Key considerations for developing an equitable faculty teaching workload.

PURPOSE: Faculty teaching workload has become a focus for many academic institutions given the increasing amount of faculty burnout and need for equitable distribution of effort. Many gaps exist in faculty workload guidance which contribute to decreased faculty productivity, lack of appropriate recognition, faculty burnout, and subsequently, retention of faculty. A task force was created to develop teaching workload guidance and to outline minimum teaching expectations at our school of pharmacy. DESCRIPTION: This manuscript highlights the need for clarity around the definition of roles of the contemporary educator and considerations when developing guidance around teaching workload expectations using the "What? So What? Now What?" reflection framework. ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION: Teaching workload guidance first starts with establishing a definition of the contemporary roles of the educator. Challenges, considerations, and eight next steps are outlined that are critical to address before equitable teaching workload guidance is established. CONCLUSIONS: Teaching workload guidance should include transparency, clarity, credit, norms, context, and accountability. Additionally, solutions created to address the gaps in workload policies should be data driven. IMPLICATIONS: The current traditional system of evaluating faculty workload has many gaps due to forces driving change in pharmacy education. Roles of the pharmacy educator should be valued and recognized across all mission centric learning programs.

Defining contemporary roles of the pharmacy educator: The essential first step in developing equitable faculty teaching workload.

INTRODUCTION: Faculty workload policy has gained increased attention recently given the growing amount of faculty burnout leading to decreased productivity, worsened faculty morale, and impaired retention. Faculty are one of the most valuable resources of an academic institution; thus, it is essential that a clear picture of the "jobs to be done" are defined and valued. PERSPECTIVE: The approach of a task force charged with developing a teaching workload policy is described. Through this work, it was recognized that essential roles of the contemporary pharmacy educator have not been defined, resulting in workload policies that might only value and recognize "traditional" educator roles. This led the task force to evaluate the forces driving change in education and to identify the roles of faculty as educators. The stepwise approach used to define nine essential roles of contemporary pharmacy educators is described. IMPLICATIONS: Roles of the educator have become more complex, and traditional definitions of these roles do not recognize and value the multifaceted nature of the job to be done. Consideration of contemporary definitions of educator roles is a critical first step for developing workload policies. The new definition of educator roles will allow the academic institution to have more clarity around total teaching effort and recognize the value faculty provide the institution. We believe this is the essential first step for the Academy when developing teaching workload policies that are fair and equitable, while also understanding the overall faculty needs for executing their educational enterprise.