Resumen de Engineering education research in portugal: an emerging field
Natascha van Hattum Janssen, Bill Williams, José Manuel Nunes de Oliveira
Engineering Education Research (EER) has been increasingly recognised as an autonomous field of research with animportant global role to play in preparing engineers to meet the technological and social challenges of tomorrow. In thisarticle, the authors use Fensham’s criteria for defining an emerging field of inquiry to characterize the evolution of EER inPortugal. They find that although there is as yet relatively little structural support for EER, data on research outputsuggests that the national and international contribution of Portuguese scholars to the field is on the increase inquantitative and qualitative terms. The authors identify challenges such as a perceived lack of legitimacy of the fieldand limited funding opportunities as factors limiting the development of this research field and hindering the diffusion andimplementation of proven good practice at national level. They suggest that management support and availability ofresources are key factors in meeting these challenges. They identify two important strategic goals for Portuguese EERscholars: research partnerships with international engineering education researchers and closer collaboration withresearchers in learning science.
