Professional/technologist, academic, and teacher characteristics of a technological faculty

The purpose of this study was to determine the professional/technologist, academic, and teacher characteristics and activities of the faculty of a technological institute located in Canada. Three areas were investigated: (1) the actual characteristics and activities of the faculty groups (core, business, engineering, and health) as provided by the faculty; (2) the characteristics and activities perceived as desirable for faculty as indicated by the faculty groups and administrators; and (3) the congruence between the "actual" and "desirable" characteristics within each faculty group. The data were obtained from self-administered questionnaires given to all of the full-time faculty and administrators involved in two and three year technological programs. Descriptive data in the form of percentages were obtained, and where possible, inferential statistics using one way analysis of variance were performed. Differences were noted in the actual characteristics of the faculty groups. In comparison to the other groups, core faculty had proportionately fewer members who had 11 years or more work experience and "basic" professional or technological certification. Fewer members of the core and health faculties had engaged in consulting or "part-time" work, and taken an inservice teaching preparation course than had the other two groups. Core and health faculties spent significantly less time in professional or technologist activities than did the other two faculties. Compared to the business and engineering faculties, health faculty spent significantly more time performing teaching and related activities. The faculty groups and administrators indicated-differences in the characteristics they considered to be "desirable" for faculty. Compared to the other faculty groups and the administrators, the health faculty showed the smallest percentage who thought that no education or teaching certification was needed for faculty. Health faculty had significant differences from the other groups as health faculty considered various instruction or education topics to be more "useful." Core faculty differed significantly from the engineering and administrators groups as the former considered an educational leave of absence as more "useful." Business faculty showed a significant difference from the health faculty in that the/business faculty considered consulting activities as more "useful." Differences were found between the characteristics the faculty groups actually possessed and the characteristics they considered to be desirable. Although 3 to 5 years of previous work experience was generally considered as desirable by all faculty groups, fewer members of each group actually had that amount. The majority of all faculty groups considered consulting from 1 to 20 percent of the time worked per week as desirable. However, considerably fewer members of each group actually consulted for that amount of time. A bachelor degree was the modal minimal academic credential desired; however, generally fewer members of all faculty groups actually had that as their highest attainment. Although the majority of all faculty groups considered research activities to be "very valuable" or "valuable", the minority of all groups "very often" or "frequently" engaged in such activities. The largest proportions of all groups considered 1 to 2 years of previous teaching experience as desirable; in contrast, considerably smaller proportions actually had such experience. All faculty groups "actually" spent more time performing teaching and related activities, and less time performing academic and scholarly activities and professional or technologist activities, than they thought they "should" spend. These findings imply that: technological faculty should not be perceived as identical in the characteristics they actually possess; faculty groups and administrators should not be perceived as identical in the characteristics they perceive as desirable for technological faculty; and technological faculty groups should not be thought of as being in congruence with their "actual" and "desired" characteristics. These findings suggest that the four faculty groups should be involved in the assessment of the usefulness and/or value of new faculty development programs before they are implemented.

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