Faculty Talk: Metaphors and Communication Patterns of Faculty Developing Interdisciplinary General Education Courses

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in Communication

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Year

1997

Author dc:creator

• Craig, Deborah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Charlene Berquist

• Communication

Statement dc:rights

• © Deborah Craig

Repository record dc:identifier

https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/249

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:bearworks.missouristate.edu:theses-1250