What is?<\/strong><\/h4>\nShortly before my third-year review as a tenure track faculty, my women\u2019s and gender studies colleagues Dr. Holly Hassel and Dr. Amy Reddinger invited me to join a SoTL project focused on teaching students the concept of patriarchy. I learned about lesson study, threshold concepts, and SoTL through this project, and knew I wanted\u2014needed\u2014to shift my scholarship from literary criticism to SoTL. Teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc, one of the former UW Colleges campuses, was fundamentally different than my previous teaching at four-year public institutions, both regional and R1. My students needed me to show up differently, and to meet them where they were at, which was often a place of uncertainty, unknowing, and anxiety.<\/p>\n
I applied for the WTFS program in 2010 and was not selected but encouraged to apply again the following year, when I was selected thanks to coaching from several colleagues. From that point, my teaching and learning were transformed; I was transformed. I found community in that first experience as a fellow, and frustration as debates about qualitative and quantitative analysis flourished. I remember venting a lot <\/strong>about the inequities on my own campus, and I\u2019m retroactively embarrassed I was that person<\/strong>. As much as I cringe now, I realize that I felt psychological safety within the cohort; I was desperately trying to find the support I lacked on my small campus.<\/p>\nAfter earning tenure, I continued to work on SoTL projects with colleagues, and to ask the key questions myself when faced with a teaching situation. I also stepped into leadership roles, including program assessment coordinator, associate chair, faculty senator, and UW Colleges gender equity coordinator. I began to consider a future in academic affairs administration.<\/p>\n
I found support in my colleagues and leaders, and in departmental colleagues who were also SoTL practitioners. They helped me find a path to scholarly inquiry that matched the realities of my students\u2019 needs; they provided community and informal mentoring. They co-authored articles with me and helped me rise together in scholarship and leadership.<\/p>\n
In 2018, the UW Colleges was dismantled, and my campus became part of UW-Green Bay. Many of my leadership roles disappeared; I was heartbroken and bereft. I intentionally focused on improving my teaching as I grieved the loss of my institution, colleagues, and roles. I signed up for most Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning workshops and joined several communities of practice. I widened my circle of acquaintance with UWGB faculty and found allies. I was selected for a one semester sabbatical in Winter 2020 to analyze data on romance novels and threshold concepts in women\u2019s and gender studies classes. When COVID-19 hit, I focused on reading, researching, and finding strategies I would use when returning to the pandemic classroom in Fall 2020.<\/p>\n
I wanted to return to WTFS as a scholar and was selected for the 2020-2021 cohort. Given the nature of the pandemic, our group participated in a community of practice in which we read and discussed Stephen Brookfield\u2019s Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher<\/em> and Kevin Gannon\u2019s Radical Hope<\/em>. The following year, our official WTFS program began, and I started my project on co-creating communities of care and well-being in the women\u2019s and gender studies classroom.<\/p>\nIn late fall 2021, I accepted a position as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bay de Noc Community College in Michigan\u2019s Upper Peninsula. One of the hardest parts was leaving the WTFS program mid-year. I ensured my IRB approval was solid, I connected with the relevant folks at Bay and saved all my data with hopes of returning to that project, which I have yet to do formally. Informally, I draw on my tentative findings, research, and learning from that project to supervise faculty and to share teaching and learning practices that might work for Bay students and faculty.<\/p>\n
What works?<\/strong><\/h4>\nIronically, the extra year provided some of the most impactful resources I draw on today. Stephen Brookfield\u2019s Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher<\/em> has become a touchstone for me. As co-chair of the Student Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness working group at UWGB, I suggested we use some of his framing on multiple sources of feedback to guide our evaluation of teaching. The survey I adapted from his critical incident questionnaire (CIQ) became a primary data point in my WTFS scholar project, as I was curious about well-being and what elements could help enhance student well-being and learning. What better way to learn than to ask students? As a dean, I evaluate faculty and regularly recommend ideas from Brookfield\u2019s book, especially the CIQ, to increase engagement and create a culture of mutual feedback in the course.<\/p>\nIn 2024-2025, I\u2019m a fellow in the Michigan Community College Association (MCCA) Leadership Academy, a state-wide program preparing mid-level managers for higher administrative roles. We attend in-person convenings around the state, meet on zoom, read common texts, and work on student success projects together. Each session features fellows sharing their expertise. I was invited to speak on teaching and learning, answering questions about working with faculty to improve teaching and learning effectiveness and, ultimately, student outcomes. As I prepared my answers, my mind immediately traveled back to WTFS and how the modes of inquiry I learned there, as well as the knowledge of pedagogical research and publications, have become a foundation of how I lead faculty. Not only that, but my work on co-creating communities of care and well-being informs how I connect with and communicate with the faculty I supervise. I recently developed a monthly check-in survey for faculty based on the survey I used in my classes which was, as mentioned above, based on Stephen Brookfield\u2019s CIQ.<\/p>\n
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