When Critical Ethnography Leaves the Field and Enters the Engineering Classroom: A Scoping Review

Background: Critical ethnography studies power relationships in research settings through in-depth and sustained involvement in research contexts. It is a newly emerging methodological approach in engineering education and should be further explored and understood.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present how critical ethnography has been used in research in engineering classrooms and to discuss what methodological insights we can gain from reviewing this research.

Scope/Method: The purpose of the scoping review is to map key concepts and types of evidence related to the use of critical ethnography in engineering education research from 2005–2020. We assessed articles on their (1) ethnographic methodological design, (2) topics of empirical study, and (3) critical orientation.

Conclusions: We found that authors defined ethnography broadly and that a majority of articles centered on student experience and learning in engineering. We also found that out of 35 articles included in the analysis, one study expressly used critical ethnography and 21 other studies employed some form of critical approach or construct. Our review has implications for researchers to expand the use of critical ethnography to understand complex engineering classroom arrangements and interactions.