Preparing to be a Faculty Member: What Do I Need to Know about Faculty Work? CIRTL Cast

1. Preparing to be a Faculty Member:What Do I Need to Know about Faculty Work?CIRTL Cast Ann E. Austin Professor, Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education Director, Global Institute for Higher Education Michigan State University April 7, 2010

2. Agenda • What is faculty work like—especially for early career faculty? • How is faculty work changing? What do today’s faculty need to be able to do? • What competencies should graduate students and post-docs develop if they are planning on faculty careers?

3. Key Issues for New Faculty • Learning about a new institutional culture • Finding institutional resources • Establishing a workable/realistic schedule and managing time • Learning about expectations and seeking feedback • Establishing collegial relationships • Being an effective teacher • Establishing a research agenda and trajectory • Assuming roles as an institutional citizen • Connecting with professional colleagues and associations • Developing a sense of scholarly identity

4. Question: As you think of these aspects of being a new faculty member…for which responsibility do you feel most prepared? • A) Learning about a new institutional culture • B) Finding institutional resources to support your work • C) Establishing a workable/realistic schedule and managing time • D) Learning about expectations and seeking feedback • E) Establishing collegial relationships

5. Question: As you think of these aspects of being a new faculty member…for which responsibility do you feel most prepared? • A) Being an effective teacher • B) Establishing a research agenda and trajectory • C) Assuming roles as an institutional citizen • D) Connecting with professional colleagues and associations • E) Developing a sense of scholarly identity

6. Forces affecting Faculty Work • Fiscal pressures • Societal expectations for accountability and emphasis on learning outcomes • More diverse student bodies • New technologies and expansion of knowledge • Shifts in faculty appointment patterns

7. Fiscal Pressures • Rising costs • Budget reductions • Implications • Faculty must be • Flexible • Open to change • Entrepreneurial

8. Societal Expectations for Accountability • Demands from the public for greater access, excellent research, contributions to economic development • Criticisms from the public and legislative attention • Implications • Faculty must • Know how to engage with the public • Be committed to fulfilling institutional missions, including external expectations

9. The Changing Student Body • Demand is expected to continue to grow • Increasing diversity in student body--age, race and ethnicity • Expectations for relevance, convenience, economy • Implications • Faculty must be skillful in • Teaching for student-centered learning • Building on the diversity within their classes • Providing support for all students, including under-prepared students • Assessing student learning outcomes

10. New Technologies and New Fields • Many new technologies—new research processes, new processes for teaching and learning • Expansion of knowledge—new areas and increasing inter-disciplinarity • Implications • Faculty must • Learn new technologies • Know how to collaborate with those in other fields • Deal with changing workloads • Handle unbundling of responsibilities

11. Changes in the Pattern of Academic Appointments • Shift from a tenure system to alternative appointment types • 56% of new full-time hires not in tenure-track • Contract-renewable and fixed-term appointments increasing • Increasing number of part-time faculty • 2004: 44% of all faculty members are part-time • Only 54% of new faculty appointed full-time

12. Short Discussion Question • Do you have any observations about these changes and how they are impacting faculty work?

13. What competencies should graduate students and post-docs develop as they prepare for faculty careers?

14. Competencies for Faculty Work • Conceptual Understandings • Knowledge and Skills • Interpersonal Skills • Professional Attitudes and Habits

15. Conceptual Understandings • Disciplinary knowledge • Norms and values, cutting-edge questions, debates, methods, criteria of excellence, patterns of work • History of higher education • Traditions and challenges over time, relationship of higher education to society • Institutional types • Different missions and cultures • Professional identity • Professional responsibilities, different forms of faculty work, being a member of a scholarly community,

16. Knowledge and Skills • Teaching and learning • How learning occurs; how to respond to student differences; variety of teaching strategies; pedagogical content knowledge; curriculum design; assessing student learning; teaching-as-research • Research • Framing appropriate questions; designing and implementing scholarly projects; collecting and analyzing data; presenting results; giving and receiving feedback • Engagement and Service • How to collaborate with different groups; how to communicate with diverse audiences • Institutional Citizenship • Kinds of governance structures, faculty responsibility in governance; how to work effectively with institutional leaders

17. Interpersonal Skills • Communication skills • Communicating verbally and in writing to different audiences; engaging in respectful dialogue • Teamwork and collaboration • Ability to work in diverse groups; conflict management • Appreciation of diversity • Ability to work effectively with diverse others—including colleagues from other disciplines and those with other kinds of appointments

18. Professional Attitudes and Habits • Ethics and integrity • Understanding conflicts of interest; intellectual ownership; research standards; bias; confidentiality; role of peer reviewer; ethical relationships with students • Motivation for lifelong learning • Commitment to engage in ongoing learning; knowledge of strategies to promote learning • Professional networks • How to build networks • Passion and balance • Knowledge of different models for building productive and satisfying academic lives

19. Discussion • Do these competencies seem appropriate and important to you as you think about a career as a faculty member? • Are there other competencies you would add to the list?

20. Discussion • What strategies might you use to further prepare yourself for a faculty career?

21. Further Reading Austin, A. E., & McDaniels, M. (2006), Preparing the professoriate of the future: Graduate student socialization for faculty roles. In J.C. Smart (ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research, Vol. XXI, pgs. 397-456. Netherlands: Springer.

22. Ann’s Contact Information Ann E. Austin Professor, Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education Director, Global Institute for Higher Education 419A Erickson Hall Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 Tel: 517-355-6757 E-Mail: aaustin@msu.edu http://gihe.msu.edu/aaustin/