2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this WIP research paper, we will present a literature review and propose a research design to answer the question: How are metaphors used for epistemological boundary-making in engineering education research (EER)? Metaphors help us understand our world. Like light and shadows, every metaphor reveals and conceals different aspects of the phenomenon it describes. For example, discussing broadening participation efforts in engineering education as pipelines, pathways, or ecosystems has different implications for policy and practice. So, metaphors not only influence how we understand a phenomenon but also how we respond to it.

Epistemological boundary-making is concerned with whose knowledge and which knowledge is recognized as valuable. What language do engineering education researchers use when they respond to calls for redrawing epistemological boundaries? What values are implicit in the metaphors we use as we recognize diverse ways of knowing, doing, and being? Scholarship that recognizes the value of marginalized epistemologies often uses metaphorical language focusing on capital such as community cultural wealth, social capital, funds of knowledge or identity, and asset- or resource-based pedagogies. This metaphorical language of capital prioritizes principles of accumulation and ownership in ways that may be dissonant with the marginalized epistemologies we seek to conceptualize.

In this WIP paper, we will explore the metaphors in EER for expanding the epistemological boundaries. The paper will have an in-depth literature review and contribute to scholarship on recognizing and examining metaphors in EER. This work is significant because metaphors are ubiquitous; we do not always clarify the metaphors we use, even when they are sprinkled liberally in our thinking and writing. The literature review will be followed by a proposed study design to understand the metaphors engineering education researchers use for epistemological boundary-making. With this proposed study design we will explore 1) the metaphors that are currently in use, 2) role of these metaphors in epistemological boundary-making and 3) the implications of using these metaphors. With these broad aims, this WIP paper intends to create space for initiating conversations and developing this study. This study will contribute to scholarship on how the language we use can influence the theory and practice in EER and the enactment of equity, culture, and social justice in education.