Collaborative EAGER: Novel Ethnographic Investigations of Engineering Workplaces to Advance Theory and Research Methods for Preparing the Future Workforce

协作 EAGER：对工程工作场所进行新颖的民族志调查，以推进为未来劳动力做好准备的理论和研究方法

基本信息

批准号：
1939105
负责人：
Aditya Johri
金额：
$ 8.06万
依托单位：
George Mason University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-01-01 至 2023-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1939105&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative EAGER Novel Ethnographic Investigations

项目摘要

The competitive strength of the nation in the technological arena depends on the success of the engineering workforce. It is therefore crucial that we develop better scientific understanding of how engineers work, as well as how their work is changing. Without well-researched and trustworthy representations of professional practice, it is questionable whether educators can adequately prepare future engineers for their careers. Yet there remains a persistent lack of research on what engineers do in the workplace. This exploratory project will help bridge these gaps by testing new research approaches to generate new knowledge about what engineers do at work. Traditionally, such research has been conducted through direct observations in a physical workplace. This approach needs to be modified since open workspaces, geographically distributed teams, and new digital tools make it increasingly infeasible to perform on-site research for long periods of time, both for researchers, funders, and study sites. Other approaches like surveys and interviews are often easier to carry out, but are limited in what kinds of insights they can provide. The novelty and exploratory aspect of the proposed study comes from taking new and different empirical approaches to study engineering workplace practices. Findings and resources developed through this project will support ongoing efforts to improve how current and future engineers are trained to succeed and excel in their job roles and careers. In this exploratory project we will undertake innovative approaches to collecting, analyzing, and archiving empirical data related to engineering practice. This project will involve ethnographic research at multiple field sites representing multiple industry sectors using novel methods such as agile ethnography, trace ethnography, and network ethnography. These methods are new and evolving, and thus have scarcely been used to study engineering practice. Yet they appear highly promising for many reasons, including their potential to generate research findings more rapidly and with a greater focus on specific problems and questions. Such methods have started to gain traction in industry precisely due to such advantages, especially in software engineering and related fields where work is already very digital and distributed in character. The field studies proposed for this project are especially concerned with how work is coordinated and aligned within and across teams, including through the use of digital data and tools. This project will also investigate and respond to three specific research challenges: 1) aligning new data collection and analysis approaches with emerging research topics and site access constraints, 2) managing, archiving, and sharing multi-modal ethnographic data sets, and 3) exploring alternative approaches to communicating research findings, including formats and styles that are more accessible and appealing to different audiences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在技术领域，国家的竞争力量取决于工程劳动力的成功。因此，至关重要的是，我们对工程师的工作方式以及他们的工作如何改变至关重要。如果没有对专业实践的充分研究和值得信赖的表现，教育者是否可以充分为未来的工程师做好职业准备，这是值得怀疑的。然而，对于工程师在工作场所中的工作仍缺乏研究。该探索性项目将通过测试新的研究方法来帮助弥合这些差距，以产生有关工程师在工作中所做的新知识的知识。传统上，这种研究是通过在物理工作场所进行的直接观察进行的。需要修改这种方法，因为开放的工作空间，地理分布的团队和新的数字工具使得长期进行现场研究越来越不可行，无论是针对研究人员，资助者和研究地点而言。调查和访谈等其他方法通常更容易执行，但是在可以提供的见解方面受到限制。拟议研究的新颖性和探索性方面来自采用新的和不同的经验方法来研究工程工作场所实践。通过该项目开发的发现和资源将支持持续的努力，以改善如何对当前和未来的工程师的成功和职业培训。在这个探索性项目中，我们将采取创新的方法来收集，分析和存档与工程实践有关的经验数据。该项目将涉及在多个现场的民族志研究，使用敏捷民族志，痕量民族志和网络民族志等新方法来代表多个行业领域。这些方法是新的且不断发展的，因此几乎没有用于研究工程实践。然而，由于许多原因，它们似乎很有希望，包括他们更迅速地产生研究发现的潜力，并更加关注特定问题和问题。由于这种优势，这种方法已经开始在行业中引起关注，尤其是在软件工程和相关领域中，工作已经非常数字化并以性格分发。该项目提出的现场研究特别关注工作方式如何协调和对齐，包括使用数字数据和工具。该项目还将调查并应对三个特定的研究挑战：1）将新的数据收集和分析方法与新兴的研究主题和现场访问约束结合在一起，2）管理，归档和共享多模式民族志数据集，以及3）探索交流研究结果的替代方法，包括更容易访问和吸引不同受众的格式和样式。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，认为值得通过评估来获得支持。