SAGE 2YC Publishes in Change Magazine: Cultivating Faculty to Catalyze Change
published Jun 6, 2022 12:00pmMay 13, 2022
In a new publication in Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, the Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education at Two-Year Colleges (SAGE 2YC: Faculty as Change Agents) highlights a model to propagate the use of evidence-based practices by cultivating faculty as change agents. Research and evaluation of the the program's influence revealed changes in practice at the classroom and program level and increased agency of faculty as leaders with their peers, departments, institutions, and regions. This model of professional development created and piloted in the Faculty as Agents of Change program provides a valuable example of leveraging faculty leadership to promote sustainable institutional change.
Kristin O'Connell, Pamela L. Eddy, Ellen R. Iverson, and R. Heather Macdonald Abstract: Faculty members are well positioned to catalyze change on campus. They have opportunities to shape the learning experience for students, affect broad changes through their influence with other faculty, and within departments, and, with the right toolset, contribute to institutional and regional change. Providing relevant professional development (PD) can motivate and support faculty in this work (Manduca, 2017), especially when leveraging adult learning and situated learning theories to inform the design (Eddy etal., 2019). Faculty may be passionate about wanting to improve student success and create more inclusive environments; however, they may not know where to start. Professional development provides one way to meet this need. In this article, we describe a PD model that combines strategies to improve student success with leadership development. Our PD program strengthened participants' pedagogical practices while building their confidence to share what they have learned with their colleagues, thus spurring change beyond singular classrooms (Bragg et al., 2020). We show how a well-designed PD program can provide a supportive space and actionable tools for faculty to learn and to lead.
Read the article online:
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 54:3, 11-18, DOI: 10.1080/00091383.2022.2054173