Supporting Engaged Faculty Development

Campus Compact defines key competencies in the Supporting Engaged Faculty Development area as the knowledge, skills, and critical commitments that must be mobilized by community engagement professionals to support and facilitate professional development in community engaged learning and research.

Download PDF of Supporting Engaged Faculty Development Competencies 

Key Competencies

1. Understanding the context of faculty work

1. 1. 1. Able to identify and assess various faculty members’ ranks and institutional roles and responsibilities (e.g., teaching staff, clinical faculty, adjunct lecturers, tenure-track) in order to develop customized professional development experiences to fit their needs
      2. Able to identify and assess faculty members’ awareness, understanding, and attitudes about community-engaged scholarship (CES) in order to develop customized professional development experiences to fit their needs and interests.
      3. Knowledge of various strategies to engage faculty who are differently motivated to incorporate community-engagement into teaching and research
      4. When working with tenure-eligible faculty:

1. 1. 1. 1. Knowledge of the relationship of scholarly components of CES to faculty review, tenure, and promotion processes, including knowledge of institutional constraints and possibilities that prevent or support faculty engagement based on how academic departments/disciplines place value on categories of faculty work at various career stages and rank
         2. Able to share with faculty member a range of strategies for incorporating community engagement in ways that might balance, synergize, or integrate their teaching, research, and service commitments
         3. Able to identify and share strategies for documenting CES for review, promotion, and tenure so that faculty may critique and adapt for their own context

2. Designing and facilitating professional development

1. 1. 1. Able to employ participatory pedagogies that allow faculty participants to make decisions about the directions of the program and facilitate their learning from one another
      2. Able to authentically engage and integrate community members, students, and engagement staff in the development of faculty training throughout the training experience
      3. Able to foster mutually-supportive relations among engaged faculty (e.g., community building, mentorship, critical colleagueship)
      4. Able to explain the history, concepts, and frameworks of community-engaged scholarship (CES)
      5. Able to explain the definition, theoretical basis, impacts, and key components of community-engaged learning (service-learning)
      6. Able to articulate key components of a service-learning course and key elements of a service-learning syllabus
      7. Able to articulate a variety of ways that faculty can partner with community collaborators for research and teaching purposes
      8. Able to describe and model asset-based approaches to working with communities in a service-learning partnership
      9. Able to introduce and frame community assets and challenges while involving community representatives in the process
      10. Able to describe principles of partnership (grounded in collaborative relationships and shared activity characterized by reciprocity, mutual respect, shared authority, and co-creation) and how they can be applied in the development of service-learning curriculum and pedagogy, including service project design, implementation, and evaluation
      11. Knowledge of strategies of reflection and critical thinking that may be utilized to link students’ community experiences to their academic or civic learning
      12. Able to support faculty to construct solid student learning objectives and outcomes/goals that are thoughtfully tied to community-engaged experiences
      13. Able to support faculty to navigate conflicts or challenges that arise in the course of a community-engaged learning experience (e.g., with partners or students; inside or outside the classroom)
      14. Knowledge of logistical support and resources (e.g., readings, videos, grants, mentors/colleagues, etc.) on and off campus that can be leveraged to implement equity-focused community-engaged teaching and research
      15. Able to facilitate exploration of faculty members’ identities, values, and commitments in order to explicitly link them to their teaching, research, and service
      16. Knowledge of frameworks for understanding dynamics of power, privilege, identity, and difference as they arise in community engagement learning experiences and ability to share strategies/resources that faculty can utilize to support students’ own competency building surrounding these dynamics
      17. Able to identify the purposes of evaluation, share methods for measuring impact, and document evaluation findings in order to improve the course, student learning, and community-identified outcomes
      18. Able to identify strategies and resources for faculty to sustain community engagement partnerships over time

3. Sustaining support and encouraging institutional transformation

1. 1. 1. Knowledge of strategies to develop faculty members’ competency and confidence as supporters/ ambassadors of CES within their department or across the campus
      2. Able to provide continued opportunities for planning and learning with faculty and community partners
      3. Able to identify opportunities for faculty to pursue scholarship related to their community learning and research experiences, including identification of venues for publication and professional presentation
      4. Able to design and implement multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary collaborations, as appropriate

Critical Commitments

1. 1. 1. Willingness to mindfully employ such qualities as persuasion, humility, confidence, curiosity, collegiality, and patience to effectively support faculty
      2. Commitment to facilitate and model effective communication between community partners, program staff, students, and faculty as it relates to the co-construction of courses, research, and other collaborative enterprises