Faculty Identification and Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research in a Multidisciplinary Setting, the School of Public Health.

Abstract

Interdisciplinary collaboration is a dominant theme in how professional people ought to work together. This study explores the collaborative teaching and research patterns of graduate faculty in a multidisciplinary setting. The setting is the school of public health which has a long tradition of multidisciplinary endeavors. The objectives of the study were to determine what patterns of collaborative teaching and research exist; with whom they collaborate; and what factors influence the collaborative behavior. A second focus of the work is how individuals in the multidisciplinary setting identify themselves professionally; how identification is related to collaborative work; and the factors which influence identification in a multidisciplinary setting. Finally, interest is directed toward the effects of identification and collaboration on faculty productivity and satisfaction. The respondents are faculty members of fifteen schools of public health who hold the ranks of full, associate and assistant professor; who receive at least a part of their salary from the school of public health; and who teach in the areas of Biostatistics, Environmental Health, Epidemiology, and Health Services Administration. There are 415 faculty in the study. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire which included fixed-alternative and open-ended questions. The response rate was 62 percent. To test the multiple hypotheses offered, typologies of professional identification, teaching collaboration, and research collaboration were developed. Faculty in schools of public health represent a variety of professional identifications. Some, since completion of their formal training, have changed their professional identifications, others have added identification to that of the profession of training, while others have maintained a single identification with that of their training. However, the number of doctorates held, or the fields in which the doctorates were earned do not necessarily predict how faculty identify themselves. Collaborative patterns were examined separately for teaching and research. The findings indicate that although professional identification is associated with both teaching and research, different factors appear to influence teaching from those influencing research. Highly integrated collaborative teaching and research is most preferred but not the most commonly experienced pattern for these faculty. Institutional encouragement for interdisciplinary collaboration was important for teaching and research, but more so for teaching. The findings indicate collaborative teaching and research does contribute to faculty satisfaction. There does not seem to be any particular combination of identification patterns and collaboration patterns that are more satisfying than others. Productivity, as measured by published professional journal articles also is high. The major conclusions drawn are that the processes influencing professional identification in a multidisciplinary setting are complex and require further study. Career paths, how and why they change, is also an area for further study. Interdisciplinary teaching and research are being done but the factors fostering interdisciplinary teaching do not necessarily foster interdisciplinary research. Organizational encouragement does foster both, however. Therefore, to increase collaborative work one would need to deal with teaching and research separately. Finally, despite the litany of problems cited in the literature, collaborative work contributes to faculty satisfaction in schools of public health.