Date
8-2021
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Lucinda Spaulding
Keywords
instructor-student relationships, higher education, ethic of care, student engagement, residential adjunct faculty members
Disciplines
Higher Education
Recommended Citation
Murray, Kristine J., "Residential Adjunct Faculty Members' Experiences Forming and Maintaining Caring Instructor-Student Relationships: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study" (2021). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 3159.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/3159
Abstract
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the experience of fostering caring instructor-student relationships for residential adjunct faculty members at accredited degree-granting institutions in the South. The theories guiding this study were Noddings’ (1984) ethic of care, which provided a framework for the formation and maintenance of relationships, and Astin’s (1999b) student involvement theory, which placed an emphasis on both quantity and quality of interactions. The central research question guiding this study was: How do residential adjunct faculty members describe their experiences forming and maintaining caring instructor-student relationships in an effort to increase student engagement? There were three sub-questions that were investigated in this study: (a) How do residential adjunct faculty members describe their ability to develop caring relationships through positive interactions with students inside and outside the classroom? (b) How do residential adjunct faculty members describe their ability to cultivate an ethic of care with their students? and (c) What contextual factors affect residential adjunct faculty members’ experiences forming and maintaining caring instructor-student relationships? The methods of data collection used in this study were a questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and a letter to a new adjunct faculty member. The data was analyzed using Moustakas’ (1994) procedures for transcendental phenomenology, which incorporates epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis. From the analysis of the data, four themes emerged: learning about the student, engaging the student, showing care for the student, and limitations in building and maintaining relationships.
