Balancing Faculty Autonomy With Collaboration, Course Updates, and Consistency in Core Courses: Recommendations for Teaching Teams and Administrators of Schools and Programs of Public Health.

This article focuses on strategies and recommendations for coordinating and improving the teaching of Master of Public Health (MPH) core courses, specifically within a multidisciplinary teaching team at Boston University School of Public Health. It describes four coordination strategies—common course materials, regular instructional team meetings, immediate post-class teacher reflections, and individual syllabus and semester review interviews—used to balance faculty autonomy, content consistency, time constraints, and accreditation requirements from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). The analysis led to seven recommendations aimed at enhancing collaboration, leadership, reflection, faculty development, student support, class engagement, and balancing autonomy with consistency in team-taught core courses. These findings are intended to assist teaching teams and administrators in public health programs seeking to provide equitable, high-quality foundational education while respecting academic freedom.