Faculty Development in China: An Essential Strategy for Tourism Education Service

Abstract

Chappel and Lane (1998) stated that one of the critical components of education is meeting the changing needs of industry and engaging all stakeholders in making a commitment to service quality. The key functional aspect is qualified teaching staff, the primary facilitators of educational services. It can be argued that in the literature that focuses on hospitality and tourism education there has been insufficient concern with hospitality and tourism educators; that is, with the teachers themselves (Pearce, 2007). Faculty appears to be the missing ingredient in hospitality and tourism education research. The context for the discussion presented herein is the hospitality and tourism teaching faculty within the university/college sector in mainland China. The authors view these faculty members as educational service providers; hence, the service theory can be applied to the education sector. In-depth interviews with faculty members/students have been carried out in support of this study. The results demonstrate that the service features of tourism education require teachers to have a strong service consciousness. This study highlights the need for hospitality and tourism education to incorporate insights from the student perspective because the student is the primary consumer of such education. Furthermore, faculty members require supplementary and ongoing familiarization with the practical aspects of this industry in addition to their fundamental teaching qualifications. This study applies the concepts of service to analyze hospitality and tourism education provision, elaborates on the status and responsibilities of tourism faculty, provides a theoretical model to measure quality teaching faculty, and offers suggestions for upgrading the relevant qualifications of teaching staff with a view to further enhancing their ability to provide quality tourism education in China.