Four graduate students from four distinct Canadian institutions engaged in collaborative autoethnography to explore their dual roles as participant-researchers investigating the lived experience of graduate students studying engineering education research (EER) in Canada. Findings, oriented through the identity-trajectory framework, indicate that we questioned the legitimacy of the field, and thus our identities. This struggle for legitimacy is discussed in terms of community of practice, drawn from a situative perspective, as well as through boundary crossing, and socialization and cultural theories. We position EER as interdisciplinary and demonstrate how this space should be leveraged to encourage the advancement of transformative knowledge. We suggest the intentional construction of EER communities of practice at individual Canadian institutions is essential for explicitly attending to the identity development of EER graduate students and supporting the advancement of this interdisciplinary and emergent field.