FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION FACULTY

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that explain the research productivity of agricultural education faculty in colleges and universities. In this study, publications in refereed journals were used as a surrogate for research productivity. The study described the research productivity of agricultural education faculty, their perceptions of the organizational culture that exists in their department to support research productivity, and their self-assessment of their research competency. The population for the study included all full-time, professorial rank faculty employed by colleges and universities in the United States that offered agricultural education. In general, an organizational culture and support for research exists in the departments where the faculty work. The faculty have confidence in their ability to conduct research and reject statements that contain concerns about conducting research. The regression analysis revealed that three variables explained 50% of the variance in research productivity. These variables included number of doctoral students advised to completion in the last five years, faculty members’ perceptions of their research confidence, and the number of graduate assistant hours allocated to the faculty member. The variables that did not explain a significant proportion of the variance were percent of the faculty member’s time allocated to research, salary, organizational culture and support of research, age, gender, rank, number of master’s students advised to completion in the last five years, and number of years they had held a tenure track position.