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1 – 10 of 17
Expert briefing
Publication date: 22 March 2024

The move by non-tenure-track faculty and post-doctoral researchers came two months after Claudine Gay resigned under pressure as the university’s president. The two developments…

Details

DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB286015

ISSN: 2633-304X

Keywords

Geographic
Topical
Article
Publication date: 23 March 2023

Ahmet Meti Tmava and Sara Ryza

The number of open access repositories (OARs) has been growing globally, but faculty members have been reluctant to embrace OAR and submit their work. While there are studies that…

Abstract

Purpose

The number of open access repositories (OARs) has been growing globally, but faculty members have been reluctant to embrace OAR and submit their work. While there are studies that looked at sociotechnical factors that affect faculty participation in OARs, this study aims to explore how the individual characteristics of faculty might impact faculty willingness to deposit their work in an OAR.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey was distributed to all faculty at a large public university in the USA who were identified as having their primary job responsibilities in teaching and research. This study used a correlational analysis between faculty individual characteristics (i.e. age, rank, status and academic discipline) and their willingness to deposit their work.

Findings

The findings show that there is a difference in faculty familiarity with open access (OA) principles and faculty awareness of OA policy based on individual characteristics. Furthermore, these individual characteristics have a significant impact on faculty willingness to participate in OARs. While this study reveals a significant correlation between the faculty intent to deposit and the respondent’s academic discipline, rank and status, there are other factors that affect faculty intent to participate in OAR, such as familiarity with OA principles and awareness of institution’s OA Policy.

Research limitations/implications

There were no significant responses from the Colleges of Science or Health and Public Service and, therefore, did not yield any statistically significant results. Measuring the university’s promotion system was outside the scope of this research.

Practical implications

Results of this research can provide insight on how individual characteristics of faculty might impact their willingness to embrace OA publishing in general and OARs in particular.

Social implications

The findings from this research will be a valuable source of information for librarians and OA staff in developing more effective outreach programs to increase faculty participation in OA and OARs.

Originality/value

This study reveals that individual faculty traits do have an impact on faculty willingness to participate in OARs. The academic discipline was found to make the most significant difference in faculty intent to deposit their work in an OAR. However, due to the ever-changing landscape of OA publishing and the ongoing outreach efforts by librarians, the faculty members’ perception and participation in OARs is likely to evolve.

Details

Digital Library Perspectives, vol. 39 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5816

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 March 2024

Daniel Walzer

In the following theoretical article, the author generates a theory of Leadership Pedagogy and its connection to Creative Arts Education.

Abstract

Purpose

In the following theoretical article, the author generates a theory of Leadership Pedagogy and its connection to Creative Arts Education.

Design/methodology/approach

The article analyzes Leadership Theory across three pillars: Socio-relational, Cognitive and Creative, and how these areas underscore thoughtful and caring pedagogy and inclusive teaching in undergraduate education.

Findings

Drawing on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), the article advocates for a flexible, multifaceted approach to curricular design rooted in theoretical pluralism, prioritizing interdisciplinary methods to bridge theory and practice in Creative Arts Education.

Originality/value

The article concludes with implications for future research and collaboration connecting Leadership Studies and the Arts.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Keywords

Abstract

Collegiality is the modus operandi of universities. Collegiality is central to academic freedom and scientific quality. In this way, collegiality also contributes to the good functioning of universities’ contribution to society and democracy. In this concluding paper of the special issue on collegiality, we summarize the main findings and takeaways from our collective studies. We summarize the main challenges and contestations to collegiality and to universities, but also document lines of resistance, activation, and maintenance. We depict varieties of collegiality and conclude by emphasizing that future research needs to be based on an appreciation of this variation. We argue that it is essential to incorporate such a variation-sensitive perspective into discussions on academic freedom and scientific quality and highlight themes surfaced by the different studies that remain under-explored in extant literature: institutional trust, field-level studies of collegiality, and collegiality and communication. Finally, we offer some remarks on methodological and theoretical implications of this research and conclude by summarizing our research agenda in a list of themes.

