Engineering education has long been described as characterized by cultural norms that value rationality over emotions. Norms that devalue emotions are problematic because they can hinder engagement with value-laden issues, such as ethics and sustainability, and they may disproportionately impact students from minoritized populations. While previous research has shown that these norms exist in specific contexts, we lack knowledge on how widespread and dominant they are across contexts. We address this gap by describing a systematic and critical review of the literature on emotion norms in engineering education, asking: (1) What is the extent of the existing literature about emotion norms in engineering education? (2) What is known about emotion norms in engineering education?
Based on a Scopus search and systematic screening process, we identified 18 publications describing empirical studies on emotion norms in engineering education. Here, we describe preliminary results from our abductive analysis of seven papers. The reviewed publications do not describe one coherent emotion norm across all engineering education. Rather, emotion norms appear to be highly context- and community-specific. This finding supports previous research stating that some social groups are more adversely impacted by emotion norms than others. However, identifying variations in emotion norms can also open possibilities for change.