Education Commons^™

Preparing New Faculty For Leadership: Understanding And Addressing Needs, Anne Kelsch, Joan Hawthorne

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A perceived decline in effective faculty participation in campus leadership and governance is well documented, both in the literature and via anecdote. Characteristics common within the culture of higher education make nurturing campus “citizenship” among junior faculty challenging. This essay describes findings from an interview based study of junior faculty in which understanding of professional responsibilities beyond teaching and research was explored. The study documented the deep sense of unpreparedness with which new faculty approach key issues in higher education, including those associated with governance and leadership. Two possible strategies for redressing that unpreparedness, both showing preliminary but positive results, …