ERIC Number: EJ1252711
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 12
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0007-8034
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Proceedings from the 2019 CEA Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana: The Joy Project--Helping Faculty to Find Joy in and out of the Classroom
Clair, Erin
CEA Forum, v48 n2 p158-169 Sum-Fall 2019
To help many students stay in college today, faculty need to advise students in areas such as financial struggles, coping with stress, mental or physical issues, and family pressures as much as they need to advise them about what classes to take. But what Erin Clair found in surveying the faculty at Arkansas Tech University and in the surveys of faculty at other institutions is that faculty members themselves tend to struggle in the same areas as their students…except they don't have the same level of support as students. The question then became, "How can we help our faculty members build an effective work-life balance, as that will also better train our faculty as advisors?" In search of that answer, she thereby asked, "How do we help faculty to experience joy (i.e., epiphany, transcendent revelation, breakthrough discovery, and synergy) within their lives and within their classrooms, especially at an underfunded state institution where the rewards for faculty are unlikely to be financial?" This article explains the steps Clair undertook in her work for the dean's office at the College of Arts & Humanities at Arkansas Tech University to address the above questions via a College-wide endeavor called "The Joy Project." Herein, she shares the resources that have been made available to faculty to help them understand joy both inside and outside the classroom; she discusses the partnerships being created with local institutions to understand joy and stress in the workplace; she shares the reactions from faculty to this project (both positive and less positive); and she outlines the future plans for The Joy Project.
Descriptors: Teacher Motivation, College Faculty, Family Work Relationship, Faculty Advisers, Stress Variables, Stress Management, Faculty Development, Sense of Community, Collegiality
College English Association. Web site: http://www.cea-web.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Arkansas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A