Faculty, Academic Careers, and Environments (FACE) Framework: A Guide to Faculty Work for Research, Practice, and Policy

Abstract

This article offers a new conceptual model for understanding faculty work. The Faculty, Academic Careers, and Environments (FACE) framework updates and expands upon existing faculty frameworks, addressing contemporary shifts to faculty contracts and roles, as well as changes to the identities and backgrounds of individuals in the academic workforce, with the aim of offering a comprehensive, holistic understanding of faculty work and environments. We first review existing frameworks on faculty and introduce additional frameworks and theories that are not typically used to consider faculty work, especially not in integrated ways. We then detail the FACE framework, exploring faculty roles, activities, and experiences in the context of various individual, disciplinary, institutional, and external influences, all situated within a socio-historical context that emphasizes systems of privilege and power and the changing role of faculty over time. The framework also expands on the institutional influences that most directly affect faculty’s opportunities for meaningful participation, through a humanistic, equity-centered lens. The FACE framework can be used by researchers to create a more comprehensive understanding of faculty work, by faculty and graduate students to understand faculty careers more holistically, and by institutional leaders and policymakers to create better policies and practices to support the academic workforce.