A critical reconceptualization of faculty readiness for online teaching

ABSTRACT

Online courses are mainstream throughout higher education. This pattern has been accelerated, temporarily or permanently, due to the coronavirus pandemic (Allen & Seaman, 2016; Arum & Stevens, 2020; Garrison, 2011). Tenure-track and contingent faculty’s willingness to teach online serves students, but little research critiques the forces that produce and constrain faculty’s efforts. Even the most current discussions of faculty readiness lack a strong grounding in criticality. Without such a critical orientation, the power and equity issues involved in the higher education marketplace of online teaching cannot be adequately examined. This critical integrated literature review of 44 studies documents themes of the affective dimensions and identity disruption surrounding faculty’s readiness to teach online and explores their professional vulnerability. Structural and cultural forces that produce and constrain faculty’s experiences transitioning to online teaching emerged from the analysis. This conceptualization of faculty readiness provides a foundation upon which to theorize faculty’s equitable experiences of online teaching.

KEYWORDS:

• online teaching
• higher education
• faculty online readiness
• literature review
• equity

Declaration of interest statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and my ethical obligation as a researcher, I am reporting that I have no financial and/or business interests in this research. I am not a consultant to, nor have I received any funding from any company that may be affected by the research reported in this manuscript.

Data-availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article (please see Appendix A).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ramona Maile Cutri

Ramona Maile Cutri is an associate professor at Brigham Young University’s Teacher Education Department. Cutri’s research explores the complexities of technology integration into faculty’s daily teaching practice and how technology can facilitate the pedagogical and dispositional goals of critical multicultural teacher education.

Juanjo Mena

Juanjo Mena is an associate professor in the Department of Education at the University of Salamanca (Spain). His research focusses on mentoring and practicums, teacher education, and information and communications technology. His work on this article was performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University.