Needs, motivations, and identification with teaching: a comparative study of temporary part-time and tenure-track health science faculty in Iceland

• Published in: BMC Medical Education
• Main Authors: Abigail Grover Snook, Asta B. Schram, Thorarinn Sveinsson, Brett D. Jones
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019
• Subjects: Sessional faculty; Motivation; Needs; Faculty development; Identity; Connectedness; Special aspects of education; LC8-6691; Medicine; R; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1779-4; https://doaj.org/article/f9e8d2b96b2b4873b6668f4f90872294

Abstract Background About 70% of teachers who instruct healthcare students are considered sessional (adjunct/temporary part-time) faculty and receive limited instruction in pedagogy. Sessional faculty may feel isolated and struggle with their teacher identity, and are often assumed to vary in their commitment, motivation, and ability to teach. However, research on teaching identity, motivations, and needs of sessional faculty is lacking. The aim of this study was to compare similarities and differences between sessional and tenure-track faculty across a health science school to guide faculty development for sessional faculty. Methods We developed an online needs assessment survey, based on informal interviews and literature reviews. Seventy-eight tenure-track faculty and 160 sessional faculty completed the survey (37, 25% response rate, respectively). We used validated scales to assess intrinsic motivation, identified regulated motivation, and identification with teaching, as well as developed scales (perceived connectedness, motivated by appreciation to try new teaching method) and single items. All scales demonstrated good internal consistency. We compared sessional and tenure-track faculty using t-tests/chi-square values. Results We found similarities between sessional and tenure-track faculty in intrinsic motivation, identified regulated motivation, and identification with teaching. However, sessional faculty perceived less department connectedness and were more motivated to improve instruction if shown appreciation for trying new teaching methods. Sessional faculty agreed more that they desired pedagogy instruction before starting to teach and that teachers should invest energy in improving their teaching. Admitting to less participation in activities to enhance teaching in the last year, sessional faculty were more interested in digital formats of faculty development. Conclusion Our comparison suggested that sessional faculty value being a teacher as part of their self, similar to tenured faculty, but ...