The Determination of Faculty Members’ Perceptions and Knowledge of the Teacher-Scholar Model at a Primarily Teaching Institution

Abstract

The teacher-scholar model was created in recognition of the expectations that university faculty members will engage in both high-quality teaching and scholarship. The adoption of the teacher-scholar model at universities has been mixed. Our exploratory case study investigation took place at a primarily teaching university in which the model was recently embraced. We wanted to empirically document the faculty members’ knowledge, perceptions, preparation, and engagement in the teacher-scholar model. Our results indicate that the faculty members held constrained levels of knowledge of the model, were neutral in their perceptions of model, had a range of preparation to productively engage in the model, and they tended to take an array of approaches for engaging in the model. We also found positive relationships among perceptions of the teacher-scholar model, knowledge of the model, faculty member engagement in scholarship, and the duration of employment in higher education. Our findings suggest that there is a need for long-term professional development focused on the teacher-scholar model at universities where the model is being adopted.