ABSTRACT
Faculty members are individuals with distinct backgrounds, experiences, levels of preparation, beliefs, goals, and motivations; they are also members of a higher education institution, a culture or multiple overlapping cultures, and an educational system with wide-ranging historical, economic, paradigmatic, and political factors that influence its structure, functioning, and goals. They fulfill a variety of roles: teacher, advisor, researcher, colleague, mentor, and employee. In short, they are complicated actors in a complicated context.
