In this paper, I import the conceptual tool of boundary work from other disciplines to the study of academic engineers and I expand on existing research on boundary work based on interviews from 10 engineering faculty members at a research-oriented university. Analyzing participants' interview responses for language associated with boundary metaphors yields a rich lexicon of terms related to the complicated characterization and categorization of ideas and values that they associate with engineering. Through this analysis, I introduce the concept of boundary markers as conceptual objects that delineate the edge of a boundary. I define and describe a taxonomy of the different sorts of boundary work participants do as recognition, mapping, reproduction, and resistance. I argue that boundaries have characteristics of continuity, mobility, and functionality. This paper can enhance our understanding of academic engineering and engineering education by making visible - via a cognitive tool developed from their colleagues' language - academic engineers' own boundary work as they contest or reproduce boundaries of the profession and discipline of engineering. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
CITATION STYLE
Pawley, A. L. (2012). Engineering faculty drawing the line: A taxonomy of boundary work in academic engineering. Engineering Studies, 4(2), 145–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2012.687000
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