Facilitators’ Self-Study Of A Virtual Adjunct Faculty Self-Study Collaborative

Abstract

ABSTRACT A growing number of universities are expanding programs with increased use of adjunct faculty. This research describes our experience developing and enacting a low-resource, scalable peer-to-peer program of research and professional development for adjunct faculty. This transdisciplinary adjunct self-study collaborative simultaneously targeted our understanding of facilitating self-study communities, and the transformation of individual teaching in the service of enhanced student learning while working to create a professional network for adjunct faculty. The study blends existing understanding of facilitating self-study research communities while further understanding the use of critical friends to engage faculty in a more substantive fashion. Facilitating and supporting virtual critical friend collaboration while re-imagining facilitator and participant roles, responsibilities, and expectations are discussed. As universities increasingly employ adjunct faculty, collaborative, cross-disciplinary work has strong potential to cohesively improve teaching in higher education.