How Do Faculty Come to Identify with Voluntary Interdisciplinary Teaching- Scholarship Communities? An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study

Imagine the world of university teaching as a giant, bustling city. In this city, most teachers live in separate neighborhoods called "departments," where everyone speaks the same language and follows the same rules. But sometimes, to solve big, tricky problems, teachers need to build bridges between these neighborhoods, creating a new kind of neighborhood where a biology expert might chat with a history expert. This is called an interdisciplinary community.

For a long time, experts thought that if you just invited teachers to these new bridges, they would naturally feel like they belonged. It was assumed that joining the party was the same as falling in love with the party. However, this paper asks a deeper question: How does a teacher actually go from just showing up to feeling like, "This is my team, and this is my work"? The researchers use two big ideas to help explain this. First, Organizational Identification is like the feeling you get when you say, "I am part of this group," rather than just "I am working here." Second, Communities of Practice suggests that you learn who you are by doing things together, not just by thinking about them. The big question is: in a world where teachers are used to strict bosses and clear rules, can they really build this kind of deep, voluntary friendship, and what happens when the initial excitement wears off?

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The Story of the Bridge Builders

This study, conducted at a medical university in China, dives into the messy, real-life journey of teachers trying to build these interdisciplinary bridges. The researchers wanted to know: What makes a teacher feel like they truly belong to a voluntary group, and does that feeling change over time?

To find the answer, they used a "detective duo" approach. First, they asked 50 teachers to fill out a survey (the quantitative part) to see how happy and connected they felt. Then, they sat down with 20 of those teachers for deep, chatty interviews (the qualitative part) to hear the stories behind the numbers.

The Big Discovery: It Might Not Be a Straight Line

The most intriguing finding is that feeling like you belong isn't necessarily a straight line that just goes up and up. Instead, the data suggests a U-shape, though the researchers are careful to note this is an exploratory finding that needs more testing.

1. The Honeymoon (The High Point): When teachers first join, they are super excited. They think, "This is amazing! Everyone is so different and cool!" Their sense of belonging is at its peak (a perfect score of 5.00 out of 5).
2. The Friction Zone (The Dip): About one to two years in, things get bumpy. The excitement fades, and reality hits. Teachers start to feel the stress of working together. They might argue about how to teach a class, worry about who gets credit for a paper, or feel like the boss is too controlling. This is the "friction trough," where their sense of belonging drops (to about 4.78).
3. The Reconstruction (The Climb Back Up): If they stick it out for two to five years, something interesting happens. They work through the arguments, find their rhythm, and the group becomes a real family. Their sense of belonging climbs back up significantly (to 4.98), getting very close to that initial high point, because now it's built on real shared struggles, not just a dream.

Note: The researchers caution that this U-shape might not be a universal rule. It could be that teachers who didn't like the group simply left early (a "selective-retention" effect), meaning the people who stayed for the long haul were already the ones most likely to feel a strong connection. So, while the dip and recovery is a fascinating pattern, it's not yet proven to be a necessary step for everyone.

The Three Secret Ingredients

The researchers found that teachers build this belonging in three different ways, like three different engines in a car. Which engine a teacher uses depends on who they are:

• Engine 1: The "We Are Smart" Engine (Academic Belonging): This is for the team leaders. They feel connected because they are building something new together. They take their own knowledge and mix it with others' to create something bigger. It's like a chef who loves cooking because they get to invent a new recipe with a friend.
• Engine 2: The "Look What We Did" Engine (Practical Reward): This is for the achievers. They feel good because they see results—like publishing a paper or getting a promotion. It's a feedback loop: "I worked hard, I got a reward, so I want to keep working." But if the rewards aren't fair, this engine sputters.
• Engine 3: The "We Are Friends" Engine (Emotional Connection): This is the most important one for regular members. They feel safe because the group isn't run by a strict boss, but by a friendly leader who listens. It's a space where they can say, "I don't know the answer," without getting in trouble. This emotional safety is the glue that holds the group together when things get tough.

The Catch: The Gap Between Thinking and Doing

Here is a funny but important twist the study found. The teachers loved the idea of the group (their attitude was perfect), but they weren't actually sharing their notes and files as much as they should (their practice was a bit lower). It's like having a group chat where everyone says, "We are a great team!" but no one actually sends the photos they promised. The researchers suggest this is because the school didn't give them enough tools (like a shared digital folder) to make sharing easy.

The "Boss" Problem

The study also warns that these groups can be tricky. In a culture where everyone is used to having a boss, the leader of the group can accidentally become a "dictator" if they aren't careful. If the leader says, "Do it my way or else," the other engines stop working. The group stops being a team of friends and becomes just another chore. The study suggests that for these groups to work, the school needs to step back and let the teachers lead, while still giving them enough money and support so they don't feel stuck.

So, What's the Takeaway?

The paper concludes that building a team isn't something that happens the day you join. It's a long process that requires patience. The "friction zone" (that dip in the middle) might be a sign that the group is growing, but it's not guaranteed to happen for everyone, and it might just be that the people who couldn't handle the stress left early.

The researchers suggest that schools shouldn't just check if teachers are showing up. Instead, they should be extra supportive during that tricky 1-to-2-year mark, helping teachers work through the arguments and keeping the "friendship engine" running. If they do that, teachers won't just be members of a group; they will truly feel like they belong.