What are the responsibilities and job description for the Associate Director, Center for Teaching and Learning (Two positions) position at Amherst College?
Amherst has taken a leadership role among highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities in successfully diversifying the racial, socio-economic, and geographic profile of its student body. The College is similarly committed to enriching its educational experience and its culture through the diversity of its faculty, administration and staff.
Job Description:
The Amherst College
Center for Teaching and Learning
(CTL) seeks TWO experienced and thoughtful educational developers committed to equity-minded approaches for their thinking and practice, especially as relevant and effective within a small private liberal arts college teaching and learning environment. Our work in the CTL is primarily faculty-facing, while centering learning and holistic well-being for all stakeholders in designing, implementing, assessing, and improving our support and programming for effective teaching practices. We partner with faculty, students, and staff across the College to explore, identify, and integrate the most effective, evidence-based practices within our context. Amherst College is an equal opportunity employer and encourages persons who hold a diversity of identities and relevant experience to apply.
Knowing that the candidates for this position will bring a wide range of knowledge, skills, and experience, we are excited to search for these two positions concurrently and draw on the collective strengths the candidates will bring to the Amherst community. Both associate director positions are full-time, year-round positions, with a
job group and level of RI-4
, with a minimum starting salary of $85,000 per year - commensurate with experience. Reporting to the director of the CTL, the associate directors will contribute to program development, assessment, and administration of the CTL. The individuals in these roles will collaborate with colleagues at local, regional, and national levels to promote excellence in education and student learning at Amherst.
Summary of Responsibilities:
Faculty, Academic Department, and Institutional Consultations
- Consult and collaborate with faculty, instructors and other campus colleagues on a variety of teaching and learning needs, across disciplines. This work may include developing innovative assignments, activities, instructional and assessment approaches, as well as syllabi and curricular improvement
- Provide support for the design and assessment of courses, curricula, instructional methods, and learning initiatives, all tailored to faculty domain areas and disciplines
- Provide resources for faculty on established and emerging pedagogical methods, with a focus on equity-minded pedagogies for diverse student populations
- Introduce faculty to practical and innovative possibilities for meaningfully assessing student learning, especially using approaches best suited to small residential liberal arts learning environments
- Facilitate learning communities, seminars, and workshops on pedagogical methods and effective practices in a variety of focus areas such as syllabus design, course design, inclusive pedagogies, meaningful learning assessment, active and engaged learning, emerging and innovative pedagogical frameworks, etc.
Programmatic and Course/Curricular Design Projects
- Work with the CTL team and appropriate partners to sustain ongoing CTL initiatives including the pedagogical partner program (P3), CTL faculty fellows, syllabus and course design seminars, learning communities, and the CTL student advisory team
- Sustain and develop programming and initiatives on a variety of topics that contribute to an inclusive learning environment, engage with interdisciplinary and emergent ways of knowing, and emerge from work with our faculty, staff, and students. These have included work such as Being Human in STEM, intergroup dialogue, embodied pedagogies, Indigenous ways of knowing, scholarship of teaching and learning, and the challenges and possibilities of generative AI
- Collaborate with the CTL team and other campus partners to develop, sustain, support and assess educational development initiatives
Operational Support
- Represent the CTL for a wide range of audiences and serve on College committees, as appropriate
- Collaborate with the CTL team to develop, adapt and make available hard-copy and digital resources on a wide range of pedagogical topics
- Assist in the planning, coordination, and evaluation of CTL events
- Work with the CTL team to develop, manage, and maintain communication strategies including internal and external newsletters, websites and social media that will help us document and share effective teaching at Amherst College
- Other responsibilities may include managing student workers and contributing to grant writing
Scholarly Development
- Stay up-to-date with research, innovations, and emerging frameworks in teaching and learning, specifically those most relevant to residential liberal arts educational contexts
- Regularly engage in regional and national/international dialogues on teaching and learning through conference presentations, publications, and other professional engagements relevant for the work of educational development
Qualifications:
Required
- Master’s Degree in an academic discipline
- One to three years of related experience
- Two years of college-level teaching in an academic discipline
- One year of providing pedagogical support for faculty
- Knowledge of theories, practice, and research related to teaching and learning across disciplines in higher education
- Ability to work independently and take initiative by showing leadership in key areas of responsibility
- Superior verbal and written communication, time management, and organizational skills, with excellent attention to detail
- Superior collaboration skills, including the ability to work within a team to identify opportunities, present ideas, and receive and provide constructive feedback
- Knowledge of learning assessment methods, especially relevant to a small liberal arts institution
- Demonstrated ability to manage conflict, support fellow team members, facilitate a motivated and positive approach to tasks and problems, take and share responsibility, and generate action items for self and others
- A deep commitment to building an inclusive, equitable, anti-racist educational development program, which may be demonstrated through engagement with and application of innovative, inclusive pedagogies in the individual’s own teaching, research or pedagogical development work
- Commitment to working with a diverse and inclusive community
Preferred
- Ph.D. in an academic discipline
- Three to five years of college-level teaching experience in an academic discipline
- Two or more years experience working in a center for teaching and learning or other pedagogical support environment
- Experience in qualitative and/or quantitative data analysis, especially in the context of program and learning assessment
Amherst College offers many opportunities for professional growth and development, continued learning, and career advancement.
Amherst College is pleased to provide a comprehensive, highly competitive benefits package that meets the needs of staff and faculty and their families. Benefits are an important part of our overall compensation, so it is critical that you review all of the options to ensure it meets your total compensation requirements. Click here for
Benefits Information
.The application process will give you two options for submitting your materials: "Autofill Resume" and "Manual." We encourage you to use the autofill option but do not worry about reviewing or revising any of the information populated in each field. The search committee will be reviewing the uploaded cover letters and CVs and will not be using any of the information populated within the fields of the application system. Please be sure to upload all requested documents in the first step of the application process. Applications cannot be revised once submitted.
The search committee will begin reviewing applications immediately with a priority application deadline of February 28, 2025. We hope to fill these positions as soon as possible, with an ideal start date being no later than July 2025. We look forward to reviewing your materials. If you have any questions about the application process or the position please reach out to ctl@amherst.edu.
(Current employees and students should apply by clicking on the Jobs Hub icon from their Workday home screen)
Salary : $85,000
