2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Research in engineering education often highlights the barriers that impede instructional change and curricular transformation. While federally funded projects and the creation of new engineering degree programs have transformed engineering curricula in some places, this same level of administrative and financial support is unavailable for many engineering departments and institutions. At the same time, evidence suggests the existence of alternative approaches to educational innovation and change by educators who have overcome barriers to engaging in curricular transformation that have impeded others (e.g., in contexts where resources may be limited or constrained). The stories of these educators are rarely amplified, even though they provide valuable opportunities to understand the strategic actions individuals take to affect change. With this in mind, this project, funded by the NSF CAREER program within the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, to examine alternative approaches to curricular transformation and co-design dissemination activities led by educators in their own communities. In this paper, we present the results of preliminary activities of the project: (1) a literature review on how engineering education communities describe curricular transformation and (2) a qualitative analysis that connects our understanding of literature with the narratives of educators who have transformed their courses.

First, we completed a literature review to establish the theoretical grounding for examining curricular transformation in engineering education. By synthesizing engineering education research on structural barriers to change and the theory of professional agency, we found that fewer studies center the agency of educators who enact change within their contexts. Overall, the review underscored the need to examine how educators interpret their professional environments and exercise agency towards curricular transformation.

Second, we conducted a narrative analysis of transformational engineering educators. This activity connected our findings from the literature review with the stories of educators previously recognized for their innovative teaching. We examined how educators define and engage in transformation in the context of their situated practice. The analysis revealed diverse ways through which professional agency is expressed, varying from small-scale pedagogical changes in a course to department initiatives, and how these actions are shaped by institutional norms and resource contexts. Through this activity, we gained a better understanding of the relationship between educators’ perceptions of their professional contexts and the specific actions that enable transformation despite systemic inertia.

The next phase of the project will leverage these preliminary findings to develop a survey for characterizing the ways in which engineering educators are engaging in course and curricular transformation and identifying engineering educators who have engaged in curricular transformation by overcoming barriers that often impede others. In the paper, we will present our survey framework, the overarching result of our preliminary activities, which conceptualizes curricular transformation as the interaction between individual agency and well-cited contextual barriers and enablers of change. The paper will conclude with an overview of the project’s next steps, including survey dissemination efforts, in-depth interviews with educators, and collaborative dissemination activities.