Chapter 1: Exploring how Faculty Learning Communities Support Faculty Retention and Performance

The academy is a complex system where individual institutions have their own cultures and rituals. Generally speaking, faculty are hired for their individual expertise, and the tenure system and process encourages and rewards individuals with the highest levels of achievement. Likewise, chronic turnover is a barrier to professional achievement, growth of the university, and student achievement. Faculty retention is a multifaceted concept that is riddled with many moving parts. More recently, institutions have begun to better appreciate the potential that exists within teams and realized that an organization’s performance is enhanced with the collective effort of teams, or faculty learning communities. These communities can increase the chances of faculty success and retention. To this point, the senior faculty at a regional institution in the southwest formed and executed a faculty learning community of practice that was organized to break silos, build relationships, and orient and equip faculty for their various roles. This chapter is instructive to the focus for describing how faculty learning communities of practice can lead to institutional change as a way to reduce faculty turnover and improve faculty retention.