Motivation and Perceptions of Research and Publication in Higher Education Faculty: A Phenomenological Study

Authors

  • Billie Myers Northwestern State University of Louisiana
  • Erik Braun Northwestern State University of Louisiana
  • Michelle Morris Northwestern State University of Louisiana
  • Patrice Moulton
  • Terrie Poehl Northwestern State University of Louisiana
  • Michael Moulton
  • Kecia Hawkins Northwestern State University of Louisiana

Keywords:

research, motivation, higher education

Abstract

Faculty members in higher education want to be productive and engage in scholarly endeavors. In the process of those pursuits, the literature supported a number of barriers and supports to conducting research along with motivators for doing research. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the experience of faculty research in higher education. More specifically, the investigative pursuits are to identify benefits, barriers, and supports for conducting research as well as motivational factors and expectations for engaging in research. The current, qualitative study included 8 interviewed participants from a rural university who were tenured or tenure-track faculty members. They were volunteers who have gave their informed consent to participate in a 30 to 60-minute interviews. The results revealed a number of sub-categories within the themes of supports, barriers, motivation factors, and expectations. These findings provide research implications into the benefits of exploring the research experiences of faculty members in higher education, including highlighting areas of further study, such as potential future quantitative studies that compare the research expectations of nine month versus 12-month faculty members.

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Published

2020-09-14

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2020): Research Issues in Contemporary Education

Section

Peer-Reviewed Articles

License

Research Issues in Contemporary Education (RICE) is a nationally indexed, double-blind, peer-reviewed online journal that publishes educational research studies, literature reviews, theoretical manuscripts, and practitioner-oriented articles regarding issues in education. Views expressed in all published articles are the views of the author(s), and publication in RICE does not constitute endorsement. Submission of an article implies that it has not been published and is not currently under review for publication elsewhere. 

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