期刊名称：Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education
印刷版ISSN：2378-5497
电子版ISSN：2378-5500
出版年度：2016
卷号：1
页码：233-252
DOI：10.28945/3537
语种：English
出版社：Informing Science Institute
摘要：The academic department remains understudied as a context of faculty work, particularly in institutional settings beyond the research university. In this article, we report findings from a study of faculty experiences within academic departments in liberal arts colleges, through analysis of interviews with 55 faculty members representing a 13-member consortium of liberal arts institutions in the mid-western U.S. Through inductive analysis and deductive coding from existing models, we identified five functions of departments in liberal arts colleges, including: (a) faculty hiring, retention, and promotion; (b) new faculty socialization; (c) informal interactions, mentoring, and network-building; (d) establishing and communicating institutional and departmental policies, practices, and procedures; and (e) the structuring of academic work. Findings suggest that departmental functions in liberal arts colleges are generally the same as those in other institution types, but play out differently and thus have different consequences for academic careers. Across functions, liberal arts colleges seem to be undergoing an evolution, or perhaps revolution, that has implications for academic work in such contexts.
关键词：liberal arts colleges; academic departments; faculty careers; professoriate
