ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a historical grounding of the literature on faculty development and practice. Such a historical overview highlights challenges and opportunities facing higher education and the ways in which faculty development research and practice is subsequently influenced. The chapter offers a brief chronological overview of the faculty development field, with an emphasis on the work of Sorcinelli, Austin, Eddy, and Beach; then discusses the trends in higher education that have influenced the faculty development field, and briefly highlights existing and emerging areas in faculty development research and practice. The field of faculty development emerged in the 1950s and 1960s during a time of great social and economic turbulence in US higher education. The chapter concludes with an examination of mid-career faculty scholarship and the contribution of this volume to the broader conversation regarding the mid-career faculty stage and the field of faculty development.
