Can Increasing Faculty Professionalism Raise Instructional Quality at a Chinese University?

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine if increasing faculty professionalism is a viable strategy for raising the quality of instruction at a Chinese university. In this study, increasing faculty professionalism refers to increases in regards to six areas of faculty work: academic freedom, work balance, governance, reward systems, salary, and professional development. A mixed-methods approach was used in this study. 30 faculty and 15 administrators were interviewed using a standardized open-ended approach and 27 faculty and 21 administrators responded to a questionnaire with 26 Likert-type questions. Study findings suggest that faculty and administrators at Guangdong X University agree that instructional quality needs to be raised. In addition, the findings suggest that faculty and administrators at Guangdong X University agree that increasing faculty professionalism may be an effective way to raise the quality of instruction at this university. Also, the findings suggest that this agreement between faculty and administrators at Guangdong X University may indicate an open policy window (Kingdon, 2003) for advancing the strategy of increasing faculty professionalism as a way to raise instructional quality. Finally, policy alternatives are suggested in view of Kingdon's (2003) model.