Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*

3-6 July, 2002
The University of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia

Abstract

Cross cultural implications of adapting a constructivist faculty development program across campuses and countries

Katherine Sanders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Fiona Underwood, University of South Australia, Australia
Jean Layne, Texas A&M University, USA

Designing faculty/staff professional development programs that help initiate and support larger scale organizational change is often custom-design work. Specifically, a designer must understand the current organizational context and constraints in order to design a set of experiences that effectively engages participants while complementing the uniqueness of the organization's culture. This makes transporting successful programs from one institution to another a challenging endeavor. We propose to briefly describe the organizational and job design principles underlying an intense faculty/staff development program in existence since 1993 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where participants meet in cross-disciplinary groups over a nine month academic year to learn together. We will then describe how this program and its underlying principles were adapted by two very different institutions: the University of South Australia and Texas A&M University. We will draw upon narrative analysis from staff interviews to compare perceptions of each institution's culture and needs. We will also discuss how this faculty development program fits into a larger picture of organizational change. Additionally, we'll have an open discussion about creating communities of program facilitators within and across institutions.

Key words:
Faculty development; Program dissemination/adaptation; Organizational change

Objectives, outcomes and activities:
We wish to engage attendees in a discussion of how programs designed for a particular organizational culture can be successfully disseminated/adapted by diverse institutions. We will also talk about how all of us might create communities of faculty/staff development professionals across institutional boundaries by working together.

Dr. Katherine Sanders, is the Director of a faculty/staff development office called "Creating a Collaborative Academic Environment" (CCAE). CCAE grew out of Katherine's 1993 organizational change dissertation in Human Factors Engineering. CCAE creates intentional communities across the university by offering collaborative learning experiences for learning and teaching (CCLE), as well as research and approaches to inquiry (CCRE). In the wings is a collaborative learning experience centered on service, involving City of Madison community members and UW-Madison community volunteers.

Fiona Underwood, is a graduate student in the Education doctoral program at University of South Australia. She works with Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning, Brenton Dansie, and Project Officer Julie Kalms at the University of South Australia, to adapt and implement their version of CCLE. This is Fiona's second year as a facilitator in CCLE. She and Julie have created two different versions of CCLE to better fit the needs of the University of South Australia academic staff.

Jean Layne, is the program coordinator for Texas A&M University Faculty Learning Communities, based in TAMU's Center for Teaching Excellence. Based on UW-Madison's CCLE program, Jean is adapting and implementing the FLCs to fit TAMU's unique culture and needs. The year 2000-01 was the pilot year of the program, leading to an expansion in 2001-02 to three new FLC groups.

Contact: Katherine Sanders, email: kjsander@facstaff.wisc.edu