Map Faculty and Staff Well-Being with Mixed Methods

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Novel Mixed Methods Research Applications: Insights into the Diversity of Mixed Methods Research

Abstract

Studying faculty and staff well-being through humanizing participatory research methods reveals why some interventions for improving well-being are not effective. An innovative mixed methods study framed by actor-network theory combined survey results (n=230) with issues, themes, and theories from serial, unmoderated focus groups (n=18) employing photovoice. The results include scale scores of autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work and participant generated theories about what influences their well-being. Integrating the data into visual maps of the interactions among actors reveals findings like a distrust of the freedom to act autonomously that is either wholly attributed to leadership or politics. The way forward requires reframing so that neither is assumed to be the single cause for the distrust.

Author

• Nichole Fehrenbach, Johns Hopkins University