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Promoting Scholarship in Faculty Development: Relevant Research Paradigms and Methodologies

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Faculty Development in the Health Professions

Part of the book series: Innovation and Change in Professional Education ((ICPE,volume 11))

Abstract

Prior research on faculty development has been overly constrained by adherence to the positivist research paradigm and a mechanistic view of how faculty development programs impact participants, their learners, and patient care. We propose a broader conceptual framework for research on faculty development that encompasses examination of two communities: the one created in the faculty development activity and the one that exists in the workplace where participants are educators, researchers, and clinician/scientists. Using this expanded framework, we argue that future research will need to incorporate four research paradigms : positivist, post-positivist, interpretivist, and critical theory, using their associated research methodologies. Each paradigm and methodology is described along with examples from research on faculty development. Three less well-known research methodologies are also included: educational design research, success cases, and sustainability narratives. We conclude by showing how readers might begin to undertake scholarship in this area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine and Office of Research and Development in Medical Education, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Patricia S. O’Sullivan Ed.D. & David M. Irby Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Patricia S. O’Sullivan Ed.D.
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  2. David M. Irby Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Patricia S. O’Sullivan Ed.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fac. of Medicine, Centre for Med. Educ., McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Yvonne Steinert

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O’Sullivan, P.S., Irby, D.M. (2014). Promoting Scholarship in Faculty Development: Relevant Research Paradigms and Methodologies. In: Steinert, Y. (eds) Faculty Development in the Health Professions. Innovation and Change in Professional Education, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7612-8_18

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