Competency 4:

Completed 5/11/23 (9:15-10:15am) workshop
"Understanding the University Context--Aligning Teaching w/ Different Institutional Types & Missions"
Judith Stoddart (Associate Provost for University Arts and Collections)

Description of Core Competency:
Not all universities have the same values, goals, or expectations of educators. These diferences create different types of learning environments both for our students, but also for us as educators. Knowing who we are teaching and what we are expected to teach them can indicate if we are prepared for a position at that institution. Understanding an institutions values, how our teaching is evaluated, and what our teaching load may be can help us know if a given institution aligns with our own values. The goal of this competency is to understand how various institutions differ, and how this information can be used to tailor application materials.

Artifacts, Materials, and Rationale 
During this workshop, we characterized the similarities and differences between two institutions mission/vision statements and teaching manuals, MSU (A large R1 research university) and Jackson community college (a small undergradutae public institution). We also looked at how the vision and mission statements aligned with the faculty descriptions. You can find my reflection here.

I also used the information from this session to tailor my teaching philosophy statement which is mainly prepared for small, liberal-art institutions.

Reflection
It’s important to learn about the mission and values of different institutional types and how they might align or not align with my values as an educator. Areas of intersection between my goals align and those of the institution are important to highlight in my application materials. Noticing how teaching is evaluated at each institution can also help me tailor my teaching philosophy’s section on how I evaluate my teaching, as well as help me understand what is expected of me when I get to the university. It is important, however, to note that the mission and values presented by each institution may vary from the real culture at each institution.