The perspectives of faculty around factors affecting the development and sustainability of educational scholarship: A qualitative content analysis

Abstract

Background: New horizons have been opened for educational excellence in medical universities by commencing the role of scholarship for medical teachers in recent years. The low rate of faculty reception towards educational scholarship and their low interest in continuing scholarly activities indicated a need for the current study. Methods: In this qualitative research, a non-probability purposive sample of thirteen participants(n=13) engaged in two focus group discussions (FGDs), consisting of executors, collaborators, consultants, and referees of university or national educational processes in the last ten years. Participants were asked several critical questions concerning factors affecting educational scholarship development and sustainability. Qualitative content analysis with a conventional approach was used to analyze the data obtained from the discussions. Results: Merging the codes extracted from the two FGD sessions and repeated review yielded 101 codes classified into two themes: educational scholarship development and sustainability. In all, 19 categories were identified: personal commitment, educational requirements, financial support, faculty development, team building, information resources, educational leadership and management, institutional motivation, culture building, individual characteristics, outcome evaluation of educational scholarship, material and spiritual support, mentorship, sustained training, supportive learning environments, curriculum development, organizational administration and leadership, application of results, and publication of results. Conclusion: Our findings show that encouraging educational scholarship among faculty members and ensuring the sustainability of innovative educational processes are influenced by factors rooted in both individual and institutional dynamics.