Faculty Perceptions of How Their Altruistic and Servant Teaching Behaviors Influence Student Learning

Theoretical Foundations

This study has as its basis two theories which share similar characteristics but are not identical. Servant teaching is an adaptation of Servant Leadership theory, originally introduced by Robert Greenleaf in his 1970 essay, Servant as Leader (Greenleaf, 2012). Servant Leadership theory is defined as focusing on the follower, and how the leader might encourage success for that follower, and see the follower succeed regardless of the success of the leader (Greenleaf, 2012). Altruism theory was originally introduced by August Comte in 1848 by his work, A General View of Positivism. Altruism theory is defined as a caring mindset toward others that embodies other-minded thoughts and actions of care, concern, help, and understanding, without regard to self (Yildirim, 2016).

Servant leadership as a practice is not new, having been seen as early as the teachings of Jesus (Mark 9:35). The theory introduced by Robert Greenleaf has attracted a significant amount of attention amongst scholars since it offered a noticeably different leadership approach. Differing from the leadership models popular at the time of Greenleaf’s writings, servant leadership promoted a “serve first” mentality, seeking to elevate the one being led rather than the top-down leadership models of the day (Patterson, 2003). As the research on this theory has grown, Focht and Ponton (2015) conducted a Delphi study, identifying 12 primary characteristics of Servant Leadership.