Faculty Evaluation and Instructor Development: Perspectives and Experiences of Tribal College Faculty – Abstract

Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) play an integral role in the advancement of Native American people and Nations, yet research that focuses on TCUs and their staff or students is limited. Considering the positive impact of TCU faculty on student success, it is worthwhile to explore how these faculty are supported in their work, primarily in their work as instructors. This qualitative phenomenological study explored TCU faculty perceptions of their institution’s faculty evaluation (FE) process with the intent of identifying FE practices faculty perceive to contribute to their development as instructors. Seven faculty representing five TCUs participated in the study. Five themes emerged from the data:  

1. 1. Regardless of prior experiences with faculty evaluation, TCU faculty have positive perceptions of the faculty evaluation process and see it as important and full of potential for their professional development. 
   2. TCU faculty have experienced discontinuity between faculty evaluation policy (how the process is described on paper) and practice (how it is implemented). 
   3. TCU faculty appreciate and desire both formal and informal qualitative feedback from students, administrators, and peers as part of faculty evaluation. 
   4. TCU faculty would prefer more frequent opportunities for evaluation, feedback, and reflection so that they can weave this input into their instructional practices during the academic year. 
   5. TCUs should engage faculty in the design of their faculty evaluation processes and the associated evaluation practices should reflect faculty input. 

These findings illustrate that TCU faculty perceive the faculty evaluation process as integral to their professional development. As such, they want to have a voice in the process, especially regarding its framework, approach, and practices. For TCU leadership, these findings suggest that taking a collaborative approach to the creation and implementation of FE would amplify its impact and improve faculty perceptions of and investment in the process. Findings from this research will be shared back with TCU faculty through the American Indian College Fund’s TCU faculty development program. Dr. Alkire-Stewart will host a sensemaking workshop to discuss FE learnings with TCU faculty to get their input on how to best approach authentic and faculty-driven assessment at TCUs and put this research into practice.