Casebook I: Faculty Employment Policies presents six cases that were developed by the Project on Faculty Appointments at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and designed to be used in a variety of instructional settings in order to explore and analyze efforts to bring about institutional change. Each case study highlights a particular challenge regarding faculty employment and illustrates these challenges using situations from actual institutions of higher education. The cases provide a wealth of background information and are filled with real-life details. In addition, the cases are comprehensive in scope and reflect the complexity of administrative decision making as experienced by academic leaders. The six cases explore the following issues:
- How can an institution move forward and make progress in areas that have stymied its leaders for years?
- How can an academic administrator effect positive change on several fronts at once while tackling head-on some of the most contentious and complex issues in faculty employment?
- How can an institution define and evaluate faculty productivity while taking into account disciplinary distinctions and diverse faculty interests and assignments?
- How can a college alter its faculty employment policies during a time of institutional transformation, while simultaneously responding to the distinct needs of multiple campus constituencies?
- What is the nature of transformative leadership, and what lessons can be learned from educational leaders about initiating, managing, and institutionalizing change?
- How can an institution respond to external concerns regarding its employment policies while maintaining control of a process with substantive, procedural, and political dimensions?
Casebook I: Faculty Employment Policies has two companion volumes:
Using Cases in Higher Education: A Guide for Faculty and Administrators and
Teaching Notes to Casebook I: Faculty Employment Policies. Using Cases in Higher Education: A Guide for Faculty and Administrators offers general advice concerning using case studies as pedagogical tools, and Teaching Notes to Casebook I: Faculty Employment Policies includes specific suggestions, insights, and approaches to teaching each of these six cases.
