The Brown Center for Faculty Innovation & Excellence is pleased to announce the third annual Brown Innovation Fellows Program.The program celebrates teacher-scholars as learners by offering dedicated time for reflection on learning and strategies to facilitate deep student learning anchored in Stetson’s mission of preparing students to lead lives steeped in personal growth, intellectual development, and global citizenship. The Brown Innovation Fellows Program is made possible by generous donations from Hyatt and Cici Brown to support faculty innovation and excellence.
2016-2017 PROGRAM FOCUS:
The Courage to Teach
Higher education is undergoing a paradigm shift. This shift is partly in response to disruptive forces, which include changing demographics of students and faculty; disruptive forces reconceptualizing how higher education is delivered; and students (and families) questioning the value and relevance of a college education. The recent report on the climate at Stetson highlights many of these challenges.
“Engaged learning” is embraced by many institutions of liberal learning as an antidote to these forces, moving the classroom from a space where the professor is an objective deliverer of knowledge to one in which student success and growth is a paramount concern. Parker Palmer’s classic text, “The Courage To Teach: Exploring The Inner Landscape Of A Teacher’s Life“, offers a pathway by encouraging educators to reconsider objectivist education models where experts act as guardians of knowledge to one in which amateurs and experts become knowers working in concert to understand a subject.
What Palmer proposes raises many questions …
- When is this approach appropriate? When isn’t it?
- How do we give students voice in the construction of their educational experience?
- How can we develop syllabi that are inclusive of the diverse “lived experiences” of students and professors?
- How is faculty work changed? Are institutions recognizing and rewarding these new roles for faculty?
Fellows will grapple with these questions and more as a cohort over the course of the academic year. In an effort to model democratic ways of knowing, the program will borrow strategies from the un-conference movement in digital humanities where we collaborate to actively create the agenda to develop sessions that are relevant, engaging and respond to the knowledge, interest and goals of participants.
Tentative Agenda
- October
1719: Applications Due
(deadline extended) - October 20: Award notifications made
- October 28: Gathering to establish goals, agenda and select readings/resources and experts to visit campus.
- Monthly meetings to discuss, learn and reflect from November to March. (meeting times will be negotiated)
- November TBD: Lunch gathering
- December 2, 2-5pm
- January 20, 2-5pm
- February 10, 2-5pm
- March 24, 2-5pm
- April 6-7: Share learning with campus and beyond at the Brown Fellows Symposium as part of the annual Teaching & Learning Colloquium
- April 21: 2-5pm; graduation celebration
Goals
Brown Innovation Fellows will:
- Develop expertise in pedagogical student learning
- Use innovative strategies and technologies to deepen learning
- Educate the campus community on pedagogical strategies and student learning by participating Brown Fellows Symposium as part of the annual Teaching & Learning Colloquium, April 7-8.
Award Eligibility
The program is available to any full-time faculty member who is available to participate fully during the year-long institute and at the Brown Fellows Symposium during the Teaching & Learning Colloquium in April 2016.
Benefits to Fellows
The Brown Innovation Fellows Program will engage participants in diverse experiences to expand skill sets for designing courses that foster significant learning experiences by students. Fellows will build knowledge together as a cohort over the course of a year. In addition, each Fellow will receive a stipend of $1,000 to be issued upon completion of the Brown Innovation Institute and submission of a reflective report on their experience.
Application Process
All full-time faculty members at Stetson University are encouraged to apply. Each faculty member should submit their brief (500 word) application through the online form. Please note that we will request support from your chair or direct supervisor for your participation.
Questions? We look forward to a number of excellent applications. Questions should be directed to the Brown Center for Faculty Innovation & Excellence.