Engineers and their practice: A case study

There has been a growing awareness of the need for models of engineering practice in recent years and the publication of The New Production of Knowledge [1] by Gibbons led to considerable attention being focused on two distinct modes of knowledge production: Mode 1 associated with a traditional academic discipline-based approach and the more recently-emerged Mode 2, a problem-focused process more common in the entrepreneurial sphere. The case-study reported here originally set out to use Gibbons´ models to characterize the work of a group of Portuguese engineering researchers over a 15-year period. The study employs a qualitative methodology and narrative approach to characterize practice within this group of engineers so as to look for appropriate lessons that can be applied to engineering education to better prepare future professionals. Analysis of the information gathered during the study has caused us to question our original model of engineering practice and leads us to the conclusion that the Unifying Model recently proposed by Trevelyan [2] could represent a better fit to characterize the activities of this group and would suggest a need to gather empirical data on engineering practice.