9. Community
Ten Necessary Qualities for Building Community In Faculty
Learning Communities
The focus on community is what makes FLCs different from a faculty seminar
series, committee, or action learning set. Since the size of your FLC
is relatively small, the task is often achieved without difficulty.
Examples
of community-building activities include:
More examples can be found in the Social Amenities and Gatherings section in the FLC Sourcebook.
The following qualities guide the design and process of building community.
- Safety and Trust. In order for participants to connect
with each other, there must be a sense of safety and trust. This is
especially true as participants reveal weaknesses in their teaching
or ignorance of teaching processes or literature.
- Openness. In an atmosphere of openness, participants
can feel free to share their thoughts and feelings without fear of retribution.
For example, in the Community Using Difference, participants are able
to point out and discuss ways that other participants or colleagues
may offend them.
- Respect. In order to coalesce as a learning community,
members need to feel as though they are valued and respected as contributors
and as people. It is important for the university to acknowledge their
participation by financially supporting community projects and attendance
at conferences.
- Responsiveness. Members must respond to each other,
and the facilitator(s) must respond quickly to the other participants.
The facilitator should welcome concerns and preferences and share these
with individuals and the community.
- Collaboration. The importance of collaboration in consultation
and group discussion on individual member’s projects is key. Achieving
learning outcomes hinges on the group’s ability to work with and
respond to each other. In addition to individual projects, joint projects
and presentations should be welcomed.
- Relevance. Learning outcomes are enhanced by relating
the subject matter to the participants’ teaching, courses, scholarship,
and life experiences. All should be encouraged to seek out and share
teaching and other real-life examples that are relative to the FLC’s
objectives.
- Challenge. Expectations for the quality of outcomes
should be high, engendering a sense of progress, scholarship, and accomplishment.
Sessions should include, for example, those in which individuals share
syllabi and report on their individual projects.
- Enjoyment. Activities must include social opportunities
to lighten up, bond, and should take place in invigorating environments.
For example, a retreat can take place off campus at a nearby country
inn, state park, historic site, or the like.
- Esprit de Corps. Sharing individual and community outcomes
with colleagues in the academy should generate pride and loyalty. For
example, when the community makes a campus-wide presentation, participants
strive to provide an excellent session.
- Empowerment. A sense of empowerment is both a crucial
element and a desired outcome of participation in a learning community.
In the construction of a transformative learning environment, the participants
gain a new view of themselves and a new sense of confidence in their
abilities. Faculty leave their year of participation with better courses
and understanding of themselves and their students. Key outcomes include
scholarly teaching and contributions to the scholarship of teaching.
This project has been supported in part by a grants from the US
Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education
(FIPSE) and the Ohio
Board of Regents.
