Faculty Cohorts On Teaching

The CTE’s Faculty Cohorts on Teaching program seeks to bring faculty together to explore innovative approaches to significant teaching and learning questions. Participating faculty spend a year investigating a new pedagogical or course design approach to be implemented in at least one of the courses they teach. A late spring kick-off meeting sets the stage for the conversation, and then monthly seminar meetings during the academic year are organized around relevant readings in the pedagogical literature and case studies developed by cohort participants.

All Boston College faculty are eligible to participate.

Any questions about Faculty Cohorts in general—or about the specific cohorts being offered next year—can be directed to centerforteaching@bc.edu.

Participating faculty receive a $2,500 stipend and the opportunity to interact with an engaged group of colleagues. Please note that individuals who have administrative roles and teach are eligible to participate in a cohort but ineligible to receive the stipend, as per Boston College policy. Faculty who choose to participate can expect to:

  • attend a kick-off meeting the spring before the cohort launches;
  • participate in monthly cohort meetings during the academic year;
  • develop a short teaching case to be shared with other members of the cohort;
  • experiment with at least one significant revision to their teaching during the cohort year; and
  • submit a brief final report within one month of concluding the cohort, as well as participate in other assessments the CTE conducts of the cohort program.

Applications for the 2020-21 Faculty Cohorts on Teaching are now closed. Interested faculty were asked to submit a brief online application for either the Teaching for Inclusion and Social Justice cohort or Traditions of Formation and Our Teaching cohort that included a project proposal explaining what they hoped to gain from their cohort participation.

Applicants were asked to have their department chair send a very brief email to centerforteaching@bc.edu indicating their support of the applicant’s participation in the cohort. Part-time faculty were asked to have their chair speak specifically to the ways the department will benefit from their participation.

 

Teaching For Inclusion And Social Justice

As institutions of higher education welcome increasingly diverse student bodies and seek to cultivate more inclusive and just learning environments, faculty can sometimes struggle to carve out classroom spaces that support all students in their learning. The question of inclusion and social justice in the classroom has implications for all parts of our practice: pedagogical approach, classroom interaction, and curriculum development. 

The “Teaching for Inclusion and Social Justice” cohort invites faculty to participate in a year-long inquiry into this complex pedagogical puzzle. All participants are asked to identify at least one new pedagogical strategy they want to implement in one of their courses meant to improve either the inclusiveness of their course content or their classroom climate. We seek faculty from a range of disciplines to participate, particularly those whose subject matter doesn’t necessarily lend itself to discussions of “diversity.” Although we welcome a broad definition of inclusion and justice in this conversation, we focus most of our emphasis around questions of race/ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, religion, and ability.

Traditions Of Formation And Our Teaching

At its best, education is holistic, not just imparting skills and knowledge but inviting the growth of our students into individuals who see themselves within a greater purpose and who see a meaning to what they learn that transcends and integrates subject matter. This shared ideal of formation can take shape differently in our respective settings, which vary by level of study as well as by field, and can reflect our different positionalities and perspectives.

This cohort invites faculty to join in a year-long inquiry where they will reflect on what formation means in their teaching, beginning with an investigation of resources from developmental psychology, anti-oppressive pedagogies, and Jesuit pedagogy and spirituality. We will consider how our own formation affects our work with students, and what is distinctive about formation at BC.  All participants will be asked to propose and implement a change in their teaching to further student formation as a goal in itself. We seek faculty from a range of disciplines to participate, especially those whose subject matter doesn’t necessarily lend itself to discussions of formation.

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