The Many Homes of Engineering Education Research: Historical Analysis of PhD Dissertations Johannes Strobel, Demetra Evangelou, Ruth A. Streveler, and Karl A. Smith School of Engineering Education, Purdue University CONTEXT Engineering education is portrayed as an emerging discipline and several new PhD pro- grams have been established. While it is undisputed that engineering education is cur- rently forming itself as a discipline, there are indications that there is a longer history of research that address specifically engineering education topics than commonly perceived (in this paper as evidenced by Ph.D. theses). The aim of this paper is to provide insights into the history of research in engineering education, by analyzing Ph.D. dissertations, which undertook engineering education re- search. The study employs bibliometric and scientometric methodologies, developed in the field of information and library science. The long-term goals for this line of research are to produce a database and methodologi- cal tools to research emerging questions about engineering education and elucidate on evidence pertaining to the following: * Limited number of researchers in the field/discipline * Field/discipline dominated by women * Limited fundamental understanding in the field/discipline, i.e., few theory-based or theory-building studies RESEARCH QUESTIONS The principal research questions are: (1) to what extent can we track and map the devel- opment of engineering education as a discipline by studying Ph.D. theses that emphasize engineering education, (2) who was studying engineering education at the PhD disserta- tion level? This line of research is important for a number of reasons: (a) To map past research on engineering education will reveal visible and invisible col- leagues and may accelerate growth and recognition. (b) To learn about and from the research of invisible colleagues can reaffirm the reasons why this new emerging discipline is necessary (i.e. to provide visibility). (c) To know the roots of a discipline and “academic ancestors” provides a continuous line and can install a sense of tradition even into a young discipline. (c) To know an existing and relevant body of research provides the community with a rich database to draw on and equips novices into the discipline with major contributions. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK A developmental framework, adapted analogically from Developmental Science (Peter- mann, Niebank & Scheithauer, 2004) and Organizational Development (Senge, 1990), guided the research team. Developmental Science is an interdisciplinary approach to re- search the development of individuals and communities over their life-span. Organiza-