Understanding research engagement practices among engineering education stakeholders to promote the impact of research on practice

To improve the impact engineering education research has on practice, there is a need to understand how stakeholders (i.e. researchers, practitioners, administrators) currently engage with research. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the ways that various engineering education stakeholders engage with research and their perceptions of the impact of doing so. Twenty-seven engineering stakeholders located in the United States participated in 30–60 min semi-structured interviews. The interview participants’ responses were analysed using thematic analysis. This analysis resulted in two types of findings–namely seven ways engineering education stakeholders tend to engage with research; and four forms of influence that research has on engineering education practice. Both sets of findings were combined to create the Research Engagement Matrix, which maps characterisations of research activities along a continuum from consumer to producers and scopes of influence along a continuum from local to national level. Although the findings of this study are limited to insights from stakeholders in the United States, many of engagement activities and forms of influence may also describe members of the global engineering education community. This work has implications for bridging connections between research and practice among all engineering education stakeholders.