Purpose The purpose of this review article is to examine the well-being of faculty in higher education. Success in academia depends on productivity in research, teaching, and service to the university, and the workload model that excludes attention to the welfare of faculty members themselves contributes to stress and burnout. Importantly, student success and well-being is influenced largely by their faculty members, whose ability to inspire and lead depends on their own well-being. This review article underscores the importance of attending to the well-being of the people behind the productivity in higher education. Method This study is a narrative review of the literature about faculty well-being in higher education. The history of well-being in the workplace and academia, concepts of stress and well-being in higher education faculty, and evidence-based strategies to promote and cultivate faculty well-being were explored in the literature using electronic sources. Conclusions Faculty feel overburdened and pressured to work constantly to meet the demands of academia, and they strive for work–life balance. Faculty report stress and burnout related to excessively high expectations, financial pressures to obtain research funding, limited time to manage their workload, and a belief that individual progress is never sufficient. Faculty well-being is important for the individual and in support of scholarship and student outcomes. This article concludes with strategies to improve faculty well-being that incorporate an intentional focus on faculty members themselves, prioritize a community of well-being, and implement continuous high-quality professional learning.
Today's college students are stressed ( Liu, Stevens, Wong, Yasui, & Chen, 2018 ), and stress may impact students' physical ( Doom & Haeffel, 2013 ) and mental health ( Baddeley, 2012 ; Liu et al., 2018 ). Purpose This mixed-methods study used a convergent parallel design to examine the stress experienced by undergraduate students who study communication sciences and disorders (CSD) at a private, Mid-Atlantic university. Method Eighty-seven students participated in the quantitative phase involving a survey (50.5% response rate), and 23 students participated in the qualitative phase involving focus groups (13% response rate). Research questions inquired about students' perceived stress levels, factors related to their stress, how they manage their stress, and students' knowledge and use of campus resources for support. Results Results suggest that CSD students are stressed, and primary factors related to stress include academic demands, graduate school admission, and financial concerns. Students manage their stress in various ways, including exercise, working hard to finish assignments, calling home, and relying on friends. However, CSD friendships are complicated by the intense competition for graduate seats, leaving students with reduced social support. Conclusion Given the complicated nature of CSD friendships, students report the need for increased community and support from CSD faculty.
Purpose Social support may be provided by undergraduate students' family and friends and by other members of the campus community, including faculty. The purpose of this review article was to review the existing literature about the roles of faculty members as advisors, mentors, and gatekeepers who provide social support for undergraduate students. Social support is a buffer for stress, and current undergraduate students are more stressed than their predecessors. Method The study is a narrative review of the literature about faculty as advisors, mentors, and gatekeepers. The concept of social support and its relationship to students' stress is explored, followed by a discussion of faculty advisors' roles, knowledge, and skills and a synthesis of literature about prescriptive, developmental, praxis, and appreciative advising. A discussion of faculty as mentors who focus on students' experiences before, during, and after college and as gatekeepers who look for signs of students in distress concludes the review. Conclusions Faculty may provide social support to students inside and outside the classroom as advisors, mentors, and gatekeepers. Assuming these roles means faculty must consider students as whole people who have needs and experiences beyond academics. Students' stress was clear in the literature before COVID-19, and their concerns and needs are exacerbated during the pandemic. Additional research is needed to identify effective advising and mentoring programs for communication sciences and disorders undergraduate students. Increased institutional support for and recognition of the time, resources, and training faculty need to serve in this expanded role is also critical as faculty members attempt to manage their own stress.
Purpose The purpose of this review article is to review the existing literature about the factors that impact stress in undergraduate students studying communication sciences and disorders (CSD). Current undergraduate students are more stressed than their predecessors and the body of literature about stressed students is growing. However, CSD students' experience may differ from their non-CSD peers and there is a dearth of literature about stressed CSD students, in particular. Method This is a narrative review of the literature about the factors that impact stress in undergraduate students studying CSD. The review is structured using the ecological systems theoretical framework with an emphasis on the microsystems that encompass the most salient factors related to undergraduate students' stress. Factors such as family influence (e.g., parenting style, parent education), peer support, faculty relationships, minority status, technology, and individual health behaviors were explored in the literature using electronic databases. Conclusions This review of the literature suggests that a myriad of microsystem factors contribute to the stress of undergraduate CSD students. Although the review focuses on microsystem factors that are closest to students, it is important to situate the results in context. The mental health of college students was on the decline before COVID-19, and as the economic and public health of the nation and world shift, the urgency to attend to our students increases. This review contributes to the greater understanding of CSD students' experiences that will inform programmatic and individual support.
The Johns Hopkins online EdD program prepares students as scholar-practitioners who become leaders and agents of change across educational contexts. Advocating for equity and social justice requires our students to not only immerse themselves in the relevant literature and learn the traditional skills of applied research but to master the art of communication through a sort of storytelling. Storytelling, in this sense, represents a means to gather and analyze data and understand and integrate diverse perspectives to engage and persuade relevant stakeholders (Moezzi, Janda, & Rotmann, 2017). The Hopkins first-year EdD programming and coursework emphasize the use of deficit-free language to understand people and problems, consideration of diverse perspectives and structuring inquiry with a systems-approaches to explore contextual problems using a mixed methods research paradigms. Together, the program's approach to student learning and practice-oriented courses and dissertation research contribute to training scholar-practitioners as activists who ask relevant questions, draw on multiple perspectives to craft potential solutions, adapt to a variety of contexts and circumstances, engage with diverse stakeholders, reflect on their own assumptions, and admit to and learn from mistakes throughout the process. Through a detailed accounting and examination of the JHU onboarding features and processes, particular course content and assignments, as well as the interplay of these elements, this paper will demonstrate how attending to language, perspective taking, context, and research inquiry support the development of scholar-activists.
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