As Division Head, you have Department Heads reporting to you—and their duties could range from selecting text books and doing paperwork to hiring, coaching and mentoring faculty members. Indeed, the potential responsibilities of a Department Head can range far and wide, and do vary by school.
Traditionally, the Department Chair seat may have rotated through the faculty, or may have simply been assigned to the most senior faculty member in the department. Now a decade in to the 21st century, roles are changing—and in a new model, your Department Chairs now will focus on being coaches and mentors, and actively evaluate their peers’ performance.
While the word “evaluation” may be unnerving to a Department Chair—and may cause some to step back from the role once they are charged with evaluating their peers—it’s more about goals, relationships, and guidance. ISM identified some essential characteristics of the Department Chair that are pivotal to success in supervision and evaluation.
The Department Chair acts as a coach to help faculty members establish and achieve their professional growth choices. In this relationship, the Chair can guide the faculty member to choose professional development that will help that teacher improve in a challenge area that the Chair has pinpointed, or in a discipline where the teacher specializes, to further strengthen skills. In either case, the Chair and the faculty member work together to help the teacher continue to grow—and remain excited about his or her role.
For a new or newer faculty member, the Department Chair acts more as a mentor, addressing instructional performance rather than professional growth, per se. In this role, the Chair is directing rather than coaching—although not in a restrictive way. In either manner, the Chair’s objective is to constantly support the teacher in his or her quest for mission-appropriate professional excellence to deliver the school’s mission.
