Inquiry Methods for Critical Consciousness and Self-Change in Faculty (original) (raw)

Faculty-Student Interaction and Its Impact on Well-Being in Higher Education

ProQuest Dissertations, 2021

This educational criticism and action research study was conducted in the spring of 2020 to better understand the impact that faculty-student interaction has on the well-being of faculty and students. Classes moved to remote instruction halfway through the semester, prompting an additional research question on the impact of COVID-19 on faculty-student interaction and well-being. Data were collected at an engineering school from five faculty (4 participants and the researcher) and their students primarily through interviews, focus groups (with 16 student participants), and a student questionnaire (with 73 student respondents). Data analysis was structured with Uhrmacher, McConnell, and Flinders’ (2017) instructional arc, expanded to include student intentions and faculty perceptions. Faculty and students described what interactions are supportive and unsupportive of their well-being and indicated that there are different ways to give and receive care. The findings call for both a language and a system for expressing care needs in higher education, through better valuing of relationships and teaching. In higher education, and particularly in STEM programs, we can mitigate overwhelm by implementing new policies and practices to better support well-being of faculty and students through financial and structural support and via the evolution of curriculum, including analyses of hidden, shadow, and complementary curricula. It is also critical to consider how care work is defined and gendered within an institution, especially in regard to contingent or non-tenured faculty. The flow of care model expresses the ways in which supportive care can either be blocked or allowed to flow throughout the hierarchy of higher education. Future studies should examine interaction among different types of faculty or levels of students and explore the impact of interaction on the well-being of people of color, underrepresented groups, and marginalized populations.

Construction and Initial Validation of the Student-Professor Interaction Scale

2004

This article describes the development of an instrument to measure the multiple dimensions of student-faculty interactions. The sample consisted of 318 students (114 males, 203 females; 58% White, 16% African American, 9% Hispanic Americans) who completed the Student-Professor Interaction Scale (SPIS). Eight dimensions were identified, with Cronbach alphas ranging from 51 to .92. Dimensions ofstudent-faculty interactions were related to academic motivation and academic self-conceptfor the majority White sample, but only academic self-concept for the ethnic minority sample. African American and Hispanic American students reported feeling less connected with professors, perceived their experiences with faculty as more negative, and perceived faculty as less respectful when compared to White students. Implications for student affairs research andpractice are discussed. The importance of student-faculty interactions in facilitating the intellectual and personal growth of college students cannot be overstated. Wlodkowski and Ginsberg (1995) make the following observation: "People who feel unsafe, unconnected, and disrespected are unlikely to be motivated to learn. This is as true in college as it is in elementary school" (p. 2). The most utilized assessment of student-faculty interactions, operationalized by 10 items on the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ), focuses on the frequency of interactions with faculty in different situations. While frequency of interactions is certainly one important aspect of student-faculty interaction, it does not include other dimensions that we believe are central in fully conceptualizing and understanding the construct. Therefore, there is a need to develop an instrument that assesses different dimensions of student-faculty interactions. In their influential book Education and Identity, Chickering and Reisser (1993) state that next to peer relations, relationships with faculty are among

The Differential Effects of Student-Faculty Interaction on College Outcomes for Women and Men

Journal of College Student …, 2005

This study examined whether the impact of student-faculty interaction on a range of student outcomes-including academic achievement, goals, self-confidence, well-being, and attitudesdiffered for women and men. The data were drawn from a national longitudinal sample of college students (N = 17,637) who were surveyed upon entry to college in 1994 and four years later in 1998. Results indicate that although many commonalities exist in how student-faculty interaction relates to college outcomes for women and men, differential effects based on gender were observed across a number of domains.

Running Head: STUDENT-FACULTY INTERACTIONS Faculty Lend a Helping Hand to Student Success: Measuring Student-Faculty Interactions

Previous research indicates that student-faculty interactions can have several positive influences. Therefore, it is important for institutions to assess these interactions beyond just course evaluations. This study explores how to measure student interactions with faculty in a concise way as part of a larger survey. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested two scales to measure student-faculty interactions -Good Faculty Practices and Teaching Clarity. In addition, the paper explores the relationship between these scales and grade-point-average (GPA) and persistence. The results from this study suggest that these items could serve as a good proxy for student interactions with faculty and are significant predictors of GPA and persistence.

Walking the Walk: Student Expectations of Faculty in the Classroom

The purpose of this study is to explore student responses to a 2011 Student Inclusiveness Survey (SIS) and to examine students' concerns about their classroom experiences, particularly the role of faculty in campus diversity and inclusiveness efforts. A mixed method approach is used, employing descriptive statistics, OLS regression, and content analysis. Specifically, the SIS constructs that relate to faculty, the Self-Assessment of Diversity Learning Outcomes, the Commitment to Diversity and Inclusiveness, and students' open-ended responses to campus inclusiveness prompts were analyzed. The findings suggest that students see faculty as important brokers in diversity and inclusiveness knowledge, and that they appreciate and learn about these issues and concepts in the classroom. However, students expect faculty not only to teach about diversity and inclusiveness but also to live it in the classroom.