A Predictive Correlational Study of the Relationship Between Two-Year College Faculty Participation in Professional Development and Career Commitment, Faculty Leadership, and Professional Service Activities

The purpose of this predictive correlational non-experimental study was to examine the relationships between faculty participation in professional development, and career commitment, faculty leadership, and engagement in professional service activities. The predictor variable was faculty professional development and criterion variables were career commitment, faculty leadership, and engagement in professional service by faculty employed within two-year colleges in the southeastern United States. This study contained a convenience sample of 76 faculty employed at two-year colleges within a system of colleges. Data was gathered utilizing the combined self-reported Career Growth Opportunity Measure (Adams, 1999), the Teacher Leadership Inventory [TLI] (Angelle & DeHart, 2010), and Faculty Professional Development Plans. Providing results from this research will add to the literature informing higher education institution administrators about the return on investment when supporting a leader’s continuous participation in quality-focused development opportunities. Relationships between variables was tested using bivariate linear regression. Scatterplots were run on each set of variables to test the existence of a linear or non-linear relationship. Durban-Watson statistics was applied to test assumptions germane to bivariate linear regression. Results of the bivariate liner regression indicated that there was not a statistically significant predictive relationship between faculty participation in professional development and career commitment and faculty leadership. However, a predictive relationship was found to be statistically significant for engagement in professional service activities. Henceforth, the following chapters describes the study in its entirety sharing implications, limitations, and recommendations for further study.