2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering faculty at research intensive universities are split between two distinct cultural worlds: the world of their technical classrooms and the world of academic research. While teaching, faculty partake in the cultural practices of school, a bounded world where knowledge comes from authority and quickly solving well-defined, single-solution-path problems is highly valued. Professors’ research laboratories are more expansive: problems are ill-defined, and collaborative problems-solving practices are necessary to reach academic goals. These two environments appear incompatible; how do faculty understand their participation in each? To gain insights into this question, we analysed the values faculty expressed when discussing their research and teaching. Semi-structured, approximately one-hour long interviews were conducted with twenty thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and transport faculty. Discussions centered around their research and teaching practice. This work-in-progress paper describes initial analysis of three interviews from the larger study. Emergent coding, thematic analysis, and discourse analysis were used to identify and explore themes. IRB approval was obtained and an informed consent process was followed for each participant. Initial findings indicate misalignment both between and within faculty teaching values. It is possible that these misalignments contribute to complex — and often confusing — classroom environments for both students and instructors.