Supporting Faculty Development: Possibilities of Early Childhood Education Cross-Institutional Self-Study

Faculty development opportunities in higher education are varied and often one-time workshops focused on academic content. Faculty are often encouraged to be autonomous and serve in an expert role in their institutions, sometimes resulting in isolation and barriers to productivity. Collaborative self-study can address these challenges, yet little is known about the development of early childhood education faculty and how to design online, sustained opportunities that can meet their needs. This paper describes why four early childhood education faculty in different institutions joined and sustained our engagement in self-study. Members engaged in collaborative qualitative data analysis of our personal journaling and reflections to discuss and identify the conditions and factors that led to members’ initial and continued engagement. Initially, we joined to address isolation and build connections, to satisfy intellectual curiosity, and to support our development as faculty. Our continued engagement was driven by our relationships, desires to improve teaching practice, shared goals and expectations, and opportunities for professional engagement and advancement. Analysis revealed that pre-tenure faculty have specific needs for faculty development opportunities. Implications for use of cross-institutional self-study to support faculty growth and development are discussed, particularly in the current context of early childhood education in institutions of higher education.