From 21–23 November 2025, the PhD Summer School in Engineering Education Research brought together PhD students, post-doctoral scholars, and early-career researchers in Muldersdrift, South Africa, for a focused three-day learning and networking experience hosted alongside the IRSPBL / SASEE / SoTL in the South Conference.
Framed around the theme “Anchoring conversations: Connection, collaboration and co-creation for the future”, the Summer School created space for participants to deepen their expertise in engineering and science education research while engaging with African epistemologies, Global South realities, and international perspectives.
Across the three days, participants explored the politics of knowledge in engineering and science education, considered sustainability as a central research imperative, and reflected on future career pathways in the field. The programme included dialogues, reflective mapping, case analysis, curriculum design activities, mentoring circles, peer review, and networking engagements.
The Summer School also provided an important opportunity to strengthen collaboration across institutions and regions, supporting the growth of a research community committed to transformative, contextually grounded, and globally connected engineering education scholarship.
We were joined by a wonderful team of Engineering Education researchers and practitioners from South Africa and Nigeria - Prof. Lelanie Smith from the University of Pretoria, Prof. Zach Simpson from the University of Johannesburg, Dr Disa Mogashana, PhD also from the University of Pretoria, and Prof. Olayinka Omowunmi Adewumi from the University of Lagos. They shared their experiences and current practices that have been developed gradually in response to the need to influence engineering students to relate better with learning experiences and to inspire educators to explore and adopt more evidence-supported approaches to how we educate.
We started the Capacity Building for Engineering Education (CB4EE) workshops on Monday and Tuesday, 6th and 7th October 2025, in Murang’a – hosted by the Murang'a University of Technology. We were joined by engineering educators from Murang'a University of Technology, South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), Chuka University, Machakos University, Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), and Kirinyaga University.
On Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th October, Strathmore University was honoured to host educators from the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Egerton University, and The Technical University of Kenya. The attendance was inspiring and the feedback from both Murang’a and Strathmore participants has been very encouraging.
The activities throughout the week got all of us to connect to each other as human beings first; to listen and appreciate individual experiences; and then to share those, along with our current practices. Sitting around round tables, engineering educators, mathematics and physics educators, computing sciences educators and programme administrators got to appreciate each other’s perspectives.
We reflected on strategies to influence our students to enjoy learning. We stepped into our students’ shoes to understand how they might respond to how we engage with them. Equally important was for us as educators to find a healthy balance—avoiding crossing a ‘line-of-insanity’—by focusing on what we control, while using thoughtful approaches to influence others to reflect and consider self-driven change.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.