0.3 Evolution of a department as a community of learners  (Page 5/7)

A community requires actors or players (“All the world is a stage…”). For the evolving COL at SHU, the principal“dramatis personae”are those broadly designated as ELMP faculty, students, former students and practitioners associated with SHUthrough the Study Council and Service efforts.

Next, to be operational, the COL needs a core of consensually validated actions valued by the players or ELMProle incumbents. The actions (things for the actors to do) could be conceptually within frameworks such as Boyer’s four scholarships. Thus, resources (broadly defined) will need to be specified[contributions, incentives, desired acquisitions (funds, knowledge, etc.)]to support the COL. Standards for distribution of the resources and tasks to achieve COL goals will be discussed anddetermined, along with priorities related to ELMP goal for seeking resources and recognition (Transparency).

Specifics of points provided here will continue to be categorized (“taxonomized,”in Shulman’s words): The operations, distributions, resources, effort, rewards, time,responsibilities, (etc) will be allocated to support the types of topics included in the (working) COL“theoretic framework.”These tasks become agenda items for ELMP meetings, action lines for theStrategic Plan and foci for data collection and evaluation (e.g., NCATE Standard 5).

Change and improvement in IHEs are often popularized by expressions like“moving a graveyard,”“herding cats,”or orchestrating prima donas. Recognizing that individual faculty interests and talents are driving forces for facultyresearch, teaching and other forms of scholarship, ELMP members sought at least one instrumental value for the COL so the COL wouldnot just be another task or“add on.”The College of Education was involved in State, regional, and NCATE accreditation efforts. TheCOL seemed a reasonable way to (a) demonstrate compliance with and growth on NCATE Standard 5, (b) meet College and SHU reportingneeds, and (c) substantiate progress in outreach (Service, as defined by Boyer’s Scholarships of Integration and Application).

Although they are topics of separate papers, two structures were developed within ELMP to provide COL directionand to organize the diverse activities required by four types of scholarship. An Institute for Education, Leadership, Research andRenewal (IELRR) and the New Jersey Superintendents School Study Council provide a base for research, service, projects, grants,student recruitment and placement, and are the“Big Umbrella”to accommodate the external actors in the SHU/College/ELMP COLconfiguration.

One Example: NCATE Standard 5 and COL Intersection

Elements in the COL relate directly to NCATE Standard 5: Faculty Qualifications, Performance, and Development.Selected ELMP annual outcomes of COL efforts are compiled into a report on progress made for each year. The entries designate thecooperative, collaborative, or collegial efforts and specify the“actors”in the events, as well as the outcomes.

Because COL“actors”will be acting on common pursuits, faculty compile examples of“community”efforts at different levels (e.g., ELMP, College, local, regional, national,international) within each of Boyer’s (1990) types of scholarship [Discovery (research), Integration, Application (service), andTeaching]. The COL efforts include“actors”such as faculty/faculty; faculty/student; faculty/colleague (often a formerstudent). The“community”events can be internal (ELMP) or external as delivered through the IELRR and school study council.