Intellectual journeys in different directions: Engineering and social science students’ expanding understanding of the role of engineering

Journal article, 2025

Engineering and social science students can be said to belong to different thought collectives, with certain concepts and capabilities being considered core and others being considered more peripheral. In the interdisciplinary context we studied, engineering and social science students had the common object of learning of expanding their understanding of engineering but from different starting points. We aimed to identify what conceptions of engineering the course brought forth among the students taking the course. To achieve this, we employed a qualitative research approach, phenomenography, with a focus on different ways of experiencing something. Through iterative analysis of interview and written self-reflection data, four qualitatively different categories of description were identified for the engineering and social science students, respectively. Our identified categories of description represent potential positions along intellectual journeys as the students move closer to the other discipline, which also means moving further into a liminal space.