American Faculty Development:A Historical Perspective

Faculties are the basis of a university's existence and development, they are the most important human resources of a university. The faculty's quality has a direct impact on the quality of the university's academic output and teaching,and has a indirect impact on the university's ability to get social resources. Today, universities all round the world have paid attention to the quality of their faculties. In facilitating faculty development, American universities are at the forefront. Responding to the change of society and higher education, American universities began to exploring faculty development in the second half of the19th century and have formed some mature faculty development models and gained some successful experiences. Faculty development has become a key strategic measure to acquire resources and win development space in the complex social environment for American universities. Maintaining the higher quality Faculty through Faculty development is a reason why American universities are famous worldwide.This dissertation, guided by the methodology of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, based on the sufficient historical materials, reviews the history of American faculty development. It uses the research methods of literature analysis, Comparison and case study, probes into American faculty development's dynamic system and main features, and explores the historic logic of American faculty development.This dissertation consists of the introduction, the main body and the conclusion.The introduction analyses the cause and meaning of study on American faculty development, reviews former studies of American faculty development, defines the related notion of faculty development, and puts forward the research thinking and methods.The main body comprises of four chapters. Each chapter explores a historical period of American faculty development. There are four periods of American faculty development--the period of scholars (from the second half of19th century to the mid-1960s), the period of instructors (from the mid-1960s to the1980s), the period of developers (the1980s) and the period of full inclusion (since the1990s). In each chapter, the changes of faculty development ideas and practices based on the analysis of the background of American higher education are explored, and then the characteristics of American faculty development in each period are summarized. More specifically. Chapter one probes into the origin of American faculty development after inspecting the history of early American academic profession and the sabbatical leaves, explores the early forms of faculty development, and analyzes the professional development orientation of American faculty development practices in the period of scholars. Chapter two probes into the process of the rise of faculty development in the higher education crisis, explores the formation of faculty development conception and the systemization of faculty development practices, and analyzes the instructional development orientation of American faculty development practices in the period of instructors. Chapter three explores the transformation of American faculty development from a single goal (professional development or instructional development) to multidimensional goals (professional development, instructional development and personal development) under the press of marketization and accountability of higher education. Chapter four explores the process of the prosperity of American faculty development through expanding itself to new horizons and alliances.The conclusion summarizes some regular pattern of American faculty development.