Illuminating Paradoxes: Faculty Voices on Online Teaching
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ILLUMINATING PARADOXES: FACULTY VOICES ON ONLINE TEACHING By Jessica Mansbach A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education – Doctor of Philosophy 2015 ABSTRACT ILLUMINATING THE PARADOXES: FACULTY VOICES ON ONLINE TEACHING By Jessica Mansbach The term paradox, used by scholars studying organizational behavior (e.g., Cameron & Quinn, 1998) denotes an apparent contradiction. Findings from this study give voice to faculty members’ positive and negative perceptions of the impact of online teaching on key elements of their work. Findings show that across the group of 19 faculty participants, and within the experiences of individual participants, there are positive and negative ways that online teaching impacts faculty members’ experiences of key elements of faculty work. On the one hand, faculty respondents reported perceiving that online teaching enhances key elements of faculty work. On the other hand, they also reported that online teaching diminishes key elements of faculty work. For example, while faculty members appreciate the flexibility of online teaching, the flexibility presents challenges related to how to manage their schedules. The mixed findings draw attention to the positive and negative ways in which online teaching impacts faculty work lives. Many organizational leaders attempt to ignore paradoxes because they are messy and illuminate areas of tension (Chen, 2002). Findings from this study suggest that higher education leaders would be remiss in ignoring faculty members’ perceptions of the paradoxical nature of online teaching. Instead, higher education leaders should embrace these paradoxes as opportunities to understand the diverse perceptions faculty members express in regard to the impact of online teaching on key elements of their work. By acknowledging the tensions and complexities presented by online teaching, faculty members and higher education leaders can view this form of work through a lens of faculty growth. Much of the literature about faculty work can be characterized as expressing a narrative of constraint that illuminates the difficulties and stresses of faculty work (O’Meara, Neumann, & Terosky, 2008). The literature about faculty members’ experiences teaching online often reflects this narrative of constraint by highlighting the obstacles that discourage faculty from teaching online (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Alongside this narrative of constraint is a counter narrative of faculty growth that illuminates faculty members’ capacity to persistently strive to overcome challenges in their work (O’Meara et al., 2008). The purpose of this study was to examine whether, alongside the barriers faculty encounter when they teach online, there are opportunities to experience elements of work that are associated with faculty satisfaction, productivity, and commitment: flexibility and balance, autonomy and academic freedom, relationships with students and colleagues, professional growth, and agency (Gappa, Austin, & Trice, 2007; O’Meara et al., 2008). Study participants were in the early middle, middle, or senior portion of the career, taught online undergraduate courses in a variety of disciplines, and held tenured and non-tenure-track appointments. Results from the study shed light on how to better support faculty who teach online and draw attention to the complexities and opportunities for growth inherent in this form of academic work. I argue that higher education leaders and scholars should use the paradoxical findings from this study to help their institutions develop strategic ways to support faculty who teach online. For example, faculty development specialists can consider how to help faculty members to maximize the flexibility afforded by this form of work while at the same time helping them to better manage their schedules. By taking into account both the positive and negative impacts of online teaching on key elements of faculty work, higher education leaders are better positioned to use a variety of promising strategies to support faculty who teach online. ACKNOWLEDGMENT S Thank you first to my parents for their love and support over the last four years, and throughout my whole life. Thanks for supporting me on this crazy journey and for listening to me ramble on and on about this dissertation. As I look back on my last four years at MSU I am extremely grateful for the support and kindness of my advisor and dissertation chair, Dr. Ann Austin. Ann, I thank you for your patience with me, and for believing I would indeed successfully complete a dissertation proposal, and then, after that, a dissertation. Your support and attention has been instrumental to my success in this program. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with you. Dr. Roger Baldwin, Dr. Patrick Dickson, and Dr. John Dirkx, I thank you for your support in helping me to complete this monstrous undertaking. Thanks for being on my committee! Over the past four years, I have been quite fortunate to work with an amazing supervisor, Dr. Bill Arnold. Bill, I thank you for your thoughtfulness and sincerity. From you, I learned how to be a thoughtful, critical, and sensitive practitioner and thinker. I am truly grateful for all of your support, kindness and generosity. You are the standard to which I will be holding my future supervisors and they will have big shoes to fill! Thanks to the fabulous Joy Milano for her wry sense of humor and fantastic copy editing job! To Leslie Auld, thank you does not begin to cover how grateful I am for the support you have given me over the past few years. Your kindness, patience, sense of humor, and compassion are more than I could have ever asked for. I feel very fortunate to have met you. iv To Dr. Kim Stott who was the one who suggested this crazy idea in the first place! Thank you for believing in me and for your support over the last several years. Who knows where I would be had I not met you at Temple and took your advice and decided to do this! To Dr. Brian Goldstein, who also believed in me and encouraged me to pursue this crazy path and was a great source of support. Brian, your sense of humor has never failed to make me smile! Thank you for always responding to my crazed emails and for helping me maintain my sanity before I left Philly for this program. To Dr. Carl Moore, who is a steady source of kindness, support, and laughs. Thanks for always listening to me and helping me out! And thanks for encouraging me to get involved with POD. Alas, just because I have completed this dissertation does not mean you are rid of me just yet! And, last, but certainly not least, I would not have had the wherewithal or sanity to do any of this without the support of my friends near and far. To my MI crew: Dawn (and Smoky!), Patrick, Renata, Nicole, Tamara, Kristin, Jess, and Julie. To my Philly crew: Scott, Sola, Rachel, Tricia, Melissa, Dara, Ed, and Bernie. Thank you for your support, kindness, dependability, hospitality, and sense of humor. A special shout out to my time at the delightful Brennesholtz B & B and the trusty Good Kharma Cafe! Most importantly, thank you for being willing to distract me and to listen to me when I needed it the most. Talks, walks, meals, laughs, and random other adventures came in quite handy over the past four years, as I am sure they will continue to in the future. No matter where I end up living next year, I will expect all of you to come and visit. Especially Smoky! v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................. 1 Online Teaching: A Trend In Higher Education ......................................................................... 2 Faculty’s Resistance To Online Teaching .................................................................................. 5 Key Elements of Faculty Work................................................................................................... 6 Online Teaching Across the Career and Across Appointment Type .......................................... 7 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 8 Conceptual Frameworks ............................................................................................................. 9 Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory ..................................................................................... 9 Framework of Essential Elements ............................................................................................ 10 Framework for Faculty Growth ................................................................................................ 10 Significance............................................................................................................................... 11 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ...................... 14 Distinguishing Features of the Work Lives of Non-Tenure-Track Instructors ......................... 15 Changing appointment patterns. ...........................................................................................