Engineering practice as an emerging field of inquiry: A historical overview

Abstract

Perception of the nature of engineering practice is an aspect of technology literacy of direct interest to engineering educators, one that impacts a variety of actors: potential and present engineering students, engineering faculty and the general public. This paper contributes to scholarship in the areas of technology literacy and engineering practice studies by presenting a timeline of empirical studies of engineering practice carried out in the US, Europe and Australia from the 19th century to today. We observe a notable widening of the range of research approaches employed to capture what engineers do and an increasing recognition that sociotechnical aspects of engineering work play an important role in the workplace. We conclude by setting out some implications for educators of the empirical findings from of this area of scholarship.