Unit Governance and Resources

The Professional Education Unit provides the leadership and authority for effectively coordinating all initial, continuing, and advanced programs of teacher preparation. Refer to the Professional Education Unit Organizational Chart that presents the structure for leadership and decision-making on educator preparation within Furman University.

Element 1: Unit Leadership and Authority

The leadership role for governance, management of curriculum, instruction, and resources for the preparation of professional educators resides within the Education Department (unit). The Chair of Education is invested with the authority for the entire Teacher Education Program. The governance system, a clearly defined collaborative undertaking, includes colleagues in arts, sciences, and humanities, and P-12 practitioners. Functioning under the leadership of the Education Department are the Teacher Education Committee (which includes members of arts, sciences and humanities; education faculty; and student representatives), the Internship Committee (comprised of all professional education faculty who supervise teaching interns), other standing committees, and the school and community partnerships, all of which include university-wide faculty. The university's Faculty Development Committee (for years under the leadership of an education faculty member and currently chaired by a member of the Teacher Education Committee [who also serves in the Internship Committee]) plans professional development programs on effective teaching, learning, and assessment for all faculty. Training of P-12 practitioners that share in the evaluation of teacher candidates using the ADEPT system is conducted by education faculty. In addition, the Director and Assistant Director of Graduate Studies and the Coordinator of the Upstate Schools Consortium are members of the Education Department and collaborate with arts, sciences, and humanities faculty as well as P-12 administrators and practitioners in the design, delivery, and assessment of the unit and its programs.

Element 2: Unit Budget

The Education Department receives sufficient budgetary allocations to fund the program of teacher education. Curriculum materials as well as teaching internship travel and material costs for all initial licensure programs are part of the Education Department budget. The salaries for professional education faculty in departments external to Education are budgeted in those departments (art, health and exercise science, mathematics, modern languages and literatures, theatre arts, and music). During the initial NCATE self-study, the university created an additional NCATE budget that allows for training of faculty, stipends for summer work on program reports and assessments, NCATE dues, and accreditation visit costs. The NCATE budget is now a permanent budget with variable funds (ranging from $12,545 to $27,600), depending on the status of the accreditation cycle. The budget process begins with the department chair completing a budget request form, indicating needs and justification for additional funds during the next academic year. The budget is then reviewed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean, who then represents the academic budget in negotiations with the other Vice Presidents (Business Affairs, Student Affairs, Development Office, Enrollment). The Board of Trustees ultimately approves the annual budget and department chairs are notified of their new budgets. The Education Department is fortunate to have externally funded grants that enhance the departmental budget and support high-quality work within the Teacher Education Program, the university, and partner schools and districts.

Only the Dean will know the comparability of the Education budget with that of other academic departments. The individual academic department budgets are not made public.

The budget managed by the Director of Graduate Studies is an administrative budget and, as such, does not fund materials and supplies needed by regular or adjunct faculty teaching graduate education courses. Those expenses are paid by the Education Department.

Salaries of regular Furman faculty teaching graduate courses which are a part of their five-course load are paid from the Education Department’s salary budget, whereas adjunct and overload salaries are paid from the graduate budget. This distinction is made because the graduate budget has a tuition income account and an adjunct/overload expense account, both of which may be adjusted up or down when sections of courses need to be added or deleted from the graduate schedule. Courses that do not “pay for themselves” are usually not offered. If they must be taught because of special circumstances, such as a student who needs the course to meet a graduation requirement, then the decision regarding whether or not the course is offered is made by the Director of Graduate Studies in consultation with the appropriate department chair and the Academic Dean.

When excess travel funds have been available in the graduate budget, the budget has paid for travel for adjunct faculty teaching in the school leadership programs located in Anderson Districts One and Five, although there is not a designated line item for such use. If funds were not available in the graduate budget, the Education Department would pay for the travel.

Each year the Director of Graduate Studies and the Director of Continuing Education recommend to the Academic Dean salary increases for adjunct faculty and overload payment for regular Furman faculty.

Specific budgets may be reviewed on-site.

Element 3: Personnel

Programs for Initial Preparation of Teachers (Undergraduate and Post-baccalaureate)

Policies and workloads permit faculty to be actively involved in teaching, scholarship, and service (as previously indicated, the typical teaching load is five, four credit hour courses per year). Evaluations of faculty indicate, in fact, that most attend local, state, and national meetings and conferences. The Office of Academic Affairs encourages such participation and supports financially (up to $1,500 per year) the travel and registration costs. Financial support is described in the University Policies and Procedures and is based on the level of participation ranging from full support for presentations (up to $1,500 per year) to 65 percent support for attendance with no presentation/panel membership/poster session. Refer to the faculty policy, 166.1- Attendance at Professional Meetings.

The Education Department holds retreats and workdays designed to discuss teaching practices and theoretical as well as practical applications of current issues and trends in education. As mentioned previously, the university, through the Faculty Development Committee and the Center for Teaching and Engaged Learning, conducts and/or sponsors professional development seminars and activities to engage all university faculty in dialogue related to translating theory into practice in the college curriculum.

With the potential for one full-time faculty position (research and statistics) and one coordinator position (TESOL) to be filled, there will be sufficient full-time faculty to meet the needs of the initial certification programs. Adjuncts (one is a sabbatical replacement) are currently teaching two courses required by all initial licensure candidates as well as one course required in the undergraduate program for those who intend to seek post-baccalaureate special education licensure.

