Professional Studies Department merges three grad programs

  One of the biggest organizational changes heralding the start of the 2009-10 academic year in the College of Education was the establishment of a new departmental unit combining three sets of graduate-level programs.

   The new Department of Professional Studies, chaired by associate professor Kent Becker, combines faculty and staff from Adult Learning and Technology, Counselor Education, and Educational Leadership. Individual master's and doctoral programs in the three disciplines will remain intact, under the expanded departmental umbrella.

   When college faculty and staff began discussing changes to the departmental configuration last year with a likely reduction in number of departments members of the three departments began exploring whether a merger would make good sense from an organizational standpoint and from a professional perspective. They also considered whether it would serve students and the faculty and whether intersections benefiting both groups could be found.

   "The commonality that we (the three merging departments) all have is graduate studies," Becker says. "We also have in common a leadership thread that goes across programs. What we are doing is preparing leaders, in a variety of fields, using a variety of modalities."

   They also begin with some structural similarities upon which common ground can be created. For example, several programs within the department take a portfolio-based approach to evaluation of student work. Department faculty and staff enjoy collegial relationships, enhanced when the three units moved to the third floor of the Education Building in recent years. But there are challenges, even amidst strong motivations to make such a change work.

   "The first is to develop a structure that strikes a balance between department identity and program autonomy," Becker says.

   "The natural thing for people with busy schedules would be to go back into their (disciplinary) silos," he acknowledges. "It's not a question of not wanting to connect, but there needs to be some level of structure" to ensure broad participation and engagement.

   To facilitate cross-program collaboration, members have created new opportunities to interact outside of department meetings. The group has begun weekly get-togethers, ranging from informal conversations about personal and professional interests to team-building activities. Educational leadership assistant professor Mark Stock also created a department blog, providing online space for sharing and collaboration.

   As department chairperson, Becker has five goals for this inaugural year:

(1)  To develop the necessary structure that provides the desired balance of program/departmental identities and support. This includes a common set of policies and procedures to govern operations.

(2)  To create and maintain communication processes that are clear, open and transparent.

(3)  To clarify a range of roles and responsibilities (e.g., who is responsible for which academic programs, what are the support resources for what kinds of needs) and encourage shared leadership.

(4)  Articulate the department's identity: develop consensus on the questions, "What does ‘Professional Studies' mean?" and "For what do we want to be known?"

(5)  Support individual faculty and staff development in ways that facilitate success.

  Students enrolled in Professional Studies master's or doctoral programs will benefit from the departmental expansion as well. One immediate change for new admissions is an expanded list of faculty who qualify to chair and serve on graduate committees. Another potential benefit is increased opportunity to interact with a broader pool of departmental peers.

Posted on Tuesday, October 06, 2009