Faculty Perceptions of Service As a Mode of Scholarship‪.‬

The authors provide historical context related to the changing nature of scholarship and how it is rewarded, paying particular attention to the concept of service. Data collected from education faculty employed at Mississippi public universities is then used to identify how perceptions of service as a supported form of scholarship correlate to institutional policies (most notably tenure and promotion policies). Conclusions are consistent with other studies that find the service role to be neither highly valued nor well defined. However, it appears that institutional initiatives aimed at broadening the notion of service and strengthening rewards for it are reflected in faculty perceptions on individual campuses. It is not clear, however, that faculty behaviors actually conform to those perceptions. Some of the qualitative data suggest that other social, cultural, political, and contextual realities within an institution and/or discipline have an equal or greater role in the formation of these perceptions. These considerations about service are considered in the context of recent exhortations for faculty to incorporate activities immediately useful for communities into their work. **********