AN INVESTIGATION OF ATTITUDES OF SELECTED FACULTY FROM SMALL, PRIVATE, LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES TOWARD STUDENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

The Problem. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the attitudes of faculty from small, private, four-year liberal arts colleges are negative or positive toward career development programs for undergraduate students.;Procedure. The sample consisted of 235 full-time faculty members from three small, private, liberal arts colleges in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Faculty surveyed responded to the attitudinal instrument and a demographic information form containing items predicated upon salient findings in the literature. Data were organized, summarized, and analyzed using t-ratios, ANOVA and the Scheffe test.;Findings. The study revealed that liberal arts college faculty tended to have generally favorable attitudes toward student career development programs.;Statistical tests of significance indicated: (1) humanities/fine arts faculty were less favorable toward student career development than their colleagues in the social sciences, physical/biological sciences and mathematics, or applied science and technology; (2) faculty with earned doctorates were considerably less supportive than were master's prepared faculty; (3) female faculty, nontenured faculty, and faculty who had been exposed to career education or career development programs revealed more favorable attitudes toward student career development than male faculty, tenured faculty, or faculty without prior exposure to career education. Work experience (both nonteaching job experience and length of teaching experience) did not differentiate faculty attitudes toward student career development programs.;Specifically, this study investigated the responses of liberal arts college faculty to the attitudinal instrument, Faculty Reflections on Student Career Development, according to the variables: tenure status, sex, nonacademic work experience, exposure to career education, length of teaching experience, area of academic preparation, level of educational attainment.;Conclusions. The generally favorable attitudes of the liberal arts college faculty toward student career development programs suggest that perhaps it is time to lay to rest the myth that career education cannot co-exist with the liberal arts. However, the diversity of faculty responses is indicative of a lack of unanimity among liberal arts college faculty toward undergraduate career education.;Forty-five percent of the faculty members surveyed had no previous exposure to career education or career development programs. This would appear to indicate the need for faculty development activities focusing on the role of student career development programs.