What does this research mean for the field?

Teaching-focused academic staff face systemic, interconnected barriers to research engagement—such as high workloads, misaligned performance metrics, and lack of mentorship—that compound each other through complex feedback loops. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine the lived experiences of teaching-focused academic staff and evaluate how interconnected institutional, structural, and individual barriers impede their engagement in research.

September 2, 2026Humanities and Social Sciences CommunicationsOpen Access

Mapping the barriers: an exploratory case study of research engagement among teaching-focused academic staff in higher education

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Authors

MAMohammad Alrabie ARAmanda Relph ISImelda Sari

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Overview

Qualitative study uncovers systemic barriers and compounding feedback loops hindering research in teaching-focused university faculty, highlighting the need for institutional workload and...

Key Points

To examine the lived experiences of teaching-focused academic staff and evaluate how interconnected institutional, structural, and individual barriers impede their engagement in research.
Conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 16 teaching-focused academic staff at a post-1992 UK university.
Applied thematic analysis to identify barriers and modeled their interactions using causal loop diagramming across organizational, structural, personal, and external domains.
Validated the systems model through a collaborative workshop with study participants.
Identified complex systemic feedback loops driven by high teaching workloads and restricted funding access that compound research disengagement.
Revealed that ambiguous research expectations, inadequate mentorship, and misaligned institutional performance metrics disproportionately disadvantage teaching-focused faculty.
Established institutional leverage points, emphasizing the necessity of ring-fenced research time, structured mentorship, and recognition for alternative scholarly outputs.

Cite This Study

Alrabie et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a97e318c562ede874ec7b95 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-08418-y

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September 2, 2026Humanities and Social Sciences CommunicationsOpen Access

Mapping the barriers: an exploratory case study of research engagement among teaching-focused academic staff in higher education

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

MAMohammad Alrabie ARAmanda Relph ISImelda Sari

Discussion

Member takes

Overview

Qualitative study uncovers systemic barriers and compounding feedback loops hindering research in teaching-focused university faculty, highlighting the need for institutional workload and...

Key Points

To examine the lived experiences of teaching-focused academic staff and evaluate how interconnected institutional, structural, and individual barriers impede their engagement in research.
Conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 16 teaching-focused academic staff at a post-1992 UK university.
Applied thematic analysis to identify barriers and modeled their interactions using causal loop diagramming across organizational, structural, personal, and external domains.
Validated the systems model through a collaborative workshop with study participants.
Identified complex systemic feedback loops driven by high teaching workloads and restricted funding access that compound research disengagement.
Revealed that ambiguous research expectations, inadequate mentorship, and misaligned institutional performance metrics disproportionately disadvantage teaching-focused faculty.
Established institutional leverage points, emphasizing the necessity of ring-fenced research time, structured mentorship, and recognition for alternative scholarly outputs.

Cite This Study

Alrabie et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a97e318c562ede874ec7b95 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-08418-y

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