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  • Coming In from the Margins: Faculty Development’s Emerging Organizational Development Role in Institutional Change by Connie M. Schroeder and Associates
  • Miriam L. Frolow
Connie M. Schroeder and Associates.Coming In from the Margins: Faculty Development’s Emerging Organizational Development Role in Institutional Change. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2011. 304 pp. Paper: $29.95. ISBN: 978-1-5792-2363-2.

Coming In from the Margins: Faculty Development’s Emerging Organizational Development Role in Institutional Change by Connie M. Schroeder and Associates, is an important addition to the scholarly research on organizational development in higher education. By focusing on teaching and learning centers (TLC), the authors make the case for raising the visibility of TLCs and giving directors a leadership role in institutional efforts to advance student learning.

The book provides multiple perspectives and models on how faculty developers are balancing their traditional roles to support individual faculty and academic departments on curricular changes with participation in initiatives focusing on the academic direction of the institution. With these additional responsibilities, Teaching and Learning Centers have moved from being on the margins to positions of leadership.

In the process, efforts to align TLCs and institutional priorities, mission statements, and strategic plans could have a broader and more sustainable impact on learning and teaching. This transformation has been documented through the research that Schroeder and her colleagues conducted, with the support of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network.

“The role that the developers could play and are already playing in advancing institutional change through institutional level involvement is overdue in being defined, studied, and enacted,” they note (p. 4). Each chapter provides lessons learned and actions recommended to make faculty development an integral part of organizational change. The authors also do an excellent job of cross-referencing to other chapters where readers can find more information about a specific topic mentioned.

With the higher education environment changing, institutions are revising the curriculum and launching broad-scale innovative pedagogy initiatives that can drive the strategic direction of student learning. Highlighted from the research were the critical roles in influencing the academic direction of the institution, including the general education curriculum, online/distance education, and program assessment.

Collaboration and different types of expertise and knowledge are required to drive decisions and change. TLC directors and faculty developers are being viewed as resources to facilitate these efforts, while dealing with resistance to change and other impeding factors. It also means taking risks and being recognized for encouraging change, a point that Gano-Philips noted as critical for making “the case for reframing faculty development in the larger context of institutional change” (p. 231).

Schroeder noted that “over half of the directors surveyed are involved in institutional initiatives that lead to change” (p. 200), even though they don’t see themselves as change agents. It is not enough that TLC directors have “intentionally developed their institutional leadership role” (p. 111); the faculty developers and TLC advisory board members should also be advocates for and involved in institutional change. Lieberman made the case for a decentralized faculty development structure to build a broad base of support for seeing the TLC as mission-critical to the success of faculty development and student learning (p. 61). These human resources can either enable or impede TLC participation in institutional initiatives, while advancing the strategic agendas of both the center and the institution.

As organizational developers, TLC directors should be encouraged to participate in committees and task forces where strategies are formed and decisions are made—in short, taking a “seat at the table” (p. 48). Collaboration, alliances, and shared knowledge are vital to the directors’ success. Blumberg, an advocate for learner-centered teaching, stated: “Committees and task forces are the seat of much power in academia and are catalysts for altering the culture, policies, and practices of an institution” (p. 162).

Taking on the leadership role may not be easy for some TLC directors, who may come from the ranks of faculty with minimal strategic planning and management experience even though “strategic planning involvement is one of the most important aspects of becoming an organizational change agent” (p. 261). Using case studies, Schroeder provides evidence of strategic planning...

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