In this article, the authors discuss some manifestations of agency in the faculty career and the potential importance of its role in faculty career development. They define faculty professional growth as a change occurring in a person throughout his or her career and life that allows him or her to bring new and diverse knowledge, skills, values,…

In this article, the author discusses seven critical lessons for navigating a leadership position in higher education. The author focuses on developing a personal means of remaining centered regardless of circumstances or situations as well as building an ethical foundation for one's work. He uses spiraling as a metaphor to describe his own…

People are the most important resource in higher education, but allocation of resources and priorities do not reflect this reality. Individuals need developmental experiences that will prepare them for expanded roles. The major challenge is to make the workplace a place of leadership development as well as of continuous learning. (MLW)

The issue of preprofessionalism is discussed. The term is applied to various occupational paths, certain vocational skills, and specific career areas and is also used to characterize those students who are supposedly fitted with intellectual blinders as they pursue a narrow career path through a tightly defined program of study. (MLW)

Results of a national survey in which college department chairpersons ranked the competencies they thought necessary for their positions are presented. Chairpersons, regardless of discipline or department or institution size, agree on needed skills that can be the basis of an effective professional development program. (MSE)

The "Oxbridge" (Oxford and Cambridge Universities) system is examined and compared to its American counterpart. Oxbridge's struggle, in the face of demands of accountability, coordination, and professionalism, to keep the learning process an integral part of the social and personal development of the individual, is traced. (PHR)