Perceived Pros and Cons towards Service-Learning, Willingness to Participate (WTP), and Resource Utilization Likelihood (RUL) among faculty at a major public research institution – The influences of age, gender, career track, and rank

Purpose: This study examines the influence of age, gender, career track and rank on faculty perceived pros and cons towards service-learning (SL), service-learning participation (SL_Participate), willingness to participate (WTP), and resource utilization likelihood (RUL). Methods: A representative sample of 1200 faculty members from a major research institution in Southeast U.S. was recruited. The study compared 4 service-learning related beliefs (20-item scale) including perceived benefits at classroom (PROS_CLS) and community levels (PROS_COM), perceived barriers at classroom (CONS_CLS) and institutional levels (CONS_INST); and SL_Participate (3-item), WTP (5-item), and RUL (8-item) among faculty in different age, gender, career track, and rank groups. Results: A total of 450 faculty members (60% males) participated in the online survey. Results showed gender, career track, and rank all had significant influences on SL related beliefs, except the CONS_INST; and SL_WTP and SL_RUL were differed by rank and gender. Female faculty perceived higher SL benefits and lower barriers (t (360) = -3.53~3.60; p<.01), and also higher on SL_WTP and SL_RUL (t (447) =2.83~3.85; p<.01). Tenure(d) track faculty perceive lower SL benefits and higher barriers (t (360) = -5.23~ 4.17; p<.01). Full / senior faculty perceived lowest SL benefits (F (3,358) ranged among 3.89~5.20; p<.01), and lowest on SL_WTP and SL_RUL (F (3,445) =4.60 ~ 6.40; p<.01). There were, however, no significant differences on these variables across age groups. Conclusions: Findings provides valuable insight on the influence of age, gender, track, and rank. Results have implication on providing institutional supports and targeted programs for faculty in different demographic groups.