Learning the Inside Culture

• In Event: 16.048 - Breaking the Code: Developing a Mentorship Network for Minority Faculty in Academic Settings

Abstract

1. Objective: To discuss the culture and environment of academia in IHEs.

2. Theoretical Framework: Power theory [references]

3. Mode of Inquiry: Narrative Inquiry - Connelly and Clandinin (1990) describes narrative inquiry in "education and educational research as the construction and reconstruction of personal and social stories" (p. 2). We drew from the tenets of narrative inquiry to inform our process and method.

4. Data Sources: Narratives, stories and reflections, and Literature Review

5. Point of View:
An overgeneralization of the academic profession in IHEs dismisses the cultural differences in higher education campuses, schools, and sub cultural differences in departments and disciplines (Rosch & Reich, 1996). In addition, there seems to be a disconnect within the preparation of doctoral candidates regarding their role as faculty members. The expectation is that graduate candidate experience a process of socialization as they develop required values and skills to become faculty in IHE. However graduate candidates do not explicitly learn about the “hidden agenda” within the culture of the university. Faculty in the 21st century are expected to be proficient in specific skills and abilities including: knowledge and skills, professional attitudes, interpersonal skills, and conceptual understandings (Austin & McDaniels, 2006)

New tenure track faculty is defined by Austin, Sorcinelli, and McDaniels (2007) as faculty who have not been promoted, achieved tenure, and or within the first seven years of appointment (p.40). New faculty members negotiate a cultural shock at their new institution as they experience a process of socialization into the institutional practices of that setting. Corcoran and Clark (1984) described socialization as “cultural learning” in which the values, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and expectations of a particular culture are acquired by initiates. On the other hand, culture in the institution is fluid and will evolve as a result of interactions of faculty at the institution (Kuh, 2003). During the last decade, the new faculty is becoming more diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity and there is a noted increase in the number of women earning doctorates in the United States (Austin, Sorcinelli, & McDaniels, 2007).

6. Scholarly Significance:
Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) continue to struggle with recruitment and retention of minority faculty, especially women in academia (Turner, Viernes, & Myers, 2000; Wu, Thorsos, & Kern, 2016). There is a disparity between the percentages of men and women faculty with tenure (48.6% and 34.6% respectively) and the low rate (28%) of women faculty who advance in rank to full professors (Curtis, 2011). The importance of mentoring networks for minority faculty in supporting their successful advancement toward tenure, promotion and leadership has been well documented (Agosto et al., 2015; Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, & Lima, 2004; Bottoms et al., 2013; Esnard, et al. 2015; Unterreiner, Four-Babb, Kern, & Wu, 2015).

Author

• Antonette M. Aragon, Colorado State University