Faculty Talk: Metaphors and Communication Patterns of Faculty Developing Interdisciplinary General Education Courses
Date of Graduation
Spring 1997
Degree
Master of Arts in Communication
Department
Communication
Committee Chair
Charlene Berquist
Abstract
Universities across the United States are revamping general education courses emphasizing interdisciplinary course work. Faculty and administrators participating in this restructuring often find the process long, difficult and disruptive of departmental and campus communication. Protection of departmental and disciplinary turf, disagreement on pedagogical styles, and debates over what courses will be cut from core curriculum are a few of the conflicts that arise during the restructuring process. Through interviews and participant observation this research examines the perceptions of faculty, operationalized in the metaphors they use to describe their participation in the process, and aspects of personal and organizational identification issues that surface as faculty work through the curriculum changes in gerneral education courses. Structural, orientational and conceptual metaphors emerged and connected aspects of an individual's discipline, department and identity through shared metaphoric patterns.
Subject Categories
Communication
Copyright
© Deborah Craig
Recommended Citation
Craig, Deborah, "Faculty Talk: Metaphors and Communication Patterns of Faculty Developing Interdisciplinary General Education Courses" (1997). MSU Graduate Theses/Dissertations. 249.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/249
Dissertation/Thesis
