Building Communities of Engineering Faculty, Staff, and Students Engaged in Educational Research: The Approach of UGA’s Engineering Education Transformations Institute

Abstract

We summarize the work of the University of Georgia’s Engineering Education Transformations Institute (EETI) in cultivating communities of faculty, staff, and students engaged in educational research. EETI leadership draws upon Donella Meadows’ 14 principles for engineering change from within a system and industry-vetted practices for establishing collective intelligence in teams to create four conditions that have led to successful, enduring, and diverse communities: Value-oriented communication, inclusive relationship-building, collective intelligence development, and process-oriented expectations. In these communities, participants from a variety of academic levels (students; staff; pre-tenure, tenured, instructional, and professional-track faculty) develop ideas and projects together in a collaborative process.