Your Personal Development
Hi! I am Ashley Samson. I am a Kinesiology professor at CSUN and I have worked with Faculty Development on a regular basis for many years. One of the ways that I like to contribute as a faculty developer is by leading workshops and discussions that focus on the well-being of faculty. The Faculty Development team understands that balance and fulfillment are essential to our well-being and we want to support you in your personal development during your initial journey at CSUN.
Why Should We Talk About Personal Development?
As a new faculty, you have a lot on your plate! You are dealing with the unknowns of a new job, and sometimes navigating life in a new city or country. On top of that, you might be assigned multiple classes, which significantly increases the amount of hours it will take for class preparation and grading. You might also have to carve out time to work on your scholarship and serve on campus committees or get involved in other kinds of service-related tasks. All while you are still figuring out how things work in your new campus community. In many occasions, when we talk to newer faculty, they don't hesitate to share with us their feelings of exhaustion and disconnection during their first years of teaching.
It's not only the conversations with new faculty that shine a light on the importance of discussing well-being publicly on our campus. Research suggests that younger faculty are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion. Jack Lackritz (2004) reported a relationship between higher numbers of students taught, time invested in various activities, and numerical student evaluations and burnout. More recently, Eriksen (2021), Sabagh, Hall, & Saroyan (2018) have also found similar research results. The literature also suggests that those who are directly involved with “helping professions” (such as university teaching) often expend a greater amount of emotional energy performing their daily responsibilities than other professionals who don't interact with people as much (Minter, 2011). Subsequently, those in helping professions are prime candidates for burnout if they are not practicing energy management.