Reflecting on Growth and Change: The Persistence of the Faculty Academy (2002–2020)

Abstract

This chapter presents reflections on nearly two decades of membership in the Faculty Academy. The group created a safe space for professional growth and change. My story of Faculty Academy activity draws on Dewey's notion of the "doing" and "undergoing" (Dewey in "Art as experience." Perigee Books, New York, p. 47, 1934/1980) of experience. The metaphoric story involving the literal touchstones of "Imagine" and "Accept" frame the rhizomatic growth and change personally experienced and observed in others as members of the Faculty Academy. Flexibility and a relational leadership style emerged as key elements supporting Faculty Academy's ability to sustain itself through changing times. Learning through experience to both imagine unrealities and accept limitations as a means to persist, grow, and change is realized. [For the complete volume, "Cross-Disciplinary, Cross-Institutional Collaboration in Teacher Education: Cases of Learning and Leading. Palgrave Studies on Leadership and Learning in Teacher Education," see ED616372.]