A case study of faculty development programs in Division I research institution colleges: the perspective of the program administrators

摘要

The purpose of this study was to investigate faculty development from the perspectives ofprogram administrators in different colleges of a Division I research institution. The participantswere administrators of faculty development programs from eight different colleges at theinstitution. The research questions were (a) How do the administrators of faculty developmentprograms describe the organization of their programs? (b) What do program administrators seeas the purposes of the faculty development programs in the colleges? and (c) How do theprogram administrators as well as the college leadership determine the viability of a facultydevelopment program? The data from the interviews were first coded to themes; as broadercategories emerged, they were connected to the three research questions. The framework for thestudy was the concept of communities of practice, a part of Wenger???s (1998) social theory oflearning. The discussion explored how the role of a faculty development program in a collegecould be classified as a passive instructional resource, an active teaching service, or an influentialcommunity changer. In each classification a college places an increasing degree of importanceon (a) teaching as a measure of faculty competence, (b) faculty pursuit of becoming a betterteacher, and (c) the need for a faculty development program in the college.