Higher Education series 184 Daigaku-kyouin no Nouryoku-kaihatu Kenkyu (Research on Faculty Development in Higher Education - Structure and Assessment of Faculty Development)

“Faculty Development (FD) training session again?”—this resignation echoes among many academics. Attending an annual lecture alone won't improve teaching, and a sense of learned helplessness—that “nothing we do matters”—has gradually spread among academics. This is the reality of FD in Japanese universities. This book is Japan's first academic research on Faculty Development written by a faculty developer, exploring the causes of this stagnation and envisioning its future.

Here, FD is defined as “systematic efforts related to the professional development of university faculty.” Specifically, this includes training and consultation programs targeted at academics. While calls for quality assurance in university education have been made for a long time, its core lies in the quality of faculty members' teaching abilities. However, many academics themselves lack a strong awareness of this critical issue.

Under these circumstances, FD has long been relegated to the margins as “miscellaneous tasks for improving teaching” and has not been treated as a subject for academic research. In fact, the author's action research, which forms the core of this book, even received harsh criticism during doctoral thesis reviews, being dismissed as “a practice report.” Yet, the author directly challenges this conventional perception. The author sought to establish FD not merely as practice, but as a solid research field called “Educational Development in Higher Education,” presenting its unique research methodology.

The book's structure features a layered framework that moves back and forth between theory and practice. Chapters 1 and 2 provide a historical and critical examination of FD in Japan and other countries, highlighting the uniquely Japanese “discourse on FD.” Chapters 3 and 4 structure the FD practices that have unfolded and propose a new research model. Then, Chapters 5 and 6 demonstrate how theory functions in practice through examples of action research conducted by the author. Furthermore, the supplementary chapter addresses the dramatic changes COVID-19 has brought to FD.

The essence of linking “research” and ‘development’ in higher education—this book will provide a deep understanding of what it truly means to connect these two with “and.” For faculty and staff who strive tirelessly behind the scenes in university education, this book is not merely an academic research paper. It will serve as a reliable guide for practice and, above all, a powerful source of encouragement. I urge you to pick up this book as a compass for transforming FD into the most crucial endeavor for ensuring quality of teaching and learning.
 

(Written by SATO Hiroaki, Professor, Center for Research and Development of Higher Education / 2025)