The Professionalization of Faculty at Religious Colleges and Universities

Abstract

As faculty become defined more by the professional norms of their discipline, the potential for conflict with the faith-based norms of religious colleges and universities should increase. Survey responses from over 1,900 faculty at six religious colleges and universities show that most faculty members support including religious criteria in hiring, contrary to professional, disciplinary norms, but most faculty reject religious constraints on academic freedom, conforming to professional norms. These seemingly conflicting positions are reconciled by a high level of commitment to the integration of faith and learning.A historical trend frequently discussed over the last several decades is a decline in religious identity among church-related or formerly church-related colleges and universities (Burtchaell 1998;Marsden 1994;Parsonage 1978;Ringenberg 1984). Typically, the decline is related to faculty attitudes becoming less reflective of local, sectarian understandings of higher education and more reflective of the national, disciplinary understandings of academic professions (Gleason 1995; Jencks and Riesmann 1968;Marsden 1994). What has not been investigated are faculty attitudes at religious colleges or universities toward both the norms of their academic profession and those of their religious school. This study seeks to explore the "what" and "why" of faculty attitudes on three widely discussed, highly visible, and extremely important issues at religious colleges and universities: (1) the level of academic freedom that should exist when research or teaching conflicts with the views of the sponsoring church, religious denomination, or religious community, (2) the degree to which a candidate's religious belief and practice are relevant in faculty hiring, and (3) the appropriateness of integrating faith with teaching and research. THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION AND THE MODERN UNIVERSITYA major development in American higher education during the 20th century was the emergence and development of disciplinary academic professions (Geiger 1986;Jencks and Riesman 1968;Smith 2003). Social scientists and other scholars have identified three characteristics of professions relevant for our study. 1 First, professions require expertise of their members-a mastery of a specialized body of knowledge and techniques, usually acquired by formal education and apprenticeship. Second, professions claim the jurisdiction or autonomy to regulate themselves, including the right to determine who are members of the profession, what methods or practices are legitimate, and the standards of success and failure for its practitioners. Third, professions are cosmopolitan, transcending their particular locations, institutions, and communities.

“Careful with your ‘We’”: Worldview minority faculty at sectarian institutions.

“…Only in the area of academic freedom was the professional identity as faculty members more important than denominational congruence. Thus, academic professionalization did not have as firm of a hold on faculty as expected (Parker et al, 2007). Overall, these studies emphasize the additional layers of identity navigation and the reflection on values necessary for faculty at Christian sectarian institutions.…”

“…In other words, the spiritual development of students is intertwined with faculty values and identities. Similarly, Parker et al (2007) explored how faculty’s religious and professional identities at religious colleges inform their views on the constraints placed on academic freedom, faith-informed faculty hiring practices, and the integration of faith and teaching. Parker et al found that denominational alignment between faculty members and their respective institutions was a predictor of a faculty’s support of all three practices.…”

“…This body of scholarship has illuminated how faculty of color and White women interpret, make sense of, and respond to racist and sexist climates that both implicitly and explicitly privilege whiteness and maleness. However, far less is known about the experiences of a religious minority and nonreligious (i.e., those collectively referred to as worldview minority) faculty at sectarian institutions (Hill, 2006; Parker et al, 2007) that explicitly privilege a Christian worldview (Seifert, 2007). This is especially important given that institutional commitments to church identities vary considerably (Beene, 2001; Christensen, 2004).…”

Responses to Conflicting Field Imperatives: Institutions and Agency Among Evangelical Christian Colleges

“…ECCs tend to espouse statements of religious faith that govern student life, and upon which hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions are based (Benne 2001;Edwards, Jacobsen, and Jacobsen 2008;Parker et al 2007). In place of traditional views of academic freedom-which, in the United States, normatively protect the right of the individual to speak without risk of censure in his=her area of scholarly expertise (Slaughter 1994)-ECCs generally emphasize the college's freedom to restrict individuals' speech when such speech conflicts with the campus' mission (Bramhall and Ahrens 2002;Ingram 1986;McConnell 1990).…”