Content area
Abstract
The relative importance of teaching, research, and service on the career path of academics has been widely discussed. It is assumed that higher education faculty endorse all three academic duties as essential to promotion and tenure and thereby persistence in the profession. This study examines the endorsement of these three factors and their effect on faculties' intent to persist in their academic careers. The intent to persist refers to career longevity by faculty engaged in postsecondary education. Included in the study was the examination of three proposed variables, which might mediate the goals of teaching, research and service. The three variables were resources to aid faculty work life; self-judgments about achievement and competency; and beliefs about one's satisfaction with life. To test the hypothesis that faculty endorse teaching, research and service goals to effect their persistence in higher education, a survey was sent to randomly selected full-time faculty at a Midwestern university. One hundred eighteen participants responded. Results indicated that faculty endorse the goals of teaching, research and service; however, only the goal of research mediated by satisfaction with life was significant in predicting the intent to persist.
