Community colleges across the country are taking on the challenging work of redesigning students’ educational experiences through institution-wide guided pathways reforms. That is to say, they seek to create clear, coherent educational pathways for all of their students, in the process questioning many traditional practices and cultural norms in higher education. Clearly, that work cannot succeed without effective strategies for broadly, continuously and authentically engaging faculty—including both full- and part-time faculty—in the work. Well-intentioned colleges continue to discover to their chagrin that they too often underestimate the need for that intentional engagement. Now Christine Harrington brings to the field a welcome and comprehensive resource to support substantive and meaningful faculty engagement with guided pathways reforms, with her book, Engaging Faculty in Guided Pathways: A Practical Resource for College Leaders. Addressing a whole range of faculty work that must be taken on—from defining meta-majors and creating program maps, to defining and assessing student learning outcomes, to building an effective syllabus and employing effective teaching strategies, to building leadership from within the faculty—Harrington brings attention to an important reality: new pathways will guide neither students nor colleges to desired outcomes if they do not focus renewed energy on excellence in teaching and learning.
