Generativity, stuckness, and insulation : community college faculty in Massachusetts.

129 Pages·2017·5.25 MB·English

University of Massachusetts Amherst
ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014
1-1-1980
Generativity, stuckness, and insulation : community
college faculty in Massachusetts.
Michael C. T. Brookes
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Recommended Citation
Brookes, Michael C. T., "Generativity, stuckness, and insulation : community college faculty in Massachusetts." (1980).Doctoral
Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 3561.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/3561
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GENERATIVITY / STUCKNESS/ AND INSULATION: COMMUNITY
COLLEGE FACULTY IN MASSACHUSETTS
A Dissertation Presented
By
MICHAEL CLIFFORD TODD BROOKES
Submitted to the Graduate School of the
University of Massachusetts in partial fulf
i-‘-
of the requirements for the degree o
i-t,
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
September 1980
Education
® Michael Clifford Todd Brookes 1980
All Rights Reserved
ii
GENERATIVITY, STUCKNESS, AND INSULATION: COMMUNITY
COLLEGE FACULTY IN MASSACHUSETTS
A Dissertation Presented
By
MICHAEL CLIFFORD TODD BROOKES
William F, Field, Member
a
Mario Fantini, Dean
School of Education
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Without the help of those whose names are listed here,
this study could not have been completed.
Senior faculty, academic deans, and their secretaries at
six of the colleges in the Massachusetts Regional Community
College System.
Doctoral Dissertation Committee:
Dr. William Lauroesch Chairperson, who worked hard for and
,
with me and has been mentor, guide and friend for a decade.
Dr. Charlotte Rahaim member, whose energy and enthusiasm
,
have created a program of study which matches the needs and
interests of community college personnel.
Dr. William Field "outside" member, who gave generously of
,
his knowledge and time and was unflagging in his interest in
the study.
Pauline Pierce, Curator of the Historical Room, Stockbridge
Library, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Virginia Bowman
Jayne Mooney Brookes
Dr. Kathe German
Dr. Lawrence H. Gross, Jr.
Dr. E. Klemer Hruska
Donald T. Oakes
Marc R. Topham
Kendall S. Way
IV
ABSTRACT
Generativity Stuckness, and Insulation: Community
,
College Faculty in Massachusetts
September 1980
Michael Clifford Todd Brookes, B.A., Oxon.,
M .A. , Oxon • , Ed .D« , University of Massachusetts
Directed by: Professor William Lauroesch
The aim of this small-scale study was to examine the
phenomenon of " stuckness” (Kanter, 1979) in ways that would
inform and direct efforts to maintain and reinforce commun-
ity college faculty effectiveness. Focus was on full-time
faculty who had been teaching ten or more years in the same
community college. The sample (N=27) was drawn from five
member institutions of the Massachusetts Regional Community
College System.
Using a survey instrument, an interview schedule, and
a validated measure of job satisfaction (Wood, 1973), the
investigator tested two basic hypotheses: (1) that the
psycho-social conditions of stuckness and its extreme op-
posite, generativity are present among senior community
/
college faculty; and (2) that stuck and generative faculty,
respectively, have in common distinct clusters of character-
istics. The data revealed six variables of particular
V
significance in characterizing the psycho-social state of an
instructor——overall job satisfaction, attitude toward stu-
dents, time spent on campus each week, satisfaction derived
from teaching, current feeling about having entered teach-
ing, and naving (or not having) a student—oriented five—vear
plan.
An unanticipated outcome was the identification of a
third distinct category, "insulated," related to the devel-
opmental stage of "levelling off" (Hall and Nougaim, 1968).
Insulated faculty report overall job satisfaction but do not
manifest other characteristics associated with the genera-
tive cluster.
Conclusions instructive to institutional efforts to
maintain, renew, and reinforce faculty effectiveness were:
1. Genera tivity would appear to be, at least to a degree,
imper'7ious to the absence of hygiene factors.
2. Similarly, stuckness is an internalized condition of
minor frequency that appears unrelated to external fac-
tors.
Because insulated faculty comprise the largest group and
3 .
appear to be influenced more than other groups by ny—
giene factors, they represent the most promising target
group for institutional intervention.
vi
.
4. Formal programs of staff development have little impact
on senior faculty, continuing involvement in profession-
al development being an effect of generativity not a
,
cause
The researcher recommends replication of the study us-
ing a sample large enough to permit testing for statistical
significance, as well as a similar study of less senior fac-
ulty. He suggests that linguistic analysis may also be used
for identifying psycho-social states of faculty.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
I INTRODUCTION
]_
The Problem
1
Purpose of the Study
3
Definition of Terms
4
Delimitations
6
Basic Assumptions
8
Need for and Significance of the Study 10
. .
II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 11
.
III METHODOLOGY
3 0
Design of the Study 30
The Subjects 32
Instrumentation 33
Procedures 38
IV PRINCIPAL FINDINGS 40
Principal Findings 40
Analysis of Data 41
Interpretation of Data 59
Hypotheses 63
V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 72
Limitations of the Study 73
Conclusions "76
Recommendations 32
BIBLIOGRAPHY 36
REFERENCE NOTES -33
APPENDIX A Instruments Used in the Study
The Survey ^3 2
The Interview Schedule -35
The Job Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction
Scale ^38
APPENDIX B Samples of Correspondence
....
APPENDIX C Institutions Included in the Study 117
viii