Faculty Autonomy, Freedom, and Satisfaction

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Faculty Autonomy, Freedom, and Satisfaction
CENTRALIZED CURRICULA

• Craig Bach, Ph.D.Andrew N. Carpenter, Ph.D.

10th Sloan-C International Conference on
Asynchronous Learning Networks Orlando, Florida
Sunday, November 14, 2004 830am - 945am
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Discussion Outline

• Conceptualization of Centralized Curricula
• Advantages of Centralized Curricula
• Consequences for faculty autonomy, academic
  freedom and satisfaction
• Discussion

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Curricular Structures

• What is a centralized curriculum?
• Identifying Levels of Coordination
• The Case of Online Learning Contexts

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Benefits of Coordination

• Easier Implementation of Program-Level Assessment
• Increased Quality Assurance
• Tightening of the Data Collection/
  Evaluation/Learning Improvement Cycle
• Greater Consistency of Learning Experience

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Consequences of Coordination

• Faculty Autonomy

Autonomy decreased in favor of consensus Who
makes up the group that provides consensus?

• Faculty Freedom

Individual Academic Freedom is restricted and
transferred to Faculty Teams Academic Freedom
Challenged by Institutional Goals

• Faculty Satisfaction

Classroom experience changed Do faculty report
decreased satisfaction?
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Substantive Claims about Autonomy

• The interactions teachers have with individual
  students constitutes the central locus of faculty
  autonomy.
• Curricular structure has little to do with the
  ways that these interactions allow teachers to
  teach with a distinctive pedagogical voice and
  to develop their own teaching styles and
  preferences.

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Conclusions about Autonomy

• A significant degree of autonomy exists even
  within the most highly centralized curricula in
  virtue of the interactions teachers have with
  individual students.
• Examples of these autonomous acts include the
  tone of interactions with students, the exact
  standards uses to grade work, specific ways to
  explain difficult points.

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Substantive Claim about Academic Freedom

• Academic freedom can be vested in the
  collaboration of colleagues, not just in the
  decisions of individuals.

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Conclusion about Academic Freedom

• A centralized curriculum that is constructed and
  refined as the result of an inclusive,
  democratic, and ongoing process of faculty
  collaboration supports a high degree of academic
  freedom.

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Substantive Claims about Faculty Satisfaction

• The quality of curricular design and
  implementation matters more than curricular
  structure.
• Substantive opportunities for faculty input into
  curricular design and implementation promote
  faculty satisfaction within a centralized
  curriculum.

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Conclusion about Faculty Satisfaction

• A high-quality coordinated curricular context
  arising from faculty-led and faculty-organized
  collaboration can support the professional needs
  of nearly all faculty.
• Some faculty are more satisfied within a
  centralized curriculum because they are not
  comfortable with or do not wish to engage in
  on-line course design.

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• Craig Bach cbach_at_kaplan.edu
• Andrew N. Carpenteracarpenter_at_kaplan.edu