Professional Development in the English Department, Including Policies for Mentoring Pre-Tenured Faculty

Faculty Development and Collegiality

1. The aim of the English Department’s Faculty Development and Mentoring Committee is to develop a harmonious, energetic, and integrated vision of departmental collegiality and professionalism. We want to create a stimulating and welcoming atmosphere in which everyone feels encouraged to contribute. 
2. As part of this mission we propose the following definition of collegiality: Collegiality is participation and presence in the work and life of the department. Participation and presence entail a willingness to shoulder the work of the department, to interact constructively with colleagues, to fill in gaps as needed, to perform formal and informal service, to do more than the required minimum. Collegiality is desirable in junior and senior faculty to help establish a positive working environment. Collegiality should not be confused with likeability, nor does cultivation of collegiality impose the pressure to conform to any departmental ideology—it is not a form of “groupthink.” Collegiality does not involve the suppression of dissent. Expression of disagreement with colleagues is encouraged within a framework of mutual respect. While collegiality is not one of the primary areas of consideration for reappointment, tenure, and promotion, its clear absence will and should affect faculty members’ assessment of an individual’s performance in teaching, research, and service. 
3. To foster faculty development and collegiality, we propose an integrated array of activities involving twice-monthly gatherings in which interested junior and senior faculty can share ideas.

1. At some of the gatherings, we may respond to books—perhaps one book read together over a semester that addresses issues related to teaching as well as scholarship—or articles and book chapters, both recent works and influential classic texts that we can revisit. Colleagues share responsibility for selecting the readings for each gathering and colleagues take turns facilitating discussions. 
2. These gatherings can also be occasions for colleagues to share work in progress. After a colleague’s presentation about her work in progress, we may, for example, read an article or a book on the same topic. 
3. At these gatherings we also can share ideas or advice on venues for publishing, ways to connect with publishers, ways to organize and pursue book-length projects, etc. 
4. These meetings can also provide an occasion for bringing in people outside the department and from beyond the campus to provide insights into what other colleagues are doing, so that we can be more informed about interdisciplinary connections as well as scholarship within English Studies: for example, between technical writing and cultural studies; literary analysis and linguistics; postcolonial theory and recent American literature. 
5. We might also invite editors of presses and grant-writers.

Departmental Mentoring Activities

A. First Phase:

1. The chair and other members of the Faculty Development & Mentoring Committee [FDMC] will approach all incoming faculty members during the first year to offer advice on the transition to faculty status. 
2. During the junior faculty member’s first year, he or she should seek advice from the FDMC and from other colleagues within and outside of the department. 
3. The FDMC is a standing committee that provides mentoring advice relating to departmental culture. The committee helps junior faculty on a range of issues, including preparation of teaching materials and the RPT dossier, as well as serving as mediators for junior/senior faculty mentoring relationships. In short, the FDMC is available to answer junior faculty questions as well as offer advice on ways of mentoring effectively. 
4. During this first phase, members of the FDMC, along with other colleagues, may also suggest ways that junior faculty can launch their scholarly activities at UNCW, including discussion of how to prepare papers to deliver at regional and national conferences, how to write reviews of scholarly books, how to chair sessions at conferences, and so on. Senior faculty are interested in the professional development of junior faculty; therefore, junior faculty should anticipate questions about their ongoing work. 
5. Mentors should be generous in sharing syllabi and other teaching materials to help mentees understand the abilities of students, appropriate workload and types of assignments, the differences between lower-level, upper-level, and graduate courses. Mentors may also discuss grading with the junior faculty. 
6. Mentors can encourage effective pedagogy by discussing early on how junior faculty might propose and develop new undergraduate and graduate courses, honors courses, and learning communities, as well as how they might incorporate new technologies into their teaching. Mentors could also inform junior faculty about teaching workshops through the Center for Teaching Excellence and about financial support for these projects through Cahill Grants and Summer Initiatives. 
7. Mentors can be helpful to junior faculty by explaining the workings of Randall Library: how to open accounts, set up course reserves, design research components of their writing assignments, arrange library instruction for their classes, etc. 
8. Early in the first semester of employment, mentors should go over the annual report format with new junior faculty, especially its relation to earning tenure. 
9. Mentors should also discuss classroom observation forms and SPOTS with junior faculty early in their careers. 
10. During this time, the junior faculty member might want to seek advice from colleagues about navigating the boundaries between public and private life in the academy and about developing strategies for balancing personal life and family issues with teaching and scholarly activities.

B. Second Phase:

1. By the beginning of the third year of the initial appointment, the chair should consult with the junior faculty member to establish and formalize a strong mentoring relationship with one or more faculty members within the department. While a blend of personal and professional mentoring relationships is optimal and worth encouraging, emphasis should be placed on professional issues. 
2. No two ways of mentoring are exactly alike; it is up to the colleagues involved to work out the dynamics of their mentoring relationships, as guided by department and university policies. 
3. As much as possible, the mentoring dynamic should be grounded in an equality that signals that junior colleagues are full professionals. In fact, at times the mentor and mentee may exchange roles, with the junior faculty giving valuable suggestions to the senior colleague about teaching or scholarship. 
4. Activities during this phase might include collaborative research projects, sharing of drafts in progress, co-authoring of essays, alerting one another to conferences and publishing opportunities in each other’s areas of scholarly interest, and also visiting one another’s classes.
   
5. The junior faculty should consult with at least one mentor about how to develop the dossier for the tenuring process during this phase.

Additional Suggestions for Productive and Supportive Mentoring

1. It's not appropriate for a mentor to see a mentee as a "mini-me"--that is, someone who votes the same, takes the same approach to scholarship or departmental involvement, maintains the mentor's allegiances and so on. In other words, a mentor does not have a proprietary relationship over the mentee. Mentees should never be pressured to take a particular side in department matters or used as pawns in departmental politics. 
2. Instead, the mentor should serve as an example of how to be a collegial member of the department by making time for the mentee and acting as an examplar of a productive, conscientious professional. 
3. A mentor should make time to read mentee’s scholarly work, either in draft form or when published. Mentors should also take responsibility for observing mentees’ classes, even if such observations are not required. 
4. Mentors should encourage mentees to form other relationships and to seek out a variety of perspectives, and they should assist mentees in exercising judgment about those perspectives. It is inappropriate for a mentor to discourage a mentee from cultivating relationships with other colleagues, including faculty outside the department. 
5. Mentors should refer mentees to other members of the department when those colleagues are in a position to offer effective feedback or advice (e.g., if someone is a reviewer for a particular journal, a member of a particular committee, and so on). 
6. Mentors should make mentees aware of opportunities to contribute to the life of the department (e.g., attending functions, advising students, etc.); they should also encourage mentees to take advantage of these opportunities, at least some of the time and without spreading themselves too thin. 
7. Mentors should not nag. The responsibility for sending out manuscripts, saying no to extra responsibilities, etc., ultimately lies with each individual faculty member.