2001
The Voice: Fall 2001
Faculty work to keep up in their profession
Professional development opportunities are plentiful
Sally Jongsma
Professional training for employees is not a luxury that only happens when the
money happens to be available. It is vital to the growth and health
of any organization or institution, says Dr. Rockne McCarthy, vice president for academic
affairs.
“The business world knows that you may cut travel schedules or supplies purchased
but you don’t eliminate professional growth opportunities for your employees if you want
to maintain a strong business,” he adds. The same is true for colleges
like Dordt. Faculty members are always going to be at different levels of development, maturity,
and experience, says McCarthy. They need support and encouragement to become the best
classroom teachers they can. They need mentoring and support as they work out
their Christian perspective in their field. They need opportunities to keep up with
research and information in rapidly changing fields of study. And, as they become
more proficient in the classroom, they need room and time to deepen their
insights and share them with others.
“In a learning community like Dordt College, we expect students to continue to
grow and learn once they leave here,” says McCarthy. “We also expect faculty
to continue to grow and learn.”
Many faculty members do, especially during the summer months when classes are
not in session. This summer faculty members attended workshops and seminars on a
range of topics. Some attended pedagogical workshops. Dr. Roger Henderson followed in the
footsteps of a number of Dordt
faculty who have participated in the Faculty
Development Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island. Others applied for and
were accepted into nationally funded workshops. Dr. Sherri Lantinga joined psychology colleagues at
Calvin College for five weeks in a Pew workshop titled "Loss of the
Self in a Post-modern, Therapeutic Culture,” and Dr. Calvin Jongsma partici-pated in a
National Endowment for the Humanities six-week research and discussion seminar at Case Western
Reserve University on “Proofs and Refutations in Mathematics Today.” Others attended conferences in
their academic fields—some mixing business with travel: Dr. Henry Duitman went to the
World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Lucerne, Switzerland, Chris Rehn attended
a law conference in Budapest, Hungary, and David Helmstetter attended the third annual
conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health in Finland.
Several faculty members gave papers at academic conferences: Dr. Ronald Vos to the
American Scientific Affiliation meeting at Kansas State, Simon du Toit at Association for
Theater in Higher Education in Chicago, and John Van Dyk and Lloyd Den
Boer at a Christian school symposium in Leeds, England. Some wrote articles, edited
books, or continued working on books—or novels in the case of James Schaap.
Others had chapters published in recently released books.
Some professors, like Vos and Drs. Delmar Vander Zee and Dick Hodgson taught
in summer environmental studies programs. Education faculty taught in Dordt’s summer graduate program
and agriculture faculty initiated the new summer semester.
Still others participated in study tours or studied in other countries. Art Professor
Susan Van Geest attended a marble and woodcarving workshop in France before traveling
to Italy to view art works. Dr. Ken Bussema participated in the Latin
American Studies Program (LASP) Faculty Study Tour, a ten-day ‘mini’ LASP experience designed
to help faculty and off-campus directors understand what students experience on LASP. The
tour included living with host families in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, lectures, seminars
and excursions.
Still others served as consultants in agriculture, education, and business. And some volunteered
their time, like Diana Gonzalez who taught a Spanish course for IDEA ministries
in Merida, Mexico, and Dr. Robert Hilbelink who helped with accounting at Rehoboth
Christian School in New Mexico.
Doing research, writing articles or papers (including four-year and eight-year contract papers), reading
current literature, preparing for new courses or revamping old ones, and conducting department
program reviews occupied the summer for many faculty.
Although not all of the activities listed above require extra funding, some do.
Dordt sets aside part of its budget annually for faculty development. Faculty development
funding comes in many different forms. Each faculty member may receive three percent
of his or her base salary to attend conferences or pay professional memberships.
The college helps fund graduate study and approved post-graduate study leaves. Funds are
also available for special projects, institutional assignments, and travel to present academic papers.
Participating in faculty development opportunities has been largely voluntary, McCarthy says, although it
isn’t really since professors need to stay current in their discipline and effective
in the classroom. Most eagerly make use of the opportunities provided by the
college. And although they are not required to attend a specified number of
conferences or workshops, faculty members must regularly update an academic profile
in which they outline their plans for
professional development or ongoing
education.
But the concept of faculty development has become more deliberate at Dordt in
the last years. In addition to more opportunities, there are also more required
elements. In the early years of a person’s tenure on the faculty, participating
in regular faculty development activities is fairly structured. Each person on faculty must
write three papers that are tied to contract interviews. Following their first year
on faculty, professors not only set development goals for themselves for the future,
but they also revise and update a response they wrote to “The Educational
Framework of Dordt College” when they applied for a position.
During their fourth year faculty are asked to write a paper that discusses
how a Reformed, biblical faith shapes their educational work at Dordt College—their view
of their discipline, their students, and the learning process. And during year eight
of their contract they write a mature statement of how work in their
discipline is shaped by their faith, demonstrating how a biblical perspective is developed
in a specific topic or issue. In some cases these submissions take alternative
forms. For example, Dr. Benjamin Kornelis, a professor of music and director of
Dordt’s choirs, is composing a piece of music for his eight-year contract. Performance
of the piece will be accompanied by a short presentation and discussion of
the composition.
“People who have gone through this process say it has been a valuable
experience,” says McCarthy. As course work gets to a point where professors don’t
need to spend quite as much time on preparation, it is good to
be pushed to go to another level in thinking about issues related to
a discipline and classroom pedagogy issues, McCarthy believes.
At present, the faculty status committee, the committee on campus that is responsible
for making contract recommendations to the VPAA, is also considering ways to build
in regular professional development expectations for senior faculty who have more permanent contracts.
And McCarthy expects to see the awarding of development funds move to this
committee in more of a peer review process.
Overall, McCarthy is very pleased with Dordt’s faculty development program.
“Already in 1991 the North Central Association, Dordt’s regional accrediting body, affirmed the program, and we’re doing even better now,” he says. His goal is to get the program endowed so that its future stays secure. “We don’t want it to be jeopardized when we have a period of declining enrollment,” he says. He hopes that he can report on more developments in the program within the next few years.
