Well-Being at Associate Degree Granting Institutions: Faculty and Staff Well-Being in an Actor Network

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Perspectives on Student and Faculty Well-Being, Sense of Belonging in Higher Education (Table 11)

Abstract

Faculty and staff well-being at associate degree granting institutions (e.g. community colleges) has been under-researched. In this mixed-methods study, well-being at work is measured within the influence of a system of relationships as can be described by Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Faculty and staff well-being at work is documented through survey results and illustrated in relation to the functions of associate degree granting institutions: transfer, workforce preparation, and basic skills development. Through photovoice groups, evidence emerges of the relationship between competing demands on the institution and satisfaction or frustration of basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness from self-determination theory (SDT).

Author

• Nichole Fehrenbach, Johns Hopkins University