Understanding engineering educators’ pedagogical transformations through the Hero’s Journey

Many engineering education research faculty have put much effort into providing empirical evidence demonstrating the success of student-centred teaching strategies in the hopes that this evidence will result in widespread changes of engineering teaching practices. Unfortunately, these student-centred strategies have not been widely adopted as many engineering faculty still rely heavily on traditional lectures. In this study, we investigate three engineering faculty who have successfully made the transition to student-centred teaching strategies to uncover the complexities and nuances through their stories. This study uses Dewey’s Theory of Experience as a theoretical framework and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey as a structural way to construct and analyse narratives of participant’s journeys. These engineering faculty narratives shed light on the stages involved in the process of changing teaching practices and how individuals interact with the environment to evolve over time.