Scheduling Scholarship: Promoting Faculty Engagement in Two-Year Colleges

Abstract

Campuses can reinvigorate faculty by helping them make time for sustained, in-depth professional development. Scheduling scholarship in the form of on-going, long-term faculty learning communities (FLCs) link work in the classroom with research and reflection. The benefits of FLCs to two-year colleges include decreased isolation, intellectual stimulation, institutional problem-solving, professional credentials through scholarship, and promoting scholarly teaching. At our two-year college, we offer a variety of FLCs; anecdotally, they are received positively. In order to illustrate the impact of FLCs on the participants’ professional lives, we surveyed faculty who have been in these groups about their satisfaction and the impact that FLCs had on their workload. Overall, our survey revealed that faculty were quite positive about their FLC experiences, and they indicated that these enhanced their teaching and other professional responsibilities. This finding is consistent with surveys about faculty development at other two-year colleges, suggesting that more attention be paid to development programs. This article provides examples of FLCs and suggestions for implementation.