ABSTRACT

The first year of faculty members’ time at an institution of higher education is spent learning their role and institutional culture. Quite often new faculty members need more support, guidance, and mentoring than they receive. But how can we help new faculty to create new energy (act negentropically) toward the institutional advancement? This qualitative phenomenological, exploratory case study of eight first-year and early career faculty (FYECF) provides insight into the lived experiences of this population and expands the utilization of the concept of negentropy into higher education organizations and socialization of FYECF. Through the data analysis, six major themes emerged: (1) Ambiguity, (2) Performance Expectations, (3) Collaboration, (4) Entrepreneurial/Innovation, (5) Finding a Voice, (6) Sharing Knowledge. While these themes may be anticipated in a study such as this one, it is the overlay of negentropic actions that makes this contribution unique. Implications for policy and practice are discussed for promoting a negentropic university environment.

摘要

教师在高等教育机构的第一年时间用于学习他们的角色和机构文化。新教师常常需要比他们得到的更多的支持、指导和辅导。但我们怎样才能帮助新教师为机构进步创造新的能量（负能量）呢？这项针对八名一年级和早期职业教师 (FYECF) 的定性现象学探索性案例研究提供了对该人群生活经历的深入了解，并将负熵概念的运用扩展到高等教育组织和 FYECF 的社会化中。通过数据分析，出现了六大主题：（1）模糊性，（2）绩效期望，（3）协作，（4）创业/创新，（5）寻找声音，（6）分享知识。虽然这些主题可能在像本研究这样的研究中得到预期，但负熵作用的叠加使这一贡献变得独一无二。讨论了促进负基因大学环境对政策和实践的影响。