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Female faculty in higher education face challenges in promotion and are more likely to leave academia than male faculty. Faculty development can play an important role in changing the institutional system within which female faculty work to help support their promotion and retention, which, in turn, can lead to more diverse and equitable systems for supporting a diverse student body. This paper identifies professional development for three groups. One, senior faculty, especially white male faculty, can be trained to be advocates and allies for female faculty by learning how to identify and intervene when discriminatory behaviors occur. Two, department chairs play a key role in creating an equitable and supportive departmental climate for all faculty. Despite their important role, department chairs often receive minimal training. Workshops on family-friendly benefits can help them support their faculty when family issues affect their ability to do their faculty jobs. Finally, promotion and tenure committees are asked to review faculty achievements and make recommendations about whether faculty members have earned promotion and/or tenure. Their recommendations are critical for faculty retention and promotion. We review several ways that gender bias can be addressed through promotion and tenure committee development activities including workshops, simulations, and interactive theater.
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Department Chairs as Change Agents: A Virtual Cross-Institutional Professional Development Model for Chairs
Abstract Department chairs are crucial in impacting departmental climate, conveying expectations, and providing merit assessments. Therefore, they have the most influence in retaining highly qualified faculty. Most department chairs come from the faculty ranks and lack formal training in key management, communication, and administrative skills, including performance reviews, resource allocation and budgeting, legal and compliance issues, promotion and tenure determinations, conflict resolution, and the inclusive management of people with diverse identities. Recognizing the critical role of department chairs and the evident gap in their training, we developed a series of chair workshops to provide ongoing professional development for department chairs across multiple semesters. These workshops were designed as part of a multi-university collaboration funded by the National Science Foundation to create more inclusive environments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) units. However, the offerings were expanded to include all units on all campuses. This paper outlines our approach to developing these professional development workshops and describes the workshop designs and how we incorporated participant feedback. Additionally, we offer suggestions for others designing and implementing chair professional development workshops together with areas for future advancements in chair professional development.
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- PAR ID:
- 10514776
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Innovative Higher Education
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0742-5627
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 59-84
- Size(s):
- p. 59-84
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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