Faculty and the engaged institution: Toward understanding motivators and deterrents for fostering engagement

 
 
 
 

Faculty and the engaged institution: Toward understanding motivators and deterrents for fostering engagement

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Title: Faculty and the engaged institution: Toward understanding motivators and deterrents for fostering engagement
Author: Wade, Amy M.
Description: The purpose of this dissertation is to present a holistic approach to understanding the activities that constitute faculty engagement. After setting an historical context for the public service roles of higher education and the faculty, the author defines specific activities involving service-learning, community-based research and certain forms of professional and public service as the package of engaged faculty work. The main research questions of the study involve investigating the ways faculty participate in engagement-related activity and the frequency; exploring the variables which help explain engagement behavior; and, understanding how faculty perceive and experience engagement. The Survey of Faculty Engagement (SFE) was developed for the purposes of this study and was piloted at a large Midwestern land-grant institution. The survey was based on the author’s development of a conceptual model to understand engagement, the Faculty Engagement Model (FEM). Another main research question of the study was whether the SFE instrument confirmed dynamics hypothesized based on previous literature. Quantitative methodology was employed to address these research questions. Overall, findings indicate that faculty at the pilot site participate in engagement activity but choose to pursue the forms of engagement that are the least time intensive, namely public service and outreach and engagement-oriented professional service. Additionally, while many of the variables that have been investigated in previous literature were significant in explaining engagement behavior, others, such as motivation, values, gender and race/ethnicity, were not. It is postulated the some of the differences in expected versus actual outcomes are attributable to the fact that the pilot study took place at a RU/VH (very high research activity) institution and previous literature does not focus exclusively on faculty engagement behavior within this institutional type. The FEM proved to be a good starting place for explaining engagement behavior, yet more research needs to be done to continue testing and refining the model.
Permanent Link: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1227558125
http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/107428
Date: 2008

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