Community-Building Among Phd Students In Engineering Education Research: The Sefi Summer School And Aaee Winter School

Engineering Education Research (EER) is a rapidly evolving and increasingly valued research field. This supports the number of PhD students to grow steadily, but unfortunately, they are often limited to a few within the large engineering faculty/department, having different backgrounds and interests. Additionally, the research methodologies needed by EER researchers are usually different from the classical technical engineering research (TER) methodologies. This translates into a need for specific training and opportunities to get to know each other better in order to promote international collaboration and develop a community of practice. SEFI and the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) both organized a summer/winter school for EER PhD students in 2022, attended by 34/14 participants respectively (note: attendance at the AAEE winter school is not limited to PhD students). We have designed a survey to elicit a mixture of background information (facts), perception data (opinions), and evaluative data (evaluation of the school). By using confirmatory factor analysis on half of the items and descriptive statistical analysis of all data, we aim to provide insights into the success factors of these schools. Both schools attracted a diverse group of EER-PhD students in different areas. The SEFI summer school excelled in building an inclusive and international research community, whereas the AAEE winter school was superior in gaining domain-specific knowledge needed for EER research. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the issues experienced by researchers who are beginning their career in EER and support organizers in designing international research schools.