Personal Stories of Calling Among University Professors Don Thompson

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Personal Stories of CallingAmong University
ProfessorsDon Thompson Cindy
Miller-PerrinPepperdine University
Cultivating a Culture of Calling Mennonite
Perspectives on VocationGoshen CollegeOctober
21, 2005
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Purpose of the Present Study

• To examine university faculty members concepts
  of vocation, personal experiences of discerning
  vocation, and personal bridges and barriers
  experienced while pursuing ones vocation, along
  with potential gender differences in these areas

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Research Methodology

• Quantitative Approach
• Vocation Survey Responses
• Qualitative Approach
• Vocational Autobiographies

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Vocation Survey

• The assessment included a 75-item survey
• Definitions of vocation
• Personal experiences of vocation
• Barriers to vocational discernment and action
• Sacrifices associated with living out ones
  vocation

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Survey Sample

• Recruited faculty from two private, Christian
  liberal arts institutions
• Sample size 108
• Response rates of 52 and 100

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Demographic Characteristics of Survey Sample

• Gender
• 32 female
• 68 male
• Mean age 48 years
• Majority are Caucasian (82)
• Religious Denomination
• 51 Church of Christ
• 19 Presbyterian
• 8 Roman Catholic
• 3 Non-Denominational

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Vocational Autobiography Approach

• Faculty were recruited from
• Faith and Learning Seminars
• Faith and Vocation Workshop
• 76 faculty completed autobiographies
• Response rates ranged from 65-67
• Demographics are similar to survey respondents
• Provided autobiography prompts

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Vocational Autobiography Prompts Most Theology
is essentially autobiography - Frederick Buechner

• Reflect on your past and how you have become who
  you are
• Describe major turning points along your
  vocational journey.
• Discuss moments of crisis or confusion as well as
  moments of joy and clarity along your past
  vocational journey (e.g., experiences that have
  affirmed or shaken your sense of calling).
• Write about friends or mentors who have
  contributed to your vocational development.
• Include distractions, tensions, or barriers that
  have hindered the pursuit of your vocational
  calling.
• Focus on your present calling and your role as a
  mentor to students
• Describe evidence you have that you are living
  your call now
• Explain how you practice ongoing discernment to
  your call
• Identify what you do to mentor /or facilitate a
  sense of vocation within your students

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Survey and Autobiography Results

• Definition and Scope
• Discernment
• Turning Points
• Mentoring
• Barriers and Obstacles
• Gender Specific Findings

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Definition and Scope of VocationHighlights from
the Literature

• Secular View
• Work, Career, Occupation
• Christian View
• a holy calling 2 Timothy 19
• Any human activity that gives meaning, purpose,
  and direction to life lifework
• Public and Private Dimensions
• Work, ministry, community, relationships

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Definition and Scope Survey Responses Agree A
Lot or Very Much

• Vocation Refers To
• Life purpose 94
• Gods will for ones life 87
• Job/Career/Profession 81
• Personal interests or skills 66
• Formal ministry 48
• Gender 8

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Definition and ScopeSurvey Responses Agree A
Lot or Very Much

• Lifework Aspects of Vocation
• Service toward others 77
• Parenthood 70
• Marriage 66
• Church 65
• Community 57
• Friendship 44
• No Personal Aspects 4

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Definition and Scope

• Vocation always involves service/benefit to
  others
• Not at all 9
• A little or somewhat 26
• A lot or very much 63
• My vocation includes serving those in need
• Not at all 1
• A little or somewhat 17
• A lot or very much 82

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Definition and ScopeEssay Summary

• Our commission from God to identity, lifestyle,
  ministry, and service
• Every decision, every relationship, every work
• Discipleship, becoming like Jesus, loving God
• Living from the outside in, rather than inside
  out
• Seeking Gods will
• The journey itself
• Using Gods gifts

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Definition and ScopeEssay Responses

• Both my spiritual heritage and my professional
  identity as a scholar lead me to cast my personal
  sense of vocation in terms of a biblical text.
  Specifically, I find myself called by Deuteronomy
  64-5, known as the shema Listen, Israel There
  is no god except the Lord your God. Love the Lord
  your God with your entire heart, your entire
  self, and your entire muchness (my
  translation). Thus the most concise expression
  of my calling is that I am called to love God
  with everything I am and have. Loving God is my
  vocation.

