Date of Award
1996
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Educational Leadership
First Advisor
Dr. Patricia Somers
Abstract
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) estimates the number of therapists in the nation's occupational therapy workforce at 46,357. Silvergate (1994) estimates a 71% shortage based on the actual vacancies for occupational therapy personnel currently exists. In response to the growing demand for occupational therapists, the number of academic programs in occupational therapy has increased. Currently there are 85 accredited occupational therapy programs and 30 developing programs in the United States. In addition, for every newly available student space in professional-level programs, there were a reported 3.4 applicants. With only five doctoral programs in occupational therapy in the United States, the pool of prepared faculty members to staff these programs is insufficient. As a consequence, program directors tend to recruit experienced clinicians who had little understanding of the role and demands of faculty and academia in general. This research examined and described the experiences of new OT faculty during their first year of teaching and compared them to those in their third year of teaching. This study also examined how the type of institution influenced the transition. Through analysis of three sources of data — questionnaire, interviews, and written documents — the factors that made the transition to academia more difficult and less difficult for new occupational therapy faculty were identified. Using all three data sources provided a much broader, clearer picture of the problems of new occupational therapy faculty.
Recommended Citation
Acre, Catherine R., "Induction into Academia: The Experiences of New Occupational Therapy Faculty" (1996). Theses and Dissertations. 93.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/93
