Building the meaning of the evaluation of an engineering academic program: A phenomenological approach

Abstract

A synthesis of research on the construction of the meaning of the evaluation of a curriculum of Engineering, as perceived by the actors involved in an accreditation process. This study was intented to understand this particular phenomenon, limited in time and place, using a qualitative approach and the phenomenological method. The questions guiding the inquiry were: What is the real meaning of the evaluation of an engineering program?, What is the main purpose of the evaluation of an engineering program, How to develop an evaluation of an engineering program? , and finally, what are the results of the evaluation process? As a technique of collecting information was privileged to deep interview for administrative, faculty and students of the program being evaluated. In the analysis and interpretation of the data was used as a tool the computer program Atlas-Ti 5.0 and an instruction “codebook”, modeled AnSWR center program from the control and prevention of diseases of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. As part of the results, there were issues related to the interests, needs and expectations. Similarly as the unresolved conflicts of interest, lack of opportunities for participation and access to information as well as the accreditation criteria of the rating agency and organizational culture, influence the attitude and evaluative experience discrimination of facts that are seen as relevant, setting the sense attached to the process.