Faculty identity: An exploratory study using social identity theory.

摘要

Over the last twenty years, the higher education literature has increasingly noted a trend toward the fraying on-campus community and the declining degree to which faculty members identify with their employing institutions, their colleagues, and their disciplines at large. This concern has led many researchers to call for a greater understanding of faculty professional identity.; The subject of faculty professional identity has proven a challenge to examine, however, as extant higher education literature does not offer a consistent framework from which to consider the construct. Therefore, this study utilized social identity theory from the social science literature. According to social identity theory, identity is the result of the shared relationship between the individual and the groups to which s/he belongs.; Insights into how faculty members perceive and manage multiple foci of identity could be an aid in explaining faculty relations with their colleagues, their employing institutions, and their disciplinary communities at large. This study examined the ways in which faculty negotiate and prioritize the following four foci of work-related identities: the academic unit; the academic college; the employing institution; and the academic discipline.; Social identity theory posits that social identity can vary according to group size. In addition, research by Biglan suggests that faculty identity choices might relate to academic disciplinary area. Therefore, using an email questionnaire as the primary method of data collection, faculty members from the academic disciplines of chemistry and education from research, master's level, and baccalaureate institutions were asked to assess their degree of identification with the aforementioned foci of identification.; Results of multivariate and univariate analyses, along with relevant post hoc tests, revealed that a while a significant relationship between institution type and faculty professional identity does exist for some foci of identification, academic discipline is significant only on a limited basis. Discipline was also found to relate to faculty professional identity when considered together with institution type.; Keywords: Biglan, Faculty Identity, Gouldner, Higher Education, Social Identity Theory