Share Your VOICE

Using the VOICE Framework to Support Faculty Scholarship at Teaching-Focused Universities

Abstract

University faculty are expected to engage in a variety of tasks, with a specific focus on teaching, scholarship, and service (Mamiseishvili et al., 2016). The importance placed on each of these three pillars of academia differs based on the type of institute of higher education (IHE) in which one works. However, all three pillars are vital for success, including the goal of achieving promotion and tenure. More recently, an increased emphasis has been placed on scholarship at both research and teaching-focused universities (Schimanski & Alperin, 2018). Although academic faculty know they must engage in scholarship, including research, publications, and presentations, some early career faculty may be unprepared for doing so. In this article, we seek to offer recommendations to support faculty who are at more traditional teaching universities with achieving their goals for scholarly work. We propose using the acronym VOICE: (a) be Visible, (b) seek out Opportunities, (c) have an Intellectual attitude about growing your skills, (d) consider how you can Contribute to the field, and (e) be Earnest in your desire to create high quality academic scholarship