As many of the founding full-time community college faculty began to retire,
colleges across the nation intensified their full-time faculty recruitment and retention
efforts. They began to replace the retiring full-time faculty with the new generation
faculty cohort. The purpose of this study was to understand the role that a comprehensive
orientation program played in the socialization process of new community college
faculty. Additionally, the study examined the choice of orientation tactics used to
socialize the new faculty. Relying on the reported socialization experiences of seven full-time
faculty members from six of the seven colleges that comprised a community college
district, the study explored how an orientation program facilitated their adjustment
process. Finally, the researcher sought to identify ways to improve full-time community
college faculty socialization experience. Most of the faculty in this study, although having no specific training to teach at
the community college, were able to build relationships outside their individual colleges,
acquired new skills, and gained access to valuable district resources, as a result of their
participation in a yearlong comprehensive orientation program.
Three significant findings resulted from this study. The first major significant
finding of this study was that the incorporation of a social apparatus, such as the “retreat”
into an orientation program, facilitated group cohesion and identity among the new
faculty. The social structure of the retreat provided new faculty with an opportunity to
connect with one another at an emotional level. They were able to expand their social
networks beyond their immediate colleges. A second significant finding was that faculty
became more confident and comfortable in their teaching roles as a result of the skills
they acquired following their completion of the comprehensive orientation program. The
monthly sessions, which were held every 4th Friday provided the faculty the opportunity
to acquire and develop new skills to effectively discharge their responsibilities. The third
major finding of this study was that because faculty had access to district resources, to
develop their skills, they became more closely tied to their institutions.
Finally, recommendations are made to improve new faculty socialization
experience during their adjustment process. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/ETD-UT-2010-08-1854 |
| Date | 13 December 2010 |
| Creators | Agulefo, Uzo Izundu |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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