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Discernment Survey Responses Agree A lot or
Very Much

• Personal sense of vocation develops from
• Gods will 87
• Personal Interests/Skills 81
• Significant Life Experiences 80
• Influence of others 73

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DiscernmentSurvey Responses

• I have a strong sense of my own personal vocation
• Somewhat 8
• A lot 37
• Very much 55

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Discernment ProcessEssay Summary

• Intersection of talents, skills, desires and deep
  need for mankind
• Gut feelings - innermost convictions
• Gods loud voice speaking through tragedies,
  disappointments, losses
• Ask and be asked questions
• Through experience, trial and error, surprises

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Discernment ProcessEssay Responses

• Knowing the will of God as a life calling occurs
  through experience itself. We discover what our
  calling is in the same way an artist paints on a
  canvas. We learn by trying, by experimenting, by
  doing. Our calling is inseparable from the
  journey. It IS the journey.
• Listening to Gods voice inside of me.
• Discernment is where prayer meets action.

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Discernment Evidence Essay Summary

• When nothing else matters
• Spiritual growth occurs
• Deep sense of joy, satisfaction, contentment,
  peace, excitement, renewed energy
• Positive feedback from others
• Answered prayer

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Discernment EvidenceEssay Responses

• Am I living my call now? I am uncertain. Is it
  possible that I am living it in one area of my
  life and not another? Now that God is opening
  doors and I am reconnecting with my passions. I
  have a sense of peace about what I am doing and
  the results are positive. Individuals, families,
  and students are being helped. Those that I
  trust have encouraged me in my present pursuits,
  while providing words of caution about
  overextending myself. My reward is a deep sense
  of satisfaction, excitement, and renewed energy.
• It is related to whether I would perform certain
  aspects of my work without pay.

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Turning PointsEssay Summary

• Death of family member or close friend
• Lifes mistakes wrong turns
• Education
• Accepting Jesus
• Conflict, tension, growing pains
• Helping someone in need
• Parenting

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Turning PointsEssay Responses

• All of my science courses seemed like work all
  the literature courses seemed like play. On
  Thanksgiving holiday, I had to work through some
  heavy-duty equilibrium problems for my
  quantitative analysis chemistry course, and I was
  to read Thornton Wilders Our Town for my
  American literature course. The power of the
  play overwhelmed me. I didnt know it then, but
  I was feeling the difference between what Thomas
  De Quincey called the literature of knowledge and
  the literature of power. And I began to think,
  Something is wrong here. Why am I competent in
  but so unmoved by my major, and why do plays and
  stories and novels and poems move me so?

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Turning PointsEssay Responses

• I was watching the news when a disturbing story
  came on. In England, two young boys had
  kidnapped a toddler and killed him. I couldnt
  get over that event. After hearing that story, I
  began to wonder what would cause someone,
  particularly children to do such a horrific
  thing. At that point I changed my major to
  psychology, transferred to a different school,
  with a better psychology program, and focused on
  understanding child development.

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MentoringParks, S.D. (2000). Big questions,
worthy dreams. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.

• Recognition of their Protégés
• Support
• Challenge
• Inspiration
• Dialogue
• Mutual Attraction Toward Similar Aims

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Mentoring MentorEssay Summary

• Encourage, serve, support, lead, nudge, excite,
  energize, hear, listen, share inner lives
• Learn about self, giftedness, passions, life
  purpose
• Help students navigate faith integration
• Build and foster courage

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Mentoring MentorEssay Responses

• I need to listen to my students. I need to hear
  what they are hearing. I need to be able to take
  their perspective as I decide what and when to
  share my own vocational journey. Perhaps it is
  enough that they fully grasp that vocation is a
  journey they dont have to understand it or be
  able to articulate their own vocation. They just
  need to accept that if they listen they will
  eventually find as Buechner says where their
  deep gladness meets the worlds deep hunger.

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Mentoring ProtégéEssay Summary

• From Teachers, Professors Colleagues
• Through scripture inspirational writing
• Via spouse, parents, family members, church
  family friends

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Mentoring ProtégéEssay Responses

• Throughout my life, my grandmother wrote several
  letters to me. In almost every one she included
  the following verse, from II Timothy 220 In a
  large house there are not only articles of gold
  and silver, but also of wood and clay some are
  for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the
  Master and prepared to do any good work. This
  advice gave me a sense that I was called by God
  to do important things.

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Mentoring ProtégéEssay Responses

• One of my professors encouraged me to pursue
  graduate school. He even went so far as to sign
  out a school car, make appointments for me with
  faculty, and drive me to the university to
  consider its program in human development. He
  encouraged me to consider teaching at the
  college/university level and helped me find my
  first academic post.

