| Abstrakt: |
AbstractCollaboration is commonly viewed as a valuable and necessary yet complex and challenging aspect of faculty life in the contemporary academy. The value of collaborative efforts is often tied to tangible, measurable outcomes as a principle marker of success (e.g., increased publications, larger grant awards, and closer conformity to defined learning/project goals). Yet, what of the intangible values? What intrinsic value does collaboration hold for individuals, programs, and project teams? In an effort to explore these questions, we detail a collaborative self-study as a culminating component to a yearlong Curriculum Redesign Grant funded by our University. From our self-study, we forward a view of collaboration as a valuable process precisely because it necessarily moves beyond the tangible, formalized outcomes to involve the emergence of self-awareness, community, belonging, and the formation of heuristics capable of furthering group functioning in other endeavors. Ultimately, we suggest that collaboration is a process, one replete with ambiguity and uncertainty, but one that can yield additional sustained outcomes in the form of a community of practice. |
