Collaboration and Community-Building in Graduate Teaching Certificates: Insights from Duke University's CCT Program.
This chapter examines Duke University’s Certificate in College Teaching (CCT) as a case study in how program impact is discovered through practice rather than predetermined by design. The CCT’s defining features—interdisciplinary coursework, peer observation through Teaching Triangles, and reflective teaching portfolios—emerged in response to local conditions and constraints. Drawing on nine years of program evaluation and reflective analysis, including findings previously published in Greene, Goldwasser, and Crumley (2025), the chapter traces how faculty resistance, student anxiety, and interdisciplinary collaboration became sources of insight and change. Participant voices illustrate how the CCT has shaped teaching identity, built cross-disciplinary communities of practice, and influenced departmental and institutional culture. Framed as a practitioner narrative rather than a research report, the chapter situates Duke’s experience within the wider landscape of graduate teaching certificates and reflects on how small, trust-based structures can generate lasting cultural impact.
