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Preparing the professoriate to boldly lead.

Article Excerpt
Preparing the 21st century professoriate to boldly lead argues for an interdisciplinary redesign of graduate programs and curricula in all disciplines leading to faculty careers. For example, in addition to their particular content areas, graduate students ought to be engaged in the fields of history of education, philosophy of education, sociology of education, anthropology of education, educational policy studies, comparative and international education, teaching and learning theories and administrative aspects of higher education. Conceptual frameworks are offered to support this redesign.

Introduction

Preparing future members of the Professoriate has been a focus for a number of educators, particularly for the last fifteen years. For example, "The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program is a national movement to transform the way aspiring faculty members are prepared for their careers. PFF programs provide doctoral students, as well as some master's and postdoctoral students, with opportunities to observe and experience faculty responsibilities at a variety of academic institutions with varying missions, diverse student bodies, and different expectations for faculty." (Preparing Future Faculty, n.d.).

Wulff and Austin (2004) argue that it is "critical at this moment in the history of American higher education to ensure that graduate education is appropriately preparing students who are pursuing paths to the professoriate." (p. 3). Furthermore, Wulff and Austin argue that the higher education community ought to consider "strategies for enriching the preparation of future faculty." (p. 3). This article takes that challenge and emphasizes a strategy that combines preparation in both academic affairs and student affairs to create new faculty leaders within higher education. This author starts with an examination of the contributions made to the discussion about faculty preparation such as those offered by The Council of Learned Societies in Education:

As tomorrow's educators are called upon to exercise sensitive judgments amidst competing cultural and educational values and beliefs, they will continue to need studies in the ethical, philosophical, historical and cultural foundations of education to inform their decisions. (The Council of Learned Societies in Education, 1996, p. 5).

In addition to their particular content areas, graduate students ought to be engaged in the fields of history of education, philosophy of education, sociology of education, anthropology of education, educational policy studies, comparative and international education, and higher education. All graduate students preparing for the Professoriate ought to have opportunities to obtain interpretive, normative, and critical perspectives on education. The Council of Learned Societies in Education (CLSE) offers the following definitions of these perspectives:

1. The interpretive perspectives use concepts and theories developed within the humanities and the social sciences to assist students in examining, understanding, and explaining education within different contexts.

2. The normative perspectives assist students in examining and explaining education in light of value orientations. Foundational studies promote understanding of normative and ethical behavior in educational development and recognition of the inevitable presence of normative influences in educational thought and practice.

3. The critical perspectives employ normative interpretations to assist students to develop inquiry skills, to question educational assumptions and arrangements, and to identify contradictions and inconsistencies among social and educational values, policies, and practices. In particular, the critical perspectives engage students in employing democratic values to assess educational beliefs, policies, and practices in light of their origins, influences, and...

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