Community engagement in engineering education: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Background: Community engagement has recently become a focus in engineering education. However, systematic reviews that catalog best practices and identify research patterns and gaps remain scarce. Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to generate insights and findings by reviewing studies focused on community engagement programs in engineering education from 1980 to 2019. This review offers new findings for practitioners and researchers with a menu of proven ideas and provides directions for community engagement practice and future research. Method: Articles were obtained via keyword searches for “Engineering” AND “service-learning,” “community engagement” OR “civic engagement” using available databases. Search constraints included the year of publication, peer-reviewed articles, and articles written in English. The content analysis method was used to categorize, summarize, and evaluate selected articles. A total of 120 articles have been reviewed. Results: This systematic review identified recent trends in engineering community engagement programs. Undergraduate students were the main program participants. The vast majority of projects took place in the United States. Overall, community engagement projects increasingly recruited multidisciplinary students. Factors such as logistics constraints, cultural barriers, and disconnect issues were reported as major challenges to the success of engineering community engagement programs. Qualitative research dominated community engagement studies. The community partner remains a less-studied subject. Research focusing on engineering graduate students in community engagement was rare. Conclusions: To obtain a holistic understanding of community engagement in engineering education, additional research should focus on community partners' perspectives, graduate students in engineering, diversity, and holistic assessments.