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University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Graduate Student Development

Academic and Professional

Preparing Future Faculty
Introduction | Goals | Concepts | Departments | Institutions
Fellows | Mentors | Benefits | Application | Activities | Schedule

Central PFF Concepts

PFF is an intentional sequence of professional development activities. Its most generic underlying concept is that the doctoral experience for those interested in academic careers should:

  1. continue to provide opportunities to help them develop and obtain recognition as researchers
  2. include teaching experience that involves increasingly independent and varied responsibilities, support, and feedback
  3. offer exposure to and experience with service to the department, campus, community, and discipline

Additional propositions that more specifically inform various aspects of PFF include the following:

  • Apprenticeship teaching, research, and service experiences should be planned so they are appropriate to the student's stage of professional development and progress toward the degree.
  • Doctoral students should learn about the academic profession through exposure to the range of professional responsibilities in the variety of institutions that may become their professional homes.
  • Doctoral programs should include a formalized system for mentoring in all aspects of professional development. Students can benefit from multiple mentors, including those at institutions with missions distinctly different from that of the research university.
  • Doctoral experiences should equip future faculty for the significant changes taking place in the classrooms and curricula of today.
  • Professional development experiences should be thoughtfully integrated into the academic program and sequence of degree requirements.
  • Where high-quality teaching assistant orientation and development programs are available, PFF programs should build upon them. PFF is consistent with the best practices of teaching assistant development, while also advancing another, more comprehensive level of preparation.
  • A key element in implementing the PFF vision is the "cluster," a formal, cooperative arrangement involving doctoral-granting "anchor" universities with a range of "partner" institutions or departments in a joint working relationship. Specifically, the cluster leaders:
    1. decide what is needed in new faculty (and it is always more than specialized knowledge in a discipline)
    2. give students opportunities to experience faculty life in multiple institutional settings
    3. increase awareness among faculty in both the anchor and the partner institutions about the changing expectations for faculty.