CFP: Innovation and Accountability in Foreign Language Program Evaluation

[Francis Hult]

CALL FOR PAPERS: AAUSC Volume 2014

Editors:
John Norris, Georgetown University
Nicole Mills, Harvard University

Series Editor:
Stacey Katz Bourns, Harvard University

Innovation and Accountability in Foreign Language Program Evaluation

Despite rapid globalization within contemporary society and the seemingly obvious need for the study of foreign languages and cultures, numerous post-secondary institutions are decreasing their investment in language education by closing or restructuring foreign language (FL) programs. In response to the challenge of today’s economic climate, undergraduate recruitment to foreign language degrees has dwindled, graduate programs have disappeared, and institutions have restructured independent language departments into mega-departments of languages, literatures, and cultures. Departments have also moved to hire increasing numbers of part-time and non-tenure track faculty with contractual constraints, higher teaching loads, and lower pay scales to teach and coordinate FL courses. As a result of these kinds of societal and disciplinary movements, FL programs, along with other educational sectors, are facing the increased need to engage with heretofore peripheral forces like accountability and accreditation, to express and ensure their value through outcomes assessment, and to begin to think, innovate, and behave programmatically. Key to enacting these changes systematically and effectively is heightened awareness of the importance of program evaluation, not only as a means to demonstrate how and why foreign language study is a valuable pursuit in today’s world, but also as a heuristic via by which sound improvements can be made, participants can learn, and educational relevance can be sought. Scholars and practitioners suggest that language program evaluation may allow departments and institutions to gain empirical information about the attainment of goals and outcomes, the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and a program’s congruence across the diverse areas of language learning and the complex structures of university departments. Furthermore, language program evaluation can assist language program directors (LPDs) and department chairs in demonstrating a program’s effectiveness to stakeholders like students, professors, and administrators, as well as encouraging the formulation of plans of action to enhance program achievements in the lower and upper levels of foreign language instruction.

This volume aims to provide language program directors and department chairs with contemporary approaches, tools, and recommendations for how to make the most of both internal and external evaluation as a means for identifying and acting on a program’s’ strengths and weaknesses, enabling congruence across institutional, departmental, and professional goals, and perhaps contributing to the survival of FL programs in higher education. The volume intends to address topics such as the integration of professional standards, university benchmarks, departmental goals, and outcomes assessment in language program evaluation; LPD and instructor evaluation practices; and the evaluation of the development and perspectives of language learners’ within language programs.

Some of the questions to which this volume seeks to respond include:

• What are updated and innovative guidelines, methodologies, and frameworks in language program evaluation?

• What is the relationship between institutional and/or departmental goals and language program evaluation? How can we encourage accountability from within language programs?

• What are innovative instructor evaluation practices? What role do the language program director, departmental chair, and students play in the evaluation process of tenured and non-tenured faculty members?

• How can technology play a role in language program evaluation today?

Topics that might be addressed by contributors include:

I. Methodologies, Guidelines & Frameworks in language program evaluation

a. Guidelines for the innovative design of language program evaluation
b. Evaluation of Student learning outcomes and progress
c. Instruments in language program evaluation
d. Heterogeneity of evaluation needs and approaches (ex. student self-assessment, etc.)
e. Longitudinal evaluation of language programs

II. Relationship between Institutional and Departmental goals, outcomes assessment, and language program evaluation

a. Influence of Benchmarks and standards on language program evaluation
b. Accountability to institutional and departmental goals in language program evaluation
c. The influence of student learning outcomes assessment on FL programs

III. LPD, Instructor, and TA evaluation practices and language program evaluation

a. Instructor accountability and professional development
b. Innovative approaches to LPD, instructor, and TA evaluation
c. Assessment of instructor effectiveness
d. Evaluation of language program directors and coordinators
e. Developing practitioners’ competencies in evaluation

IV. Technology-enhanced language program evaluation

a. Innovative online approaches to language program evaluation

For questions about the volume, please contact the volume editors at your earliest convenience at mills at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:mills at fas.harvard.edu> or at norrisj at georgetown.edu<mailto:norrisj at georgetown.edu>. Submission deadline for one page abstracts is March 15, 2013 and the deadline for full manuscripts is September 1, 2013. See style sheet (APA format, 5th edition) in recent issues of the AAUSC series or visit http://www.apastyle.org<http://www.apastyle.org/>.

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