Preferences of U.S. Faculty Members regarding the Teaching- Research Nexus

The purpose of this article is to examine research and teaching trends over the past 30 years in U.S. higher education. While some faculty lean toward teaching and others toward research, often the two areas of intersect in synergistic and complementary ways. The merit of this study is that it is a follow-up of two earlier surveys. Findings include an examination of national data from 1992, 2007, and 2018 on a few select areas of the teaching-research nexus. The 2018 data includes 1,135 faculty responses from 80 higher education institutions in the United States. The once dominant research output gap between U.S. faculty and those in other countries is leveling off in many subject areas, most notably in STEM subject areas. Findings provide an in-depth analysis by faculty rank, highlighting current research and teaching preferences of junior and senior faculty members. The article also provides a model to partially explain faculty productivity among sampled participants where research preference, collaboration, and institutional research expectations serve as key predictors. Several suggestions for future areas of research are given in the conclusion section.