Forced options : faculty identity development and institutional culture

Author

Eileen Kogl Camfield, University of the Pacific

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Educational Administration and Leadership

First Advisor

Lynn Beck

First Committee Member

Joanna Royce-Davis

Second Committee Member

Marilyn E. Draheim

Abstract

Many faculty enter the professoriate with high ideals. They have identity conceptions of themselves as potential change-agents, expanding human knowledge and contributing to the greater good. Over time, for many, this idealism fades and is replaced with job dissatisfaction and bitterness. This study uses intersectionality as a theoretical frame to explore faculty identity development by examining the ways academic socialization into a competitive, hierarchical system privileges certain aspects of an individual's identity while imperiling others. In presenting data based on hour-long qualitative interviews with six mid-career university faculty members in the social sciences or humanities, the specific mechanisms that trigger this change are revealed. These lost dimensions may be the very source of academic renewal, pluralistic integration, and personal gratification.

Pages

91

Recommended Citation

Camfield, Eileen Kogl. (2012). Forced options : faculty identity development and institutional culture. University of the Pacific, Thesis. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/814