Nathan F. Alleman

Insider-Outsiders: Integration and Exclusion Experiences of Religious Nonadherent Faculty Members

Over the past several decades, research on faculty work life has shed new light on inclusion and exclusion experiences of traditionally underrepresented groups, including racial and ethnic minorities, and contingent employment faculty. This study expands on this prior research by investigating a unique segment of faculty members: those whose marginal status is conferred upon them because they are not part of their employing institutions dominant religio-cultural tradition or affiliation. These insider-outsider faculty members are often unaware of the implications of this new status, which is added to the common challenges of socialization and integration. Through the narrative accounts of participants, this study identifies categories of inclusion and exclusion, highlights practices that welcome and alienate such faculty members, and explores the organizational and interpersonal implications of this complex element of faculty identity.

‘Separate but Not Quite Equal’: Collegiality Experiences of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members

ABSTRACT Collegiality, which indicates respect, a voice in decision making, and a commitment to the common good, is central to academic governance and faculty culture. However, as faculty work is increasingly unbundled, little is known about how concepts traditionally applied to tenure-track faculty, such as collegiality and the collegium (to which access is granted through recognition of expertise), apply to newer categories such as full-time non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF). This interview study investigated collegiality experiences among 38 full-time NTTF in a public comprehensive university and a religiously affiliated research university. A framework blending symbolic interaction (Blumer, 1980; Snow, 2001) and role ambiguity (Bess, 1992) was used to understand the experiences of NTTF with collegiality. Findings suggest that with little opportunity to earn recognition as experts based on scholarship, NTTF experiences with collegiality are at best conditional and at worst deficient. Interactions with colleagues, institutional structures, and professional/academic culture reflect substantial role ambiguity that creates a “separate but not quite equal” status for NTTF. The practice of maintaining NTTF on the periphery of collegiality and the collegium may well compromise the health and vitality of an increasingly differentiated faculty body and the ability of universities to accomplish their academic missions.

Creating Confessional Colleges and Universities That Confess

Drawing upon the recent scholarly call to incorporate Christian practices into teaching, we contend that such practices should also be incorporated into the administration of Christian institutions. In particular, we explore the rationale for integrating the practice of Christian confession into the life of a university to address institutional sin. We then describe two types of confessional practice, ritual and situational, that perhaps should be grafted into the life of Christian educational institutions.

The implications of religious identity for teaching ethics

Some debate exists about the degree to which one should merge one’s identities, particularly those with important normative content, with one’s teaching practices. This issue becomes particularly important for those with a religious identity who purposefully merge their identity with classroom practices. This article examines the qualitative answers of 328 Christian professors to a question addressing how they merge their Christian theological tradition with their ethical teaching in the classroom. We find that the answers demonstrate the identity merging takes place in multiple ways. For these professors, teaching consists of multiple sub-practices (e.g. discussion, lecturing, grading, etc.) that need to be guided by certain virtues and theological perspectives and justifications in order to develop the requisite goods. Indeed, both good teaching and their conception of the good cannot be separated from their identity.

How Christian Faith Can Animate Teaching: A Taxonomy of Diverse Approaches

How do Christian teachers steward both the academy and their faith by integrating their faith tradition into their teaching? This chapter draws upon a survey of 2309 faculty at 48 institutions in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities to set forth a typology that helps us identify and understand a range of eight different ways teachers apply faith in the classroom. The authors examine potential weaknesses and strengths of various approaches and conclude we need a holistic approach that weaves together the disparate strands that may become weak and tattered when left to themselves. In particular, the authors encourage doctoral students and new faculty to pursue styles that they find the most authentic while maintaining a holistic approach.

Student Constructions of Fit: Narratives About Incongruence at a Faith-Based University

ABSTRACT Decades of student persistence and retention literature has brought to light factors of social, academic, and religious fit that influence a students decision to remain at or depart from an institution. At Christian institutions, increasing student pluralism raises the likelihood that students will not fit religiously. This qualitative study of 21 first-time, full-time students contributes to the existing literature by exploring how students who already feel they do not fit for religious reasons work at constructing a sense of fit at a Christian research university. Many participants coped with religious discontinuity by redefining specifically Christian practices and teachings in terms that were personally palatable: as either general moral lessons that would help them to be a better person or as cultural insights that would benefit them social and professionally in the future. In many cases, university staff were instrumental. Finally, participants worked to construct an acceptable level of fit, or fit threshold, through various combinations of social fit, academic fit, and religious fit, often compensating for one with others. As Christian institutions increasingly invite students from diverse religious backgrounds into their campus community, understanding ways that these students attempt to adapt to religious incongruence will be paramount.

The Christian College Advantage? The Impact of Christian Versus Secular Training Among Faculty at Christian Colleges and Universities

Are faculty trained at Christian institutions better equipped to integrate their faith with their professional work? This study uses a mixed methods analysis of Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) faculty survey data to analyze whether and in what ways faculty who graduate from Christian undergraduate, masters, and doctoral programs are more apt to identify connections between their faith tradition and their course objectives. Findings show that faculty members prepared at Christian institutions are more likely to see this relationship and may conceive of it in more sophisticated ways. However, the gap is modest.

The Role of Rural Communities in the Postsecondary Preparation of Low-Income Students

In the past decade, rural education has been critiqued for contributing to brain drain and social stratification that saps the human, social, and economic resources of rural communities. This article, based on an investigation of six small rural school districts in the same state, offers an alternative view of the role of community groups and individuals in the academic preparation and postsecondary aspirations of local low-income students. From the accounts of 79 school and community residents, we developed a typology that categorizes local stakeholders by their involvement in three common functions: program support, program directing, and program initiation/administration. These proeducational activities, in combination, support the necessary tasks of qualification, graduation, application, and aspiration. Results not only increase understanding about the ways rural communities support educational preparation, but also clarify the links between particular community behaviors and the completion of essential college-preparation tasks.