Impediments in the Development of Teacher Talent: A Study in Selected State Universities of Karnataka, India

Abstract

A talent is a creator, a change initiator and a knowledge generator. Talents are the spirits of any venture. Teachers are a talent community in the universe of education and universities are helm of higher education. Universities constitute an integral part in the development of any nation. The core purpose of a University is to impart education for life and this is done with the help of facilitators and they are the teachers or faculty. In the academic setup, students are taught the concepts of talent management and they implement it in the work places that they join or start. But the irony is that it is not fully implemented in universities even after knowing the results of its implementation. The present research is exploratory in nature and is an attempt to know the perceptions of teachers, on the role of universities to manage talent i.e. the teacher talent in particular. The main objective of the study is to examine the reasons restricting the development of teacher talent. Thus this study is conducted in the selected state universities of Karnataka. Sample frame consists of 24 state universities. There are 11 general state universities and all eleven are taken for the study and are categorized into two groups (A and B) based on the year of their establishment and academic parameters. The respondents for the present study are teachers of all cadres, i.e. assistant professors, associate professors and professors from various streams and departments. The researchers have used the opinionnaire method of field survey research through questionnaires and personally interviewed the respondents. The population of the study was 1426 teachers. Approximately 25 % of the population from each cadre was taken as the sample size which is 340 respondents who partially fulfill the requirements of efficiency, representativeness, reliability and flexibility. The developed framework and the data in the study provide a meaningful insight into developing teacher talent as teachers are one of the major talent communities in universities. The study gives an insight into many issues of developing teacher talent who in turn shall ignite the talent in students who will be the inputs to corporates. The factors restricting the teacher talent are identified and there is a difference in the factor components among groups that restrict teacher talent. Majority of the respondents in the study agree that development of their talent is restricted by the lengthy regulations and unclear rules of universities followed by the lethargic attitude of officials in the administrative section.