How Educational Developers can Re-engage Mid-Career Faculty Using SoTL

Abstract

Mid-career faculty (MCF) currently make up a significant number of faculty at higher educational institutions. This group comprises key stakeholders with institutional history, diverse teaching and learning experiences, and strong relationships with colleagues. While faculty need different kinds of support and opportunities at different career stages, it has been reported that mid-career professional development is under-researched and overlooked. We contend that professional development for MCF is essential if these faculty are going to continue to grow as educators, leaders, and scholars. With the support of Educational Developers (EDs), the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is one way for faculty to focus their professional development in the middle years of their career. Drawing on the literature about challenges for MCF and using the micro-meso-macro-mega framework, we explore ways in which EDs can use SoTL to re-engage MCF on a revitalized path. Our synthesis offers reflections on our career experiences as EDs and boundary-spanning points to ponder for both EDs and MCF as they enter into SoTL engagement.

Staying Engaged and Achieving Promotion: The Role of Collegial Support and Career Reflection and Assessment for Mid-Career Faculty

“…Hamilton [24] noted that there is a financial burden that is associated with replacing departed MCF, including costs to advertise, recruit, orient, and support professional development of new faculty. There is also a human cost to having a lack of institutional support for MCF in tenure and promotion and career development.…”

“…The steps include career reflection (informal and formal reflection and importance of reflection), career planning (short-and long-term goals, promotion after tenure), and career action and implementation (professional development and career advancement, scholarly teaching and scholarship). Baldwin and Chang's [7] work is foundational in understanding how to support MCF, and other researchers have explored the topic of MCF and largely agreed with Baldwin and Chang's findings [6,24,28]. As this process addresses many key topics pertinent to supporting MCF, we chose to focus on only one of the building blocks that uphold the MCF development process, collegial support, and one of the essential elements to support the MCF development process, career reflection and assessment.…”

“…Studies by Baker [9], Baldwin and Chang [7], Campbell and O'Meara [22], and Thompson [23] highlighted the crucial role of educational leadership in facilitating faculty retention. Even though significant attention and resources are focused on pre-tenure faculty retention and success, the costs associated with MCF departures do not seem to be as seriously considered institutionally [24].…”

“…Reflection can include student evaluations, annual faculty reports, and post-tenure review processes, such as promotion from assistant to associate professor. In addition, Hamilton [24] suggests that faculty can use reflection to improve their teaching practices. Reflection on teaching can be considered scholarly teaching, where faculty use systematically and strategically gathered evidence to develop themselves as effective teachers [34].…”

“…DeCourcey et al [35] emphasized that supporting MCF's professional growth and agency is vital to their engagement and satisfaction within the institution. Professional development should encourage MCF to critically examine their teaching practices, foster faculty leadership, and facilitate conversations that enable a transition from scholarly teaching to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) [24,36]. One of the challenges that college MCF face is maintaining vitality in teaching, including engagement with scholarly activities, such as SoTL ( [35]).…”