Book part
Publication date: 12 December 2023

Kimiya Sohrab Maghzi and Marni E. Fisher

In contextualizing critical race theory (CRT), this chapter utilized prismatic inquiry to analyze a researcher–participant's story at different levels in education through a…

Abstract

In contextualizing critical race theory (CRT), this chapter utilized prismatic inquiry to analyze a researcher–participant's story at different levels in education through a DisCrit lens, offering the “what, why, and how” of DisCrit as an analytical tool important to the everyday lives of educators and students. Using prismatic inquiry and a DisCrit lens, the anecdotal experiences of an educator were gathered, transcribed, examined, and analyzed. Lessons from this educator's experiences that emerged were aligned to existing research literature, viewed and further analyzed through a DisCrit lens, and synthesized to offer insights in improving the training of current and future educators, classroom teachers, and school leaders.

Details

Contextualizing Critical Race Theory on Inclusive Education From a Scholar-Practitioner Perspective
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-530-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 July 2023

Bert Spector

The purpose is to offer a critique of the process of decision-making by top university administrators and to analyze how their decisions imposed their preferences and expanded…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose is to offer a critique of the process of decision-making by top university administrators and to analyze how their decisions imposed their preferences and expanded administrative control.

Design/methodology/approach

In the fall of 2021, the top administrators at Boston-based Northeastern University required that all members of the university community return to fully on-campus face-to-face work. That decision involved a return to what was labeled “normal operations” and followed a year-and-a-half of adjustments to the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on that case example, the analysis then ranges backward and forward in time. Other decisions – by Northeastern University leaders as well as leaders at other schools – are considered as well.

Findings

Leaders impose labels on complex contingencies as a way of constructing meaning. No label is objectively true or indisputable. In the hands of individuals who possess hierarchical power and authority, the application of a label such as “new normal” represents an exercise of power. Through an exploration and analysis of the underlying, unspoken, assumptions behind the application of the “new normal” label, the article suggests how the interests of university leaders were being advanced.

Research limitations/implications

Because of its reliance on labeling, the paper focuses mainly on the words of administrators – at Northeastern University and elsewhere – that are called upon to explain/justify decisions. The multiplicity of interests forwarded by the “new normal” label are explored. No attempt is made – nor would it be possible – to understand what was in the hearts and minds of these administrators.

Practical implications

The article makes a case that any and all pronouncements of leaders should be understood as assertions of power and statements of interests. The practical impact is to suggest a critical analysis to be applied to all such pronouncements.

Social implications

The approach taken in this article is situated within post-modernist analysis that critiques dominant narratives, disputes epistemological certainty and ontological objectivity and takes cognizance of coded messages contained in language.

Originality/value

Everyone has been through a traumatic period of time with the pandemic. The author has focused on a specific community – university administrators and tenure/tenure track faculty – as a window to help explain how decision-makers shaped their response. The author wants to emphasize the labels imposed by leaders and the assumptions behind the application of those labels.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 April 2023

Krzysztof Rybinski

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between student emotions, professors' performance and course ratings and difficulty.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between student emotions, professors' performance and course ratings and difficulty.

Design/methodology/approach

Natural language processing models are used to extract six basic emotions and several categories of professors' harmful performance from nearly one million student reviews randomly selected from the website ratemyprofessors.com. These features are used in regression analysis to analyse their relationship with numerical ratings of course quality and course difficulty.

Findings

Negative emotions and bad performance by professors are detected more often for low-rated courses and courses perceived as more difficult by students. Positive emotions are seen for highly rated and less challenging courses.

Practical implications

This paper shows that natural language processing tools can be used to enhance and strengthen the quality assurance processes at universities. The proposed methods can improve the often-contested student evaluation of teaching practices, help students make better and more informed choices about their courses and assist instructors to better tailor their teaching approaches and create a more positive learning environment for their students.

