Distributed leadership has become one of the most popular and important leadership models in the West, particularly in the field of education. However, both theoretical and empirical research into distributed leadership in the Chinese Higher Education context is rare. This dearth of literature on the subject has motivated the authors to carry out…

Literacy abilities are crucial for economic progress and community welfare, with higher education recognizing them as vital for problem-solving, critical thinking, continuous learning, and effective functioning for both experienced educators and the new student cohorts. The study examined the interplay between organizational learning and…

Teaching evaluation at many institutions is insufficient to support, recognize, and reward effective teaching. We developed a long-term intervention to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) department heads in advancing teaching evaluation practices. We describe the intervention and systematically investigate its impact…

This study measures the perceptions of departmental culture from both the adjunct faculty and departmental administrator perspectives. The preparation for this study included the development of a validated survey designed to collect mirrored perception data from both groups. Multiple factors in higher education have led to an overreliance on…

This study aimed to identify the income-generating activities and explore its management model using the case study method. In-depth interviews and documentation were used to collect data. The sample used purposive sampling from 26 study programs. Government subsidy, which is meant to cater to tuition and operational expenses, has been inadequate.…

There is a dissonance between the formal role of head of academic department represented in institutional discourses and the reality of heads' working practices. This paper provides insight, from the perspective of heads, about how the role is experienced and enacted in one institution. Data are derived from 20 semi-structured interviews with…

To update its teaching and departmental review processes, Phillips Academy Andover, an independent boarding school in Massachusetts, commissioned RAND Corporation researchers to review the school's policies, conduct a literature review, interview other independent high schools, develop potential recommendations for revision of Andover's processes,…

The evolution from new faculty to department chair, through tenure and promotion, has been widely studied, yielding ideas for success. The move from department chair back to faculty status is less studied, with fewer insights in the literature. This article offers a brief review of literature related to becoming and stepping down from the role of…

The underrepresentation of women faculty in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) remains a persistent feature of academia, with turnover being a contributing factor. The departmental context is likely implicated in the decision to stay or leave, as it is one of the key defining features of faculty members' work…

Background/Context: Although academic departments have more tools to advance faculty diversity than ever before, many still downplay their own responsibility throughout the hiring process. This results in a cycle of apathy that activates once searches are already under way, and structural change is out of reach. Yet few studies empirically outline…

Sociology faculty are accountable to multiple stakeholders to demonstrate that our academic programs are effective and that students are learning. Despite the ubiquity of mandated program review practices, which often include the assessment of student learning, research is lacking on the extent to which these efforts lead to improvements in…

The academic department is a key administrative unit in universities, and so heading, or chairing, a department is a key role. However, it is also known to be a challenging role and academics are often reluctant assume this position. Despite its importance, the head's role has not received sufficient academic attention and needs further…

The transformation of the model of university organization, with the passage of the traditional system of chairs to departmental, began in Spain in the mid-sixties. The educational policy of the regime, taking as reference foreign models such as the German or Anglo-Saxon, introduces via regulations, which are not real and operative, the bases of…

The role and influence of department heads on women in academia is understudied and weakly conceptualized. This article expounds on prior work, which identified limitations of department head literature, to put forth three problematic discourses that run through much of the department head research: the "discourse of fairness," the…

The purpose of this qualitative multi-case research study was to analyze the perceptions of academic leaders (faculty [and] department heads) within subcultures (academic units) on a community college campus. A subculture is a subdivision of a macro-culture that formed through differentiation. Differentiation, led to the development of subgroups…