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Barriers/Obstacles

• Various obstacles or barriers may interfere with
  our ability to discern or act upon our vocational
  callings
• Barriers serve as challenges that either
• create struggles that we must overcome
• create an impasse that redirects our journey

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Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action

• Demographic Barriers/Obstacles
• Most faculty responded not at all
• Age 50
• Gender 64
• Ethnicity 73
• Education 56
• Income 57

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Gender as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle
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Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action

• Personal Attitudes or Emotions as
  Barriers/Obstacles
• Variable responses from faculty
• Fear
• Selfishness
• Self-doubt
• Need for personal control
• Desire for certainty
• Need to feel secure/safe
• Uncertainty about ones vocation
• Lack of faith

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Fear as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle
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Self-doubt as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle
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Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action

• Interpersonal Relationships as
  Barriers/Obstacles
• Most faculty responded not at all
• Parent or other family member 51
• Friend 72
• Boyfriend or girlfriend 77
• Teacher or professor 65
• Spouse 69
• Mentor 79
• Colleague 60
• Supervisor/Boss 54

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Parent or Other Family Member as a Vocational
Barrier/Obstacle
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Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action

• Personal and Social Circumstances as
  Barriers/Obstacles
• Variable responses from faculty
• Lack of financial resources
• Concerns about supporting standard of living
• Unwillingness to sacrifice financially
• Feeling pressure or a desire to get married
• Gender discrimination
• Job-related responsibilities
• Raising children
• Family responsibilities
• Traditions of my church
• Physical limitations

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Lack of Financial Resources as a Vocational
Barrier/Obstacle
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Job-Related Responsibilities as a Vocational
Barrier/Obstacle
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Barriers/ObstaclesEssay Summary

• Pride, Self-Centeredness, Prejudice
• Lack of faith, lack of self-confidence
• Struggle with traditional gender roles
• Balance between home and profession
• Health setbacks
• Family conflict, divorce, remarriage
• Church culture

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Barriers and Obstacles to Vocational ActionEssay
Responses

• My first semester was painful. Straight out of
  graduate school, I embraced my students excited
  and ready to embark on an intellectual journey.
  I found, however, that my students responded to
  my enthusiasm with indifference, sleepiness, and
  even hostility. I was also disheartened to see
  racial tensions and divisions in and outside of
  my class with minority students coming to me to
  say that they felt depressed and alienated on
  campus. I felt that I had to be an entertainer
  instead of a teacher and a radical social
  activist instead of a private and objective
  researcher.

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Gender Specific Findings

• The topic of gender differences in vocational
  calling has not been examined empirically
• Research in the areas of faith and identity
  development suggests the potential impact of
  gender on vocational development

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Gender Analysis

• Gender differences were examined for the barriers
  and obstacles that faculty members experienced
  related to their vocational calling
• Gender differences were evident in two areas
• Interpersonal barriers/obstacles
• Environmental barriers/obstacles

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Interpersonal Barriers/Obstacles
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Specific Interpersonal Barriers/Obstacles

• Women reported that the views and opinions of
  others served as barriers/obstacles with regard
  to their ability to pursue their vocations
• Parent or other family member
• Teacher or professor

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Environmental Barriers/Obstacles
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Specific Environmental Barriers/Obstacles

• Women reported that environmental or social
  circumstances interfered with their ability to
  pursue their vocations
• Gender discrimination
• Pressure/desire to get married
• Raising children
• Traditions of church home

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Gender Barriers/ObstaclesEssay Responses

• While it may be best that I didnt end up a youth
  minister, realizing that I was limited because of
  my sex was deeply disconcerting and left me a bit
  confused as to where God was leading me. In fact,
  I recall thinking that God only called men to
  positions of ministry and so I resigned myself to
  that reality.

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Gender Barriers/ObstaclesEssay Responses

• The culture of my church indicates that women
  should stay home with their children and tend to
  the family. In spite of this there are many
  women who work outside of the home at my church,
  but I would not be surprised that many, if not
  all of us feel guilty. I have attempted on three
  separate occasions to leave my professional
  positions to be a stay at home mom, but in
  every instance I was home for a little more than
  a year and I would return to work part-time and
  then eventually full time. This struggle has
  greatly clouded my search for vocation.

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Conclusions

• Contrary to past research, our faculty sample
  defines vocation more broadly than career
• Mentors play an important role in the process of
  vocational discernment
• Turning points play a key role in shaping ones
  vocational journey
• A significant number of faculty reported
  experiencing barriers to living out their calling
• Barriers manifest differently for men versus women