A Mixed Method Approach to Understanding Researcher Identity

Abstract

Background: Identity research in engineering education has been expanding to include multiple forms of measurement. While a variety of approaches have successfully contributed to our understanding of identity, mixed method approaches have been utilized minimally in identity research. Therefore, additional insight on the implications and affordances of mixed method approaches for identity research is needed. Purpose: Our work explored undergraduate engineering students' researcher identity using a fully integrated mixed method approach by interweaving deductive (quantitative) and inductive (qualitative) strands of survey and interview data. We aimed to answer the research question: How can quantitative and qualitative data approaches be used in combination to explore how students conceptualize their researcher identity? Method: The data included responses from 20 undergraduate mechanical and biomedical engineering students representing six different institutions. Students completed surveys, and their survey responses served as a foundation for subsequent interviews. Both the survey and interview contained an identical item (a single anchored scale measure of researcher identity), which directly connected the two data sets. While the survey data was used during the interviews, analysis of the strands was initially separate but concurrent. Results: After initial analysis, mixing the data provided two key opportunities to attain a deep understanding of participants' researcher identity. The anchored scale provided a platform to discuss researcher identity with participants and allowed us to look within and across participants' experiences in unexpected ways. Our discoveries of how individual students' conceptualizations of the identity being measured varied and how those conceptualizations changed over time were only possible through the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. Conclusions: Our fully integrated mixed method approach resulted in a more complete understanding of students' researcher identities, allowing us to extend our theoretical understanding beyond what would have been possible with either method alone. Researchers exploring complex topics that can be fluid and affected by time and experience, such as identity, may benefit from integrating a similar approach into their research protocols.

What does it mean to be “prepared for work”? Perceptions of new engineers

“…The apparent contradictions between these two concurrent forms of data collection elicited the research question. In this respect, our work echoes the approach used by Kajfez et al (2021) to qualitatively explore definitions of researcher identity when quantitative results contradicted expectations.…”

A grounded theory model of the dynamics of undergraduate engineering students' researcher identity and epistemic thinking

“…Each interview included a few questions that served as follow‐up questions to participants' survey responses. These questions were primarily designed to further explore aspects of the participants' researcher identities (Kajfez et al, 2021). The interviews were conducted in‐person, over the phone, or using Skype.…”

“…Through the process of participating in a research group, students also learn what it means to be a researcher (Brown et al, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Previous work suggests that student views of what it means to be a researcher are related to their perceptions of themselves as researchers (Kajfez et al, 2021). As students participate in research, they move from legitimate peripheral participants to full members of the research group (Lave & Wenger, 1991).…”