Meeting to transgress. The role of faculty learning communities in shaping more inclusive organizational cultures

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-09-2017-0184
• Published date: 15 April 2019
• Date: 15 April 2019
• Pages: 286-304
• Author: KerryAnn O’Meara,Gudrun Nyunt,Lindsey Templeton,Alexandra Kuvaeva
• Subject Matter: Hr & organizational behaviour

Meeting to transgress

The role of faculty learning communities in

shaping more inclusive organizational cultures

KerryAnn O’Meara, Gudrun Nyunt, Lindsey Templeton and

Alexandra Kuvaeva

College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the role faculty learning communities (FLCs), a common

ADVANCE intervention, play in retention and advancement; and the ways in which FLC spaces foster

professional interactions that are transformative and support the careers of women, underrepresented

minority (URM) and non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty in research universities.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors employed a mixed methods case study approach set at a

large, research-intensive institution, which had received an NSF ADVANCE grant to focus on issues of

gender equity in the retention and advancement of STEM faculty. Land Grant University implemented

retention and advancement efforts campus-wide rather than only in STEM areas, including five FLCs for

women, URM faculty and NTT faculty. The primary sources of data were retention and promotion data of all

faculty at the institution (including the FLC participants) and participant observations of the five FLCs for

five years.

Findings –The analysis of retention and advancement data showed that participation in FLCs positively

impacted retention and promotion of participants. The analysis of participant observations allowed the

authors to gain insights into what was happening in FLCs that differed from faculty’s experiences in home

departments. The authors found that FLCs created third spaces that allowed individuals to face and

transgress the most damaging aspects of organizational culture and dwell, at least for some time, in a space of

different possibilities.

Research limitations/implications –The authors suggest additional studies be conducted on FLCs and

their success in improving retention and advancement among women, URM and NTT faculty. While the

authors believe there is a clear professional growth and satisfaction benefit to FLCs regardless of theireffect

on retention and advancement, NSF and NIH programs focused on increasing the diversity of faculty need to

know they are getting the return they seek on their investment and this line of research can provide such

evidence as well as enhance the rigor of such programs by improving program elements.

Practical implications –FLCs offer higher education institutions a unique opportunity to critically reflect

and understand organizational conditions that are not inclusive for groups of faculty. Professional

interactions among colleagues are a critical place where academic and cultural capital is built and exchanged.

The authors know from the authors’own research here, and from much previous social science research that

women, URM and NTT faculty often experience exclusionary and isolating professional interactions. FLCs

should be created and maintained alongside other more structural and cultural interventions to improve

equity for all faculty.

Originality/value –The study’s contribution to the literature is unique, as only a few studies have tracked

the subsequent success of participants in mentoring or networking programs. Furthermore, the study reveals

benefits of FLCs across different career stages, identity groups and position types (women, URM and NTT)

and suggests the investment that many NSF-funded ADVANCE programs have made in funding FLCs has

the potential to produce a positive return (e.g. more women and URM faculty retained).

Keywords Retention, Higher education, Faculty, Learning communities, Advancement

Paper type Research paper

The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom

with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the

opportunity to labour for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind

and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond

boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. (hooks, 1994, p. 207)

This passage from Teaching to Transgress highlights the nature of classroom spaces as

liberatory for teachers and students while acknowledging that such spaces are not a utopia

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 38 No. 3, 2019

pp. 286-304

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-09-2017-0184

Received 14 September 2017

Revised 29 January 2018

4July2018

Accepted 10 August 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

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EDI

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and come with all of the trappings of organizational bureaucracy and the biases individuals

bring to the classroom. Yet, author bell hooks pointed out that spaces can be crafted within

higher education institutions to counter conditions of marginalization and imagine other

ways of being. This perspective is consistent with notions of critical theory wherein people

who have faced similar kinds of marginalization are brought together and engage in

dialogue and practices that establish new collective meanings of what is possible (Abel and

Sementelli, 2005; Gaventa and Tandon, 2010). This perspective also aligns with notions of

third space, which have been applied to the study of ADVANCE programs overall (Cantor,

2011; O’Meara and Stromquist, 2015; Sturm, 2006), and other education and non-profit

settings (Barton and Tan, 2009; Taylor et al., 2014; Williams, 2013).

In this study, we sought to understand whether, how and why faculty learning

community (FLC) meeting spaces may foster professional interactions that are liberatory

and thus positively impact faculty retention, advancement and/or professional growth. We

refer to FLCs as single, one-year, university-sponsored career development programs that

bring together a group of faculty (such as women assistant professors) to meet regularly for

knowledge-sharing, peer mentoring, and support. FLCs, which faculty join voluntarily, are

intentionally designed to support women, underrepresented minority (URM), and non-

tenure track (NTT) faculty by addressing elements of gendered, racialized and rankist

academic settings. These communities, sometimes called peer networks or mutual

mentoring programs, are popular in higher education and are among the most common

initiatives enacted by ADVANCE programs (Hart, 2008; Kezar, 2014; Laursen and Austin,

2014; O’Meara and Stromquist, 2015; Sorcinelli and Yun, 2007; Terosky et al., 2014). FLCs

are documented in the literature as spaces where faculty have access to professional growth,

personal development, community and collaboration, among other benefits (Cox, 2004;

Glowacki-Dudka and Brown, 2007; Nugent et al., 2008; Ortquist-Ahrens and Torosyan,

2009). In this study, we were interested in how FLCs act to support retention and

advancement, and/or professional growth for their faculty participants, but also how and in

what ways interactions in FLCs are liberatory.

By liberatory we mean setting someone free from a situation within which they were, or

felt, restricted (Ringer, 2005). This could include release from a situation limiting behavior,

thought, rules or a feeling of being dominated. Liberatory interactions also raise individuals’

awareness of oppressive social conditions and empower them to work toward a more just

society (Ringer, 2005). Liberatory professional interactions in academia may be interactions

that free individuals from constraints they experience because of norms, implicit biases, or

department policies and practices, and allow them to bring their full selves to the

professional space. For example, faculty members of Color may experience racial bias in

their department, which constrains their ability to feel like they fit into the department and

will be able to succeed. In the FLC, this group of faculty members may have professional

interactions that make them feel like they fit, that affirm their ability to succeed and connect

them with allies. We are interested in how FLCs can help create environments that liberate

faculty from constraining norms and professional interactions and provide opportunities to

experience a more just, supportive work environment.

Understanding how FLCs shape liberatory professional interactions at work can help us

gain insights into issues of retention, advancement and/or professional growth for women,

URM and NTT faculty, a topic that has never been more important. US Census Bureau

(2014) data from the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics

(2016) show that blacks, Hispanics and American Indians/Alaska Natives continue to be

underrepresented in academia. In 2013, blacks accounted for 13 percent of the US population

but only 6 percent of all full-time faculty at degree-granting postsecondary institutions;

Hispanics accounted for 17 percent of the population but only 4 percent of faculty; and

American Indian/Alaska Natives accounted for a little over 1 percent of the US population

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transgress