Through 'Collaborative Autoethnography': Researchers Explore Their Role as Participants in Characterizing the Identities of Engineering Education Graduate Students in Canada

This research paper is an examination of four researchers’ methodological approaches to an explanatory case study investigating the identities and experiences of the graduate student population engaged in engineering education scholarship in Canada. The researchers are members of this target population from four separate institutions across Canada. To attend to procedural validation, we have engaged in a collaborative autoethnography to explore how our dual identities as researchers and future participants have shaped our study design and survey items. Using qualitative research development documents, this research paper critically explores our experiences as both participants and researchers. We position our study within Walther, Sochacka, & Kellam’s process-oriented quality framework for interpretive research, identifying our roles, influences, and biases in order to develop methodological awareness, and make transparent our subsequent knowledge generation. Initial findings are interpreted through the lens of situated learning theory, and the conceptualization of an underdeveloped community of practice leading to an identity quandary. These findings will be used to inform the development of our larger research study.