The Ontology of Scholar-Administrators: Empirical Inferences from Five Senior Administrators Who Published

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to fill a gap in existing literature on scholar-administrators and understand the lived experience of scholar-administrators who published. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach to extract themes from detailed case studies of five senior academic administrators who have published, the researchers’ empirical inferences from the five detailed case histories reveal the challenges and rewards of producing scholarship as a scholar-administrator. Their findings show that the administrators were more connected to the people within and outside the university, their own field of practice, and with the university. The impact of scholarship on scholar-administrators goes beyond publications. Continuation of being a scholar-practitioner has significant impact on networking scope of administrators keeping the educational entities they lead abreast of environmental trends to adapt to. Future research should replicate our study to increase the generalizability of its findings.