The Career Pathways of Non-tenure-track Full-time Engineering Faculty

Cliff Fitzmorris; Deborah A. Trytten; Randa L. Shehab

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Perspectives on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Beyond the Undergraduate Years
Tagged Topics: Diversity and ASEE Diversity Committee
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--31081
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/31081
Download Count: 437

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Paper Authors

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Cliff Fitzmorris University of Oklahoma

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Cliff Fitzmorris is a lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. He was a practicing engineer in the telecom industry for fifteen years before joining the University of Oklahoma as an adjunct instructor, later transitioning to a full-time non-tenure-track teaching role.

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Deborah A. Trytten University of Oklahoma

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Dr. Deborah A. Trytten is a President's Associates Presidential Professor and Associate Professor of Computer Science and Adjunct Associate Professor of Womens' and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Her main research focus is diversity in engineering education and introductory software engineering education.

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Randa L. Shehab University of Oklahoma

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Dr. Randa L. Shehab is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Gallogly College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. She also serves as the Director of the Sooner Engineering Education Center dedicated to engineering education related initiatives and research focused on building diversity and enhancing the educational experience for all engineering students. Dr. Shehab teaches courses in engineering orientation, ergonomics, work methods, experimental design, and statistical analysis. Her current research is with the Research Institute for STEM Education, a multi-disciplinary research group investigating factors related to equity and diversity in engineering student populations.

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Abstract

The Career Pathways of Non-Tenure-Track Full-Time Engineering Faculty

Roughly 10% of full-time engineering faculty members in the United States are not in tenure-track positions. The increasing use of non-tenure-track faculty, especially in teaching roles, has caused concerns about the quality of instruction and the commitment of non-tenure-track faculty to their students and institutions. Early studies characterized non-tenure-track faculty as contingent workers, showing that student learning is negatively impacted because non-tenure-track faculty spend less time with students, are less likely to use active learning techniques, have lower expectations for their students, and spend less time preparing for courses. The results may be caused by the non-tenure-track faculty themselves or by their environment which typically provides fewer resources and less support to them as compared to their tenured or tenure-track counterparts. More recently, the modeling of non-tenure-track faculty as contingent workers has been questioned by researchers who call for new theoretical models with which to view non-tenure-track faculty and their contributions to student learning, noting that previous studies had been unduly influenced by the preconceived notions of the authors and often relied on a deficit model. Instead of viewing the increasing use of teaching faculty as a threat to the tenure system, non-tenure-track faculty can increase the diversity of the faculty, bringing new experiences and viewpoints into the classroom, enhancing student learning. These new theoretical frameworks can be drawn from the experience of the non-tenure-track faculty themselves using an inductive, qualitative approach. Inductive approaches have been fruitful, revealing that non-tenure-track faculty are a diverse group, choosing academic careers for different reasons and following a wide variety of pathways into the career. Department cultures vary in their support of non-tenure-track faculty and include destructive, neutral, inclusive, and learning cultures, each culture having specific effects on student learning. These new approaches have yielded recommendations to improve the departmental culture for all faculty, including non-tenure-track faculty. This qualitative study consists of interviews with ten full-time non-tenure-track faculty members who teach in the engineering colleges of large, public, Midwestern, research universities. The interviews explore each faculty member’s professional and academic experience prior to teaching, their experience of the recruitment and hiring process, their expectations and concerns about becoming a full-time engineering faculty member, and their motivation for accepting the position. We examine their departmental culture to see what aspects fit the destructive, neutral, inclusive, and learning cultures. We found that in general the participants in this study had significant industry experience which they bring into the classroom, that they are intrinsically motivated to teach, and that the departmental cultures in which they work are varied with all four departmental culture types represented. We found these ten participants to be committed to their students and institutions. Understanding the pathways to becoming full-time, non-tenure-track faculty members and the departmental cultures in which they work enhances student learning by allowing engineering programs to design recruitment and hiring policies that attract and retain non-tenure-track faculty members with the professional skills and varied backgrounds that are characteristic of this diverse group.

Citation
Format

Fitzmorris, C., & Trytten, D. A., & Shehab, R. L. (2018, June), The Career Pathways of Non-tenure-track Full-time Engineering Faculty Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--31081

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The Career Pathways of Non-Tenure-Track Full-Time Engineering Faculty

Roughly 10% of full-time engineering faculty members in the United States are not in tenure-track positions. The increasing use of non-tenure-track faculty, especially in teaching roles, has caused concerns about the quality of instruction and the commitment of non-tenure-track faculty to their students and institutions. 
Early studies characterized non-tenure-track faculty as contingent workers, showing that student learning is negatively impacted because non-tenure-track faculty spend less time with students, are less likely to use active learning techniques, have lower expectations for their students, and spend less time preparing for courses. The results may be caused by the non-tenure-track faculty themselves or by their environment which typically provides fewer resources and less support to them as compared to their tenured or tenure-track counterparts.
More recently, the modeling of non-tenure-track faculty as contingent workers has been questioned by researchers who call for new theoretical models with which to view non-tenure-track faculty and their contributions to student learning, noting that previous studies had been unduly influenced by the preconceived notions of the authors and often relied on a deficit model. Instead of viewing the increasing use of teaching faculty as a threat to the tenure system, non-tenure-track faculty can increase the diversity of the faculty, bringing new experiences and viewpoints into the classroom, enhancing student learning. These new theoretical frameworks can be drawn from the experience of the non-tenure-track faculty themselves using an inductive, qualitative approach.
Inductive approaches have been fruitful, revealing that non-tenure-track faculty are a diverse group, choosing academic careers for different reasons and following a wide variety of pathways into the career. Department cultures vary in their support of non-tenure-track faculty and include destructive, neutral, inclusive, and learning cultures, each culture having specific effects on student learning. These new approaches have yielded recommendations to improve the departmental culture for all faculty, including non-tenure-track faculty.
This qualitative study consists of interviews with ten full-time non-tenure-track faculty members who teach in the engineering colleges of large, public, Midwestern, research universities. The interviews explore each faculty member’s professional and academic experience prior to teaching, their experience of the recruitment and hiring process, their expectations and concerns about becoming a full-time engineering faculty member, and their motivation for accepting the position. We examine their departmental culture to see what aspects fit the destructive, neutral, inclusive, and learning cultures.
We found that in general the participants in this study had significant industry experience which they bring into the classroom, that they are intrinsically motivated to teach, and that the departmental cultures in which they work are varied with all four departmental culture types represented. We found these ten participants to be committed to their students and institutions.
Understanding the pathways to becoming full-time, non-tenure-track faculty members and the departmental cultures in which they work enhances student learning by allowing engineering programs to design recruitment and hiring policies that attract and retain non-tenure-track faculty members with the professional skills and varied backgrounds that are characteristic of this diverse group.

AU  - Cliff Fitzmorris
AU  - Deborah A. Trytten
AU  - Randa L. Shehab
CY  - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA  - 2018/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - The Career Pathways of Non-tenure-track Full-time Engineering Faculty
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/31081
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--31081
ER  -