The role identities of discipline-specific facilitators in a multi-tiered professional development program in higher education

Abstract

The study explored the emerging role identities of eleven faculty who served as discipline-specific facilitators in a multi-tiered PD program, as well as the affordances and constraints which contributed to the (mis)alignment between the role identity of facilitator and their other roles as faculty. Taking the collective as the unit-of-analysis, we showed that variations occurred in the salience of facilitators’ self-perceptions, beliefs, goals, and action possibilities. These variations occurred within and across their multiple roles including learner, teacher, researcher, middle leader, and peer roles, and were triggered mainly by the (1) in/compatibility of facilitators’ pedagogical beliefs with PD goals and activities, (2) un/confidence in the facilitator role, and (3) absence/presence of institutional support. We suggest that the PD program provides a useful model for professional learning in Higher Education contexts, and that facilitators’ role identities are important tools worthy of further support and exploration.