering tools and systems thinking approaches within the context of engineering education.
Lorna Treffert University of Tennessee, Knoxville [biography]

Lorna Treffert is a 1st year Ph.D. student in the Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds both a BS and MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Her research interests include facilitating diversity and inclusion within engineering education and applications of operations research in an education context.
Alexis Gillmore http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8042-5620 University of Tennessee, Knoxville [biography]

Alexis is a PhD student in soil science - they also teach interdisciplinary senior design and are pursuing a certificate in engineering education. Alexis is interested in developing participatory research strategies to make scientific knowledge that is useful and usable to those who need it.
Dr. Courtney June Faber http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9156-7616 University of Tennessee, Knoxville [biography]

Courtney Faber, Ph.D., is a Research Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Engineering Fundamentals at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is also the Director of the Fundamentals of Engineering and Computing Teaching in Higher Education Certificate Program. Her research focuses on empowering engineering education scholars to be more effective at impacting transformational change in engineering and developing educational experiences that consider epistemic cognition. She develops and uses innovative research methods that allow for deep investigations of constructs such as epistemic thinking, identity, and agency. Dr. Faber has a B.S. in Bioengineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education from Clemson University and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University. Among other awards for her research, she was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2022 to study epistemic negotiations on interdisciplinary engineering education research teams.

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