Preface
This paper discusses a topic which is multifaceted
and is at once practical and concrete as well
as philosophical and controversial.
It
is hoped that this paper will help local senates
who have not yet undertaken the process of assigning
courses to disciplines or who are updating or
revising. The paper discusses why the need exists
and outlines a process to help local senates get
started. The process described in the paper relies
on faculty's professional integrity to do an assessment
of discipline preparation and course content.
What
this paper does not do, is cover all the possible
problems which might arise during the assignment
process. Ultimately to solve these problems, local
senates may need to serve as judges hearing testimony
and rendering a final decision respecting the
basic principles under which the disciplines list
was established.
Introduction
Prior to July 1, 1990, credentials determined
which subject matter areas community college faculty
could teach. Upon passage of the Community College
Reform Act (AB 1725), credentials were no longer
issued and new hiring was to be based upon a set
of minimum qualifications for a given discipline.
The disciplines and related disciplines were proposed
by the Academic Senate and set forth in the discipline's
list adopted by Board of Governors. The language
in the legislation referred to "any courses"
taught instead of "subject matter areas"
of credentials which was linked to TOPS codes.
Therefore a determination must be made as to the
discipline preparation appropriate and adequate
for each individual course.
The
Problem
During the recent review of the disciplines list,
it became apparent that many colleges have not
completed this task or do not understand its purpose.
Faculty hired under the credential system are
allowed to teach any course within the subject
matter area of the credential. It is not clear
which courses a faculty member may teach when
hired with discipline minimum qualifications until
courses have been assigned to disciplines. There
are two questions faculty must ask and be prepared
to answer.
1.
When someone is hired with the minimum qualifications
for one discipline (e.g., history), what courses
may he/she teach if the college has not assigned
courses to disciplines?
2.
When a course is to be offered, what discipline
specific preparation is appropriate to teach that
course?
This
paper attempts to provide a local senate guidance
in designing a process at the local campus to
address these questions.
In
most cases, the courses on a campus will be placed
in a single discipline. For example, most of the
history courses offered at an institution will
be listed under the discipline of history. However,
consider a course in the Economic History of the
United States. Should it be listed under the discipline
of history or economics? Or is it possible that
both economics and history are suitable preparation?
In which case, would it be appropriate to list
the course under both the disciplines of history
and economics? By doing this dual listing, the
institution states that it is possible for individuals
who meet the minimum qualifications of history
or economics to have the expertise necessary to
teach this course. For the purpose of this paper,
this process is called multiple-listing and does
not mean that the course must be listed as History
101 and Economics 101. (Listing a single course
offered for either history or economics credit
is appropriate referred to as double coding.)
Multiple-listing addresses the issue of what academic
background is the minimum qualification to teach
the course.
Another option
is to list the course as interdisciplinary(1),
assuring that the instructor would at least have
some preparation in both history and economics.
The
Principle
The guiding principle for this task must be based
on course content and personnel issues. It is
necessary for faculty to separate themselves from
their personal biases and assess each course based
on the subject matter being taught and giving
consideration to emerging disciplines. Faculty
are reminded that, according to law, no matter
a course is placed, individuals holding valid
credentials that would have allowed them to teach
the course pre-AB 1725 are still qualified to
do so.
It
is important to understand that not all programs
or department titles are disciplines. The decision
to place a course in a specific discipline is
based on the body of knowledge necessary to instruct
the course. When the subject matter as stated
by the official course outline is common to more
than one discipline, it is appropriate for the
course to be listed in all appropriate disciplines.
If, however, a broader knowledge base is necessary,
the course should be listed as interdisciplinary
and the disciplines involved listed.
The
Process
As provided for in the Title 5 regulations, Section
53200, Strengthening of Academic Senates, the
process of placing courses within disciplines
must be done by faculty through the academic senate.
How multi-college districts should proceed depends
on whether each college has a separately accredited
curriculum or whether the district has a district
course numbering system. If each college has a
separate curriculum, it would proceed as a single
campus district. If, however, a district has a
district curriculum committee, the process would
vary slightly. What happens if the faculty at
different district colleges disagree regarding
on the listing of a course to a discipline? If
a district senate exists, that senate may want
to adjudicate the disagreement and make the final
decision. If, however, there is no district senate,
the local senates may wish to convene a special
committee with representatives from all colleges
to discuss the issue and make a recommendation
to the local senates.