Adjunct faculty are hired based on their professional qualifications and for the purpose of strengthening the program. Part-time and full-time clinical faculty (Coordinator of the Teacher to Teacher Program, Coordinator of the Upstate Schools Consortium, and the Campus Director of Teaching Fellows) are considered members of the Education Department. As such, they have teaching, scholarship, and mentoring responsibilities and carry the typical workload of faculty. The mentors who work with Furman’s induction teachers in Spartanburg School District Six and Greenville County are clinical faculty in as much as they support the induction teachers without the responsibilities of their own class. However, their salaries are paid by their school districts and they are not subject to the faculty load requirements of Furman University. And while hey do not participate in the Education Department in the same manner as full-time faculty or full-time clinical faculty do, we embrace them as colleagues who support the process of simultaneous renewal and who collaborate with us in scholarly projects. Their input into the preparation of teachers is regularly sought and their recommendations are seriously considered. Refer to Mentor Qualifications Charts (Cantrell, Hathaway, Morgan, Ray, Gillespie, Perez, Taylor) .

For qualifications of cooperating teachers, refer to the discussion in Standard Three, Element 2.

At present, the graduate program does not employ teaching assistants. Furthermore, neither the Education Department nor Office of Graduate Studies offers on-line courses.

Programs for Continuing Preparation of Teachers and Other School Personnel

Furman University has been fortunate to employ a group of extremely talented and loyal adjunct professors, some of whom have taught at Furman for over twenty years. For the most part, although not entirely, the professional growth and development of adjuncts teaching graduate courses has taken place as a result of their full-time employment by school districts in our area of the state. They attend local, state, and national meetings; work with policymakers on issues affecting their profession; update their professional knowledge through frequent experiences in schools; and mentor in-service teachers to help them improve their practice, thereby improving their professional understanding of the needs of practicing educators. In short, in their special position as public school educators, their knowledge base is constantly being tested, modified, and revised; their currency brings a special strength to Furman’s degree programs.

The Director of Graduat Studies, Assistant Director of Graduate Studies, and the full-time Furman faculty teaching in the graduate program schedule yearly meetings with adjuncts to include them in the NCATE accreditation process. They exchange views on important issues/questions as they pertain to professional development and course design. Discussions regarding the collection of evidence of use for performance assessments, appropriate scoring guides, and the program’s professional responsibility for educating individuals who will be leaders in the field are always included in the meetings’ agenda.

Adjuncts who are new to Furman are informally and formally mentored by the Director and the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies. They personally meet with them to answer questions and to provide guidance regarding the development of the course syllabus, grading policies and performance assessment, and attendance policies. In other words, adjunct faculty are apprised of expectations and of what it means to teach at Furman. The Furman professor who has had primary responsibility for the course also meets with the adjunct professor to review the course outline, especially the course content that meets specific standards of one of the learned societies or the conceptual framework. They discuss required and optional books for the course as well as appropriate course assignments.

Element 4: Unit Facilities

Construction of the Herman N. Hipp Hall where the Professional Education Unit resides was completed in the summer of 2001. The building houses the Department of Education and Office of Graduate Studies, the Departments of Economics, Business and Accounting, Continuing Education, and the Rushing Center for Advanced Technology. State-of-the-art technology is available in classrooms and laboratories. Faculty have office space to themselves and personal computers that are no more than four years old. Everyone on campus has email accounts. Furman students have Internet access in labs throughout the campus and in the dormitories. Candidates living on campus access, from their dormitories, the major library databases. Faculty share projection equipment and model appropriate use of technology (Powerpoint, webquests, use of technologies to enhance instruction for classroom students, communication systems, and management systems) in their classes.

Element 5: Unit Resources Including Technology

The James B. Duke Library provides faculty and candidates with access to exemplary print and online education resources. The library catalog, Education Abstracts/Full Text, ERIC, and other databases are available via the library website and can be used by students and faculty from anywhere on or off campus using a campus network login. The total number of volumes (in all formats) in the library is over 450,000. The Education section of the library contains 11,200 books. The library subscribes to 118 education journals in print and provides access to over 300 education journals online. The library is open 101 hours per week.

The total library allocation for Education resources for 2005-06 is $41,621. The allocations and expenditures (purchase of additional holdings) have increased significantly since 2000.

The Education Curriculum Center includes a substantial collection of children’s literature as well as textbooks and other materials that are commonly used in P-12 schools. The collection includes some 14,000 children’s books and over 2,500 textbooks. It is located in the James B. Duke Library and adjoins a large instructional area where Education faculty can bring classes for convenient access to resources.

The Center for Collaborative Learning and Communication (CCLC) is also located in the library and serves the entire university community. It has state-of-the-art technology that permits development of multimedia materials to support teaching and learning. Additionally, there are full-time staff members and student- peer consultants on duty to provide technical assistance and training. Both students and faculty may access this support.

The Education Department has been able to secure, or partner in securing, grant support (Library of Congress, Adventure of the American Mind; Title II) for exemplary programs that link technology with teaching, learning, assessment and curriculum standards. Knowledgeable faculty and candidates are available to assist other candidates and practitioners. Purchase of hardware (in the form of laptops, scanner, color printer, and digital cameras), as well as software (such as KidPix, Adobe Acrobat, Inspiration, Timeliner, and Dreamweaver), has enhanced technology resources for faculty, candidates, and practitioners.

Facilities, resources, and technology may be seen on-site.