Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Plenary 3: Enhancing our Teacher-Scholar Model through Part-time Faculty Engagement in Scholarship

Moakley Auditorium

Many part-time faculty at BSU engage in a range of scholarly activities. BSU promotes a teacher/scholar model, which embraces the notion that the quality of teaching rises with scholarly activity. It therefore follows that part-time faculty, like their full time faculty colleagues, should be supported to engage in scholarship. A true institutional commitment to quality teaching and education requires not only appropriate support systems for part-time faculty but also access to encouragement and support for ongoing scholarly activity and productivity. Access to internal grants has been shown to be an important support that allows part-time faculty to engage in scholarship. In this panel discussion, we will outline the avenues of support that exist at BSU and how part-time faculty have used these resources; discuss the ways that BSU could better support scholarship for part-time faculty; and explore how supporting the scholarship of all faculty benefits our BSU community.