Abstract

Scholars studying Christian higher education frequently suggest that faculty are the campus constituents with the most influence over the future of an institution’s Christian mission. Thus, both faculty hiring and development are important elements for maintaining and strengthening the Christian identity of a university over time. Despite this importance, we do not know of a study that has surveyed the missional faculty-development processes of Christian colleges and universities. We utilized a survey research design to determine how Christian institutions educate faculty to integrate their Christian mission into their teaching, scholarship, and institutional service. We found that institutions tended to offer introductory trainings and workshops early in the career of faculty. After these early programs, the most effective faculty development resources identified were the conversations facilitated through discipline-specific academic journals and professional organizations. Moving forward, the institutions from which we heard hoped for increased resources and institutional prioritization for these conversations, especially at the advanced and senior faculty level. In conclusion, we suggest four opportunities for practical innovation to ensure future growth and engagement of faculty development for Christian mission: include a proactive approach to hiring practices, place a renewed emphasis on Christ-animated scholarship, continue to expand the conversation beyond the humanities, and introduce programming and incentives aimed at engaging senior faculty.

摘要

研究基督教高等教育的学者经常认为，教师是对学校基督教使命的未来影响最大的校园成员。因此，教师招聘和发展都是长期保持和加强大学基督徒身份的重要因素。尽管如此重要，但我们不知道有一项研究调查了基督教学院和大学的宣教师资发展过程。我们利用一项调查研究设计来确定基督教机构如何教育教师将他们的基督教使命融入他们的教学、学术和机构服务中。我们发现，机构倾向于在教师职业生涯的早期提供介绍性培训和研讨会。在这些早期的节目之后，确定的最有效的教师发展资源是通过特定学科的学术期刊和专业组织促进的对话。展望未来，我们听到的机构希望为这些对话增加资源和机构优先级，特别是在高级和高级教师级别。总之，我们提出了四个实用创新机会，以确保未来的成长和教师发展参与基督教宣教：包括积极主动的招聘做法，重新强调以基督为动力的学术，继续扩大人文学科之外的对话，并引入旨在吸引高级教师的计划和激励措施。