CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION AND ACADEMIC STAFF DEVELOPMENT IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Staff development is central to the quality of higher education, but the way it is considered and delivered at present owes a lot to the general employment framework and conditions of service for staff of higher institutions in Rivers State, Nigeria. This study titled Cultural Globalization and Academic Staff Development in Tertiary Institutions in Rivers State, Nigeria” was undertaken to determine the influence of cultural globalization on academic staff development in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. Cultural globalization was the independent variable, while Continuous Professional Development and Research Advancement were the dimensions considered under Academic Staff Development as the dependent variable. Two objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The correlational research design was adopted for the study and was delimited to four Rivers State owned tertiary institutions. A sample of 145 out of the population of 1,454 academic staff from the four tertiary institutions was randomly selected. The method of data collection was the questionnaire titled ‘Cultural Globalization and Academic Staff Development Questionnaire’ (CGASDQ). The instrument was validated by experts to ensure face and content validity. A reliability coefficient of 0.77 was established . The data were analyzed with Mean and standard deviation in answering the research questions and the p- value used to test the null hypothesis at 0.01 level of significance. The analysis showed a relationship between cultural globalization and the measures of Academic Staff Development considered in the study. The major findings are that there is a low, positive and significant correlation between Cultural Globalization and Academic Staff Development. The study concluded that academic staff of the institutions need to evolve and align themselves with the benefits of cultural globalization for more productive outcomes, and therefore recommended among others that tertiary education administrators in Rivers State should be open to providing platforms and facilities for staff members to collaborate with peers and contemporaries outside  their institutions.