Enacting Efficacy in Early Career

• In Event: Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Promoting Early- and Mid-Career Faculty Success

Abstract

A number of scholars have pointed to the importance of the early career period in faculty members’ professional development and career success. Drawing on Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, the purpose of this multiple case study was to how early career scholars develop and enact their sense of efficacy in research, and specifically to identify the environmental conditions that support or inhibit scholars’ self-efficacy. Findings point to the high levels of research efficacy exhibited by participants, yet many participants struggled to enact that efficacy due to a variety of challenges in their personal and professional lives. We specifically note the personal and environmental factors that influence whether and how participants are able to act on their efficacy beliefs.

Authors

• Elizabeth Niehaus, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Jillian N Reading, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Crystal Garcia, University of Nebraska - Lincoln