Faculty Learning Communities

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) create spaces for small groups of faculty to learn, grow and experiment in relation to a shared commitment or goal. FLCs inspire and empower faculty to pursue projects that are germane to the institution with regard to student success, teaching and learning. They also create opportunities for faculty to collaborate with their colleagues across departments and disciplines, nurturing community and disrupting institutional silos.

FLC members guide and determine a community's progress over the year, including choices about meeting dates, readings, training or workshops they may need delivered by on-campus faculty developers, off-campus experiences they have as a group, webinars they participate in, and so on.

CFETI FLCs

CFETI organizes FLCs on different topics each year. Below is a sample of past communities that we have offered.

• The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

  • In this learning community, we will share goals and ideas for enhancing our teaching practices and will share practices we have found to be effective in advancing the mission and vision of SJSU in our teaching. Facilitated by Dr. Lara Kassab (Teacher Education), this learning community will also provide the structure, resources, and time to develop an outline of a manuscript that could be submitted to a journal.

    
    Participating in this FLC will enable you to reflect on equitable and engaging teaching practices; learn strategies to try in the classroom from a scholar of teaching and learning, and from one another; and produce a detailed outline of a manuscript for potential publication.

     

• The Body Matters: Disability Justice

  • Faculty explored the intersections of disability that inform student academic and social success (such as, gender, race, sexuality, etc.). Faculty worked together to explore the nuances of disability justice vs. disability rights, and explore new ways to engage their teaching practices that disrupts the ways ableism, heterosexism, sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression  intersect with disability.

• Graduating First-Generation Students

  • Faculty explored the systemic and institutional forms of oppression that influence first generation student success across disciplines/fields. Faculty made determinations about how to achieve inclusive excellence in their courses through exploration of teaching practices, student learning needs, and CSU and SJSU institutional data.

• The Power of Instructional Videos

  • Faculty learned how to create effective instructional videos, utilize these videos throughout the academic year to gauge the effectiveness of the videos on student learning (engagement, assessment/performance task success, etc.), and develop a (personal, course or department) digital video archive.

• Moving Beyond Land Acknowledgements: Centering Indigenous People

  • Taking up decolonization in higher education and beyond is a historical project. Faculty explored decolonization efforts in education and beyond. They developed content and resources to advance the thought leadership at SJSU around decolonization and honoring indigenous land and life with intentionality.

• The Time is Now: Sustainability and Climate Justice

  • Faculty explored the impact of sustainability and climate justice on student success, particularly the success of students from Indigenous communities, low SES communities, and other communities highly affected by climate change. They developed content and resources to advance the thought leadership at SJSU around sustainability and climate justice.

Generative FLCs for Equitable Teaching and Learning

Through the Middle Leadership Academy, Academic Associate Deans from across the colleges have collaborated to develop Generative Faculty Learning Communities (GFLC). 

The GFLC project seeks to engage faculty in professional development around equitable and student-centered teaching and learning. The approach is to create generative faculty learning communities across campus through a scaffolded approach: college-level FLCs convene with representatives from each department; next, those participants work with their home departments to champion the work and support  colleagues to engage in the work. This project is funded with GI 2025 funds for approximately $150,000. 

Based on the outcomes of the FLC, colleges and departments are developing specific strategies to address equity gaps and improve course completion rates. Faculty will make changes in course structure and pedagogy that support equitable and inclusive learning. Student success metrics will improve: reduce DFW rates and equity gaps, increase graduation and retention rates. This will support efforts to support GI 2025, Equity Priority 5: Promote Equitable Learning Practices and Reduce DFW Rates. 

Based on the outcomes of the FLC, colleges and departments are developing specific strategies to address equity gaps and improve course completion rates. Faculty will make changes in course structure and pedagogy that support equitable and inclusive learning. Student success metrics will improve: reduce DFW rates and equity gaps, increase graduation and retention rates. This will support efforts to support GI 2025, Equity Priority 5: Promote Equitable Learning Practices and Reduce DFW Rates.

Asset-Based Approaches to STEM Teaching & Learning with Latinx & Historically Underserved Students

Drs. Cassandra Paul, Resa Kelly, and Tammie Visintainer have been leading an FLC to guide faculty in creating inclusive classrooms and equitable spaces utilizing active learning and asset-based approaches to teaching. Expand the text below to learn more.

• Asset-Based Approaches to STEM Teaching & Learning

  • Asset-Based Approaches to STEM Teaching & Learning specific focus is on the opportunities and challenges experienced by Latinx and other minoritized students at SJSU with the goal of creating culturally sustaining classroom environments. The FLC was developed based on the research that informed a $1.6M NSF grant as well as findings from the first few years of the project, which included gathering data about SJSU student undergraduate experiences.

• The FLC Enables Faculty to Reimagine Course Design

  • The FLC enables faculty to (1) build on our teaching identities and use peer observations for feedback and improvements; (2) engage with experiences, assets and needs of the student population we serve at SJSU, specifically centering students who have been historically excluded from STEM; (3) examine intersections of race, identity, learning, and power in STEM education and how this shapes access, opportunity, and the possibilities students imagine; and reimagine course design using the Somos SJSU (“We are SJSU”) and Community Cultural Wealth Frameworks. At the culmination of the FLC, each faculty member is expected to come away with products that reflect an action plan and build on the learning in the FLC. Such materials include a Teaching Values Statement, portfolio for course reform; assessment and grading changes; and syllabus revisions with a clear plan for iterative change.

Digital Counter-Storytelling FLC 

Funded by the Adobe Anchor Campus program and led by Dr. Jonathan Gomez, this FLC enables faculty to create culturally-resonant assignments using the power of Adobe tools for effective storytelling. Expand the text below to learn more.

• “Counter-storytelling” elevates marginalized voices

  • “Counter-storytelling” is a technique that elevates marginalized voices to disrupt mainstream narratives about historically underserved communities. Assignments that invite counter-storytelling enable students to connect their lived experiences to course content and learn how to record and share those stories with others. Faculty who have participated in this FLC have expanded SJSU’s institutional capacity to create classroom environments where students feel belongingness and that their stories matter, leading to increased academic engagement and success and an enhanced ability to bring to the workplace their full selves in any career path.

• The FLC is led by Dr. Jonathan D. Gomez

  • The FLC has been led by Dr. Jonathan D. Gomez, Assistant Professor of Chicana/o Studies and Faculty in Residence for HSI Initiatives. Dr. Gomez also co-developed the SJSU + Adobe Collaboratory, which was inspired by and based upon foundational elements of the FLC model.

    Faculty members who participate in the Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in Digital Counter-Storytelling advance strong social support networks and develop essential skills that significantly enrich their professional development as engaged educators at SJSU. The seminar, focused on forging communal relationships and harnessing creativity, empowers educators to acquire new skills essential for centering student assets, needs, and imaginaries. Facilitated through collective and collaborative pedagogy, faculty members discover how to integrate multimedia elements into their teaching materials to enable students to share their voices.

Have a great idea for an FLC? Please contact Magdalena Barrera, Vice Provost for Faculty Success.