Considering leadership in engineering education: A call to action for research and practice

With the rapid growth of the engineering education research community in recent years, there has been a great need for individuals willing to lead in a variety of different capacities. For example, in recent years, the increase in the number of programs that grant doctoral degrees in engineering education has likewise increased demands for administrators. We argue that the intentional preparation of leaders who are ready to create inclusive environments for graduate and, in some cases, undergraduate engineering students has not kept pace. With the rapid and continued growth of the field, more emphasis on research and practice related to leadership in engineering education is needed, and thus we make a call to action. As the number of engineering education programs, faculty, and graduates expand, the number of leaders will only continue to grow. It is our goal that readers of this editorial take the opportunity to look critically toward the context, systems, and structures of our own field and consider the ways in which leadership research and practice can contribute to the advancement of engineering education.

Our call to action is a result of scoped, intentional conversations on leadership within engineering education over the course of an academic term. An ambiguity in how leadership qualities are acquired led to a conversation between four engineering education PhD students and a faculty member/administrator. Individually, we were interested in the intersection of leadership and our own research in engineering education. From these conversations, we collectively scoped a Leadership in Engineering Education graduate level course with the goal of investigating literature, including both the current status of leadership research in engineering education and leadership research broadly across other disciplines, as well as interviewing a small sample of leaders in local engineering education contexts. The purpose of this course was to bridge leadership theories, research, and practice with application to engineering education. The aim was to engage the next generation of engineering education leaders in conversation about contexts, considerations, and characteristics of leaders in the engineering education field. From these conversations, we set forth to identify significant themes and challenges facing leadership in engineering education. Additionally, we used informational interviews with leaders situated in diverse contexts to better understand relationships between sociocultural influences and leadership in engineering education.

As a result of this process, we propose leveraging leadership theory and existing research, considering organizational context, structures, and systems, and engaging in critical reflection as crucial actions to advance leadership research and practice in the field.

Based on our experiences, informational interviews, and thematic analysis, we determined that three important considerations for the future of leadership in engineering education include leveraging leadership theory and existing research; considering existing context, systems, and structures; and engaging in critical reflection. While the three actions are not individually unique to leadership research or engineering education, collectively they provide direction for our call to action and future research.

We call on researchers to expand research on leadership in engineering education to better prepare future leaders. Prior research conducted on the field of engineering and undergraduate engineers provides a strong background to begin to look inward toward the leadership of engineering educators, faculty, and practitioners in our own field. As previously mentioned, there is existing research in education-based disciplines beyond our own spaces that should be referred to for leadership theory and practice that can apply in our engineering education context. Specifically, we believe that the following areas warrant more research in engineering education: leadership development in both undergraduate and graduate engineering education, faculty preparation and development, academic leadership development, and industry leadership development. These areas tie into the need to recognize varying contexts and how we might prepare leaders to recognize the contexts they are situated in as well as the systems and structures that operate within them. Preparing leaders to have this organizational understanding can support the necessary critical reflection that will enable their understanding of their own influence for critical decision-making and positive change.

We call on current leaders to invest in the future of engineering education through an increased focus on leadership at the stages of graduate education and early career faculty, as this investment is crucial to the advancement of the field in both research and practice. We do not limit our definition of leaders to those with formal leadership titles; in many cases, faculty are leaders, whether that be by way of their research area, title, or appointment, or their approach to teaching in a classroom. As graduate students, we have noticed that, while this expectation of leadership might be a common knowledge in academia, many of us do not feel prepared for these roles through our training in graduate school. Therefore, a research and practice agenda focusing on preparing graduate students for these specific aspects of leadership is imperative. Furthermore, continuing these developments for faculty once they are hired and working in academia is just as important, particularly as administrative roles in departments or colleges need to be filled by faculty leaders and faculty continue to be required to teach in both undergraduate and graduate contexts.