A Case Study of Engineering Faculty Collaboration: Co-Authoring an E-Book on Energy and Sustainability

In this paper, we discuss the characteristics of the interaction and the culture that emerged as five engineering professors across the US engaged in a unique pedagogical activity to promote more student-centered instruction. In this three-year collaborative project funded by the NSF, the professors co-authored an electronic textbook in energy sustainability in order to optimize student learning with up-to-date and relevant content. Four learning scientists and a team of technology experts also consulted with the professors. Framed by a case study design and utilizing ethnographic data collection approaches, the authors explored and documented the community of practice characteristics of the professors’ interactions. Study data included the recordings of the weekly meetings over two years and one-to-one interviews with the professors. We report and discuss the professors’ emergent individual identities, their common language and repertoire, evolution of their mutual engagement and development of community goals, and the discourse of their interactions where they both practiced their common tasks and learned from each other.