New faculty issues: Fitting in and figuring it out

Abstract

This chapter provides a portrait of faculty development in community colleges, highlighting different issues facing faculty based on location and including a review of theFaculty members come to the community college through a variety of routes, most often not as an intended career option (Fugate and Amey, 2000). Indeed, Townsend and Twombly (2007) underscore the varied pathways to faculty ranks at two-year colleges and point out that possession of a Ph.D. is gaining traction, but that the master' s degree remains the coin of the realm for hiring in the sector. Coupled with the fact that recent research on faculty socialization (Austin, 2002;Eddy and Gaston-Gales, 2008) focuses on research university faculty versus those teaching at community colleges, community college search committees need to consider the match between candidate preparation and the skills required for successful classroom teaching. This chapter fi rst highlights how previous socialization and preparation affect the issues faculty face as they start their careers and then discusses the areas faculty developers and academic leaders have indicated as pressing for faculty in community colleges. How faculty members were prepared, their previous experiences, and their expectations of teaching at a community college all contribute to how they conceptualize their faculty roles.The location and focus of the two-year college also infl uences the experience of new faculty because context provides key environmental factors. Faculty members working in urban settings face different challenges relative to their counterparts in rural locations. In addition, size differences in student enrollment are important to the faculty experience. The research 2

Tools in Their Toolbox: How Community College Faculty Transfer Industry Experience Into Their Teaching

“…Within the limited research base on community college faculty, a few scholars focused on the pathway to landing a faculty position. By and large, this line of research has shown that most faculty had not considered teaching at the community college as their first career choice (e.g., Eddy, 2010;Fugate & Amey, 2000;Twombly & Townsend, 2008) and that the pathways into teaching are diverse (Wallin, 2004). For example, based on survey data collected from faculty across 33 postsecondary institutions who had transitioned from industry, Garrison (2005) found that the desire to teach is the primary reason for moving into an academic career.…”

“…Improving faculty experiences and meeting their needs composes a large and important thread in the community college faculty development literature (e.g., Eddy, 2005Eddy, , 2007Eddy, , 2010Seidman, 1985;Wallin, 2004;Wallin & Smith, 2006). Eddy (2010), for example, pointed to community college leaders as shouldering the responsibility for enhancing the faculty members' ability to facilitate the improvement in students' outcomes.…”

“…Improving faculty experiences and meeting their needs composes a large and important thread in the community college faculty development literature (e.g., Eddy, 2005Eddy, , 2007Eddy, , 2010Seidman, 1985;Wallin, 2004;Wallin & Smith, 2006). Eddy (2010), for example, pointed to community college leaders as shouldering the responsibility for enhancing the faculty members' ability to facilitate the improvement in students' outcomes. At the same time, the institution must prioritize individual faculty members' identification of their roles as both instructors and colleagues, provide support through travel grants to attend professional development workshops, and use such opportunities to broaden their networks and bring knowledge back to the institution.…”

“…Community college faculty, who represent 20% of all postsecondary faculty (National Center for Education Statistics, 2018), with two-thirds employed part-time (Heuer et al, 2006;Wang, 2015), play a vital role in shaping their students' learning experiences and educational outcomes. Despite the significant policy and empirical attention community colleges have garnered in recent years, research on their faculty continues to represent a prominent gap in the literature (Bailey et al, 2015;Eddy, 2010;Eddy & Khwaja, 2019). A key missing element is how community college faculty with industry backgrounds utilize this experience in teaching.…”

“The Rules Change”: Exploring Faculty Experiences and Work Expectations Within a Drifting Community College Context

“…2 Beginning in 2014, aspirations included being "recognized nationally." 3 Contributions of this work include drawing attention to a group of faculty who, although responsible for teaching nearly half of all U.S. undergraduates (American Association of Community Colleges, 2018), continue to be underrepresented in the literature (Eddy, 2010;Gonzales & Ayers, 2018;Morest, 2015;Terosky & Gonzales, 2016a, 2016bTownsend & Twombly, 2007). In addition, this study adds to the literature concerning the community college baccalaureate-a topic of heightened interest.…”