„I don’t have the time to do any of the things I am responsible for“: University Teachers’ Sense of Responsibility for Teaching

University teachers work in a highly complex environment, meeting the multiple and sometimes competing demands of striving for high quality teaching and research. While a growing body of research focuses on the relevance of schoolteachers’ sense of responsibility and its outcomes for teaching and student learning, teacher responsibility has been neglected in research with university teachers. This research, consisting of two consecutive qualitative and quantitative studies, sets out to explore university teachers’ sense of responsibility for teaching at different stages of their career and
in different academic contexts. Participants were 199 German and 80 Australian university teachers. Results of quantitative data analysis show that all university teachers most strongly feel responsible for their teaching and relationships with students. The focus of university teachers’ sense of responsibility on teaching was also shown in the qualitative data. Differences between the samples of the two studies, however, appeared with regard to further objects of responsibility. Cluster analyses, including the frequencies of statements, revealed three types of university teachers in each study: teaching- and student-oriented university teachers in both studies, achievement-oriented teachers in the German/Swiss, and administrative-oriented university teachers in the Australian sample. Implications for university teachers’ work contexts and training are discussed.