The
local senate has the responsibility to establish
processes that include involvement of faculty
with the knowledge necessary to evaluate course
outlines for content and to assign each course
to the appropriate discipline(s). Since evaluating
a course outline is the responsibility of the
curriculum committee when reviewing new and existing
courses, it is possible that the curriculum committee,
under the auspices of the academic senate, would
be the most suitable group to make these decisions.
No matter who is involved in the process or who
directs the process, there exists an obligation
to seek out the expertise of the discipline faculty
when assigning courses to disciplines.
It
is also necessary to list the college's noncredit
courses within disciplines. Since there are no
specific noncredit disciplines, it is recommended
that faculty use the areas allowed for apportionment
as "disciplines" in noncredit as referred
to in Title 5, Section 84711.
How
would an academic senate go about placing courses
within the appropriate disciplines? This placement
will require consideration of the organizational
structure of the instruction area. Are the faculty
set up in departments or division or in some other
way? Besides a college-wide /district curriculum
committee, does the institution have smaller division
curriculum committees? The hardest part of the
process is deciding how best to proceed and how
best to design a process that provides for maximum
faculty input. The following steps are designed
to provide some guidelines the senate or the committee
designated by the senate might wish to consider:
Step
1: Obtain a complete list of the institution's
current course offerings. If information systems
is able to design a printout for the process,
it might look like this:
Course
Discipline
Multiple-listing
Interdisciplinary?
(list disciplines)
Math R
Math PA
Math A
Math B
Math 1
Step
2: Form appropriate committees for the
initial assignment of courses into disciplines.
For example, if the college has divisional curriculum
committees, give them the courses in their purview
to assign. If not, the senate or designated committee
may want to form several broad-based groups such
as: fine arts, math and science, behavioral and
social science, humanities, and vocational. Faculty
would be recruited in those areas to convene and
do an initial placement of courses within the
disciplines of their area(s).
The
chair of the process should remember to review
with the committees the difference between multiple-listing
and interdisciplinary. When a course is multiple-listed
in two or more disciplines, the faculty are saying
that the minimum qualifications for any of the
disciplines listed would be sufficient, i.e.,
listing Economic History of the U.S. in both the
disciplines of history and economics. However,
if the faculty feel the instructor should have
some preparation in more than one discipline,
the course should be listed in the interdisciplinary
category instead of individual disciplines. By
listing the economic history course as interdisciplinary,
an instructor would need course work in both economics
and history.
Step
3: Circulate the initial placement of courses
to all faculty in the respective groups and to
the college curriculum committee for comment.
Based on the comments and concerns received, the
committees should finalize the list to present
to the academic senate and the Board of Trustees
for final approval.
Step
4: The final approved list should be made
available to department/division offices, personnel,
and instruction offices.
Step
5: The senate should design processes for
assigning new courses to disciplines in the curriculum
proposal process and for a periodic review of
course assignments that corresponds with the discipline
review process.
The
members of the committees assigning courses to
disciplines need to be aware of the minimum qualifications
of the disciplines they are assigning. They must
be aware that not all department/division titles
are disciplines. Some institutions, for example,
offer courses in human development, human services
and American studies. A review of the discipline's
list does not yield these titles, so where would
they be assigned? The reviewers must examine the
course content and decide of the available disciplines
which one (ones) is (are) appropriate including
interdisciplinary. For example, some of the human
services and human development courses might be
appropriately placed in counseling, psychology,
or sociology. In contrast, courses in American
studies might be more appropriately designated
as interdisciplinary where the faculty member
teaching the course will need a broader knowledge
base to teach the course effectively.
Conclusion
As previously mentioned, it would be impossible
to address every contingency that might arise
when your senate begins the process. There is
no question each senate will have to make some
hard decisions. Establishment of a philosophy
to maintain academic integrity of each discipline
will assist senates in the decision-making process.
However, it is important that your process include
a method to handle differences of opinion before
they arise so that all parties concerned will
know what to expect and how the problem will be
resolved.
Minimum
qualifications for interdisciplinary are a masters
in the interdisciplinary subject or a masters
in one of the disciplines included in the interdisciplinary
area and upper division or graduate coursework
in each of the other disciplines.
