To teach or not to teach? Junior academics and the teaching-research relationship

Abstract

The global pressure for excellence has boosted the relevance of the teaching-research relationship. Specifically, the management of teaching and research activities represents an important challenge because of time and resource limitations, especially for junior researchers. The traditionally polarized streams in the literature provide arguments to defend three types of relationship between teaching and research: conflicting, complementary, or unrelated. Given the complexity of the phenomenon, an integrative approach may be useful for identifying interdependencies. In this respect, this article provides a holistic approach that includes different teaching and research drivers and distinguishes between direct and indirect relationships. The analysis of data from junior academics in Sweden shows that teaching workload may be negatively linked to perceived success in research, but it can be slightly counteracted via perceived success in teaching. Moreover, the findings also indicate that individual control and a collaborative approach both are positively related to perceived success in research, while only some sources of social support are significant.

Faculty evaluation in higher education: a theory-of-action case study in Vietnam

“…Likewise, the service evaluation criterion usually involves counting how many times faculty members' participate in tasks such as reviewing academic journals (Arreola, 2007;Sampson et al, 2010;Seldin, 2006). An emphasis on quantity rather than quality has created tension for many HEIs and faculty members between maximising their research outcomes and contribution to student learning and social betterment (Cenamor, 2021;Lei et al, 2021;Shields & Watermeyer, 2020).…”