The Faculty Inquiry Network: Examining Basic Skills Instruction in California Community Colleges
ISKME is conducting a study of the Faculty Inquiry Network (FIN). Funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Walter S. Johnson Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation, FIN was launched in January 2009 as a professional development program and community of practice led by the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District. The purpose of FIN is to build a network of 18 colleges across the state to improve basic skills education through teacher professional development, inquiry, and knowledge sharing. FIN seeks to help faculty explore how students learn basic skills, their challenges to learning, and strategies to address those challenges — as well as supporting the sharing and documentation of inquiry outcomes through media-based projects, such as videos and websites.
Working collaboratively with FIN project leaders, ISKME aims to support the implementation and development of the faculty inquiry model for basic skills teaching, both within the context of the participating colleges and in the wider community college setting. Through a survey of FIN participants, site visits and interviews with participating faculty, students, and administrators, the goals of the research are to understand the practice and process of faculty inquiry, how faculty share knowledge and results, the impact of inquiry work on the participants and their institutions, and how the resources developed through FIN can be used to inform the larger community college field.
