Citations as a Key to Identity in the Field of Instructional Design Technology

• Published in: TechTrends Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 64 - 69
• Main Authors: Carr-Chellman, Alison A, Ma, Ziyan, Almeida, Luis C, Gursoy, Husra T, Modak, Rucha S, Pastore, Raymond S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01-06-2008; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Attitudes; Authors; Citation Analysis; Computer science; Cultural identity; Education; Educational psychology; Educational Technology; Graduate students; Instructional Design; International standards; Interviews; Learning and Instruction; Learning Theories; R&D; Research & development; Research methodology; Scholars; Studies; Instructional Design; Instructional Technology; Educational Technology; Identity Issue; Citation Count
• ISSN: 8756-3894; 1559-7075
• DOI: 10.1007/s11528-008-0157-6

In recent decades, many people have studied the identity of the field of Instructional Design and Technology (IDT), in order to understand this emerging discipline more completely. Defining the field is itself a difficult prospect. Circumscribing a space that includes all educational technology, instructional technology, instructional systems, instructional design, training, and similar disciplines becomes in itself a difficult task. Among the large number of previous studies focusing on refining the identity of the field, very little research has looked at citation analyses and none to date that the authors are aware of has examined frequently cited publications thematically as a window into the IDT field's interests and enduring subject matter. The authors attempt to fill this gap by examining often cited works of major theorists in IDT and discussing these publications with those theorists to understand their perceptions of what their work means to IDT trends and issues. They are motivated by a straightforward research question: "What are the perceptions of leading scholars on their most often cited works as a reflection of the identity of the IDT field?" After a brief review of the literature on previous research in related topics, they present the methods used in the study, followed by the discussion of their findings. Although the participants of this study are all scholars in North America, international publications and scholars were included in the initial search. They suspect that this study, like many such studies, is biased toward a U.S. perspective either because of the search engine selected or the manner in which well-known scholars in major IDT programs were identified.