Externalizing the core principles of the departmental action team (DAT) model

Abstract

Departmental Action Teams (DATs) are departmentally-based working groups of faculty, students, and staff aimed at achieving sustained departmental change related to undergraduate education. DATs have been conceptualized and are facilitated by members of our project team based on a set of Core Principles. These principles serve both as guides in the design of DATs and targets for the kinds of culture we aspire to create through our facilitation. In this paper, we describe our Core Principles, including theoretical underpinnings and a brief implementation example for each. We argue that articulating principles is a critical component of externalizing a complex change effort and that our Core Principles are applicable beyond the DAT model.