Originality/value

This paper presents a novel analysis of how student emotions and poor performance by professors, derived automatically from teacher evaluations by students, affect course ratings. Results also lead to a novel hypothesis that the student–course emotional match or student tolerance of bad behaviour by professors can affect the performance of students and their chances of completing their degree.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 30 November 2023

Pedro Pineda

I historically compare changes in institutional frameworks creating academic positions linked to temporary employment by analyzing university employment statistics in Chile…

Abstract

I historically compare changes in institutional frameworks creating academic positions linked to temporary employment by analyzing university employment statistics in Chile, Colombia, Germany, and the USA. I find that temporary academic positions were institutionalized through the creation of previously inexistent academic categories called a contrata in Chile, de cátedra in Colombia, “junior professor” without tenure in Germany and “postdoc” in the USA; used in higher education and employment laws since 1989, 1992, 2002, and 1974, respectively. Under institutional frameworks demanding the maximization of students and research, universities have increasingly contracted academics through temporary contracts under rationales that differ between regions. In Colombia and Chile, public university leaders and owners of private universities contract such teaching positions to expand student numbers through lowering costs. In Germany and the USA, employment insecurity is mostly driven by temporary scientific positions under a main rationale of scientific expansion. The share of temporary positions has increased exponentially in Colombia and Germany in recent decades, whereas in the USA there has only been an increase since 2012. Moreover, in Chile, the share of permanent positions has decreased since 2012. The common trend is one of isomorphism of vertical academic structures sharing a pyramidal form, with a wide base of academics working under conditions of contractual insecurity. Such trends follow a rationale for maximization of student numbers as well as administration, and scientific production that is in tension with prioritizing wellbeing and improvement of academics’ working conditions. Yet, in these environments, the institution of tenure in the USA and recent Chilean regulations on accreditation represent mechanisms counteracting precarious employment.

Details

University Collegiality and the Erosion of Faculty Authority
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-814-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 February 2023

Roger Pizarro Milian and Rochelle Wijesingha

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies have proliferated in recent decades, but studies have repeatedly noted their inefficacy and adverse effects. To understand the…

Abstract

Purpose

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies have proliferated in recent decades, but studies have repeatedly noted their inefficacy and adverse effects. To understand the potential root causes of the inefficiency of EDI policies, this study examines how they are inhabited by individuals at the ground level.

Design/methodology/approach

This study draws on data gathered through 23 in-depth interviews with instructors at Progressive U, a large research-intensive Canadian university.

Findings

The data gathered/analyzed suggest that the implementation of EDI policies at Progressive U is hindered by the absence of coercive enforcement mechanisms, skepticism about their authenticity, the over-regulation of work and unresponsive bureaucratic structures.

Originality/value

This study examines the implementation of EDI policies through the prism of the inhabited institutions perspective in organizational sociology, producing insights that help to explain why EDI policies typically fail. In doing so, it produces insights relevant to both academic researchers and practitioners in the field.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 42 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 March 2024

Andrew Miller and Adam Vanhove

Drawing on organismic integration theory, we aim to examine whether the reasons independent contractors choose contract work are related to their on-the-job motivation and job…

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on organismic integration theory, we aim to examine whether the reasons independent contractors choose contract work are related to their on-the-job motivation and job satisfaction and whether their perceived support enhances positive (or buffers negative) effects.

Design/methodology/approach

We collected data at three separate time points from 241 adjunct instructors to test a moderated mediation model using bootstrapping analyses.

Findings

The positive relationship between pull factors (e.g. autonomy) and job satisfaction is fully mediated by the autonomous motivation contractors experienced at work. The inverse relationship between push factors (e.g. inability to secure desired work role) and job satisfaction is not mediated by autonomous nor controlled motivation experienced at work. Contractors' perceived organizational support does not moderate the relationship between either push or pull factors and autonomous motivation. Post hoc analysis shows a moderating effect of perceived supervisor support on the nonlinear relationship between push factors and autonomous motivation.

Practical implications

Recruiting individuals drawn to the benefits of contract work may have important implications for worker motivation, job satisfaction and potentially beyond. Moreover, organizations may consider whether existing support resources and infrastructure are appropriate for contractors.

Originality/value

Despite the abundance of evidence demonstrating the benefits of organizational and supervisor support among traditional employee populations, such support may be of limited value to those drawn to contract work.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

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