Getting faculty to engage in research can be a daunting task for administrators and research departments alike. This presentation will provide an innovative approach to engaging faculty in research. Based on case research, an overview of faculty motivations and challenges in completing scholarship will be provided followed by discussion of successes found by the presenters through engaging faculty in mirroring to complete research. This will allow faculty, administrators, and research departments the opportunity to reconsider the challenges faculty face in scholarship engagement, and practical approaches to completion of research projects. By applying these strategies, research departments, administrators, and faculty themselves can engage in resesearch initiatives that stimulate engagement, create accountability, and lead to completion in faculty scholarly endeavors.
Faculty motivations and engagement to complete scholarship has proven to be a topic of interest to faculty, administrators, and faculty developers alike. The desire may be there, yet many faculty choose not to engage in scholarship – or at least that seems to be so in many cases. Research departments ask themselves “What will they use?" Administrators ask "What can we do to light the fire and fan the flame so that faculty prioritize scholarship?" And faculty – well, if they desire to do research – why aren’t they?
As one considers faculty scholarship engagement within their institution, it is important for administrators, research departments, and faculty members to recognize the value of research support – and how involvement of faculty in synchronous research programming may be vital for faculty engagement in scholarship while meeting the support needs of our online faculty.
Prior research has recognized the value of research programming, as well as its impact on faculty themselves, the institution, and students (Daumiller, & Dresel, 2020; Nicholson & Lander, 2020; Niles, Schimanski, McKiernan, Alperin, 2020; Stremersch, Winer, & Camacho, 2020). Additional themes related to engaging faculty in research identified in the literature include time, scheduling, financial incentives, and relevance of topics (Bolitzer, 2019; Castleberry, Haines, Stein, Van Amburgh & Persky, 2019). Online faculty in particular voice obstacles related to geography, scheduling, and accountability (Hammond & Waltemeyer, 2021).
These combined concerns will be addressed in this discovery session based on case research about faculty motivations and challenges in completing scholarship by engaging in mirroring. Adopting a synchronous online approach will allow faculty, administrators, and research departments the opportunity to reconsider the challenges faculty face in scholarship engagement, motivating factors, as well as practical approaches to completion of research projects. By applying these strategies, research departments, administrators, and faculty themselves can engage in research initiatives that stimulate engagement, create accountability, and lead to completion in faculty scholarly endeavors.