From Faculty Fellows to Equity-Minded Collaborators: The California Faculty Collaboratives Story

The fellows also found that collaboration requires setting hierarchies aside: hierarchies of institutions (community college and university), disciplines (between and within humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences), academic rank and appointment (contingent or tenured; administrator, staff, or faculty), in addition to statuses that cling to personal identities and histories as they intersect with race, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, national origin, religious affiliation, educational experiences, and professional trajectories. Attended by thirty educators from eleven CCCs, six CSUs, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), it marked the completion of two goals of the national Faculty Collaboratives project: (1) enabling faculty to make sense of large-scale national proficiency initiatives as tools promoting achievement of essential college learning for all students, and (2) launching a digital hub to promote professional learning opportunities to a statewide network. Visions of our future selves, shared via sticky notes, revealed four themes: * becoming equity-minded practitioners (e.g., "[I will have] learned about equity in enough detail to apply it in the classroom.") * improving classroom practice (e.g., "[I will have] greater sensitivity to student needs.") * improving campus structure and culture (e.g., "[I will have] created a culture and mechanisms on campus that facilitate and support integrative learning with faculty and staff focused on equity and student success.") * connecting with colleagues across boundaries (e.g., "[I will know] how to be a boundary spanner inside my institution and between CSU & CCC.")