Exploring the Lived Experiences of Members of a Faculty Research Hub Design Team in a College of Education at an HSI

Researchers used a transcendental phenomenological approach to explore the experiences of faculty members in a Faculty Research Hub design team at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Through data analysis, several themes emerged: (1) Support and leadership, (2) Commitment to improvement, (3) Individual motivation, (4) Structure and collaborative nature of the team, (5) Small team size with diverse expertise, and (6) Faculty learning and development. These themes align with the input, process, or outcome stages of Binkhorst et al.’s (2015) integrative descriptive framework for Teacher Design Teams (TDTs). The study suggests that Hispanic-Serving Institutions aspiring to become R1 institutions should consider implementing and evaluating Faculty Design Teams (FDTs) to enhance faculty research productivity and doctoral student success.