Faculty+motivation+in+academic+service-learning

Alexa Darby, Associate Professor, Elon University [adarby@elon.edu] Gabrielle Newman, B.A. Candidate, Elon University [gnewman3@elon.edu] Mary Knight-McKenna, Associate Professor, Elon University [mmckenna2@elon.edu]
 * Faculty motivation in academic service-learning **



**Keywords:** Faculty motivation, burnout, faculty commitment, qualitative interviews

**Track:** Faculty roles and professional development

**Format:** Poster presentation

**Date & time: **Thursday 3:20-4:30 **Location: **Salon 4 / Salon 9

**Summary:** Because academic service-learning (AS-L) is an asset for a variety of academic programs, it is important to understand the factors that may decrease its appeal or effectiveness for the faculty involved. While much literature exists on the benefits of AS-L, little research has addressed the crucial problem of burnout or investigated ways to maintain or increase faculty commitment to AS-L over time. This study explores motivational challenges faculty members face in teaching academic service-learning (AS-L) courses, with the goal of developing ways to maintain or increase commitment over time.

Twenty-seven university faculty members participated in one-hour individual interviews. Preliminary analysis shows that 100% of the faculty members are motivated to teach AS-L by the real-world experience students gain, while only 56% mentioned the value of serving the local community. Although faculty identified challenges and frustrations in teaching AS-L courses, they nevertheless remained committed to these courses. However, they also recommended providing greater support to help faculty overcome challenges to their motivation, such as limiting class size, talking to other AS-L faculty, reading theory and research on AS-L, providing support from colleagues in the campus center for AS-L and civic engagement, recognizing the AS-L time commitment through course releases, and establishing partnerships between faculty members who can problem-solve together. Further analysis will explore two types of AS-L courses--project-based and direct service courses--to investigate similarities and differences in their pedagogical benefits and the challenges they present to faculty motivation.

**References:** Abes, E., Jackson, G., & Jones, S. (2002) Factors that motivate and deter faculty use of service-learning. // Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 9(1), 5-17. //

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Mowday, R.T.M. (1982). Expectancy theory approaches to faculty motivation. //New Directions for Teaching and Learning: Motivating Professors to Teach Effectively//, (10), 59-70.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">National Service-Learning Clearinghouse. (2011). //What is Service-Learning?// Retrieved from [].

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Ward, K.W. (2003). //Faculty service roles and the scholarship of engagement.// San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Please click here to access a PDF copy of this page: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">[|Darby_Faculty motivation in academic service.pdf]

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**Julia: I'm interested in your findings. We are developing service-learning at our college, and with faculty time constraints, I'm finding motivation very difficult even when interest is there. Do you find a distinction between internal and external motivation?**