Learning, Teaching & Innovative Technologies Center

Teaching Resources

Tenure and Promotion

Tags/Keywords

faculty development teaching effectiveness resources SoTL

Overview

In general, a career as a “tenure-track” faculty member in higher education is made up of four components: teaching, service to the institution, service to the community, and professional/scholarly development, which includes publishing, research and grants. The degree of emphasis placed upon on each of these areas varies. It is essential that every new faculty member obtain a copy of the guidelines for evaluation during the hiring process. At most colleges and universities, these are published. Whether published or not, the new faculty member must obtain guidance from experienced colleagues and through careful study of departmental procedures.

The moment you walk though the door it is crucial to begin to compile your professional file. This portfolio includes documentation of your ongoing professional activities in the areas of: service to the college and the community, presentations on campus and at conferences, research and publications in preparation and under review. If there is no concrete evidence that an activity actually took place, your contribution will not be recognized. (from "Getting Beyond the Academic Gatekeepers--the Tenure Process).

MTSU Resources
MTSU describes its policies/procedures for faculty on its Resources web site page.

LTITC Resources

From our library--

Baez, B., & Centra, J.A. (1995). Tenure, promotion, and reappointment: Legal and administrative applications. Washington, DC: The George Washington University Press.

Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Glassick, C., Huber, M.T., & Maeroff, G.I. (1997). Scholarship assessed: Evaluation of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Whicker, M. Kronenfeld, J., & Strickland, R. (1993). Getting tenure. New York: Sage Publications.

Lang, James M. Life on the Tenure Track: Lessons from the first year. (2005) Johns Hopkins.

Edgerton, Hutchings, Quinlan. (1991) The teaching portfolio: Capturing the scholarship in teaching. AAHE Teaching Initiative.

Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices in Student, Faculty, & Institutional Learning. (2001). Virginia: Stylus.

Teaching Tip
See our Delicious Bookmarks at http://delicious.com/LTANDITC/tenure

Online Resources: Tips and Strategies
The Evaluation of College Teaching

Ohio State University has set up an excellent portfolio workshop on its site that covers each element of the portfolio ( One of the best from the academic web).

Summary of Teaching Responsibilities
Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Rationale for Course Materials

Documenting Teaching Effectiveness

Web Resources -- links include list of teaching centers that have information on portfolios; sites that emphasize electronic portfolios; examples of actual faculty portfolios online; and course portfolios.

Assessing Teaching generally covers how teaching quality is assessed.

University of Minnesota provides an online tutorial on how to write your teaching philosophy, step by step, and includes samples from a range of disciplines.One of the best from the academic web.

Online Publications: Viewpoints, Articles, Books...
Ohio State University provides Additional Readings on the teaching portfolio.

Assembling Your Teaching Portfolio--excellent pdf from Brown University faculty handbook demonstrates method for documenting your teaching experience.

MLA 2005 Report on Tenure & Promotion

Family Friendly Tenure Policies--Stop the Clock. article from Inside Higher Ed, Jan 2009.

Understanding the Promotion & Tenure Process is a conversion of a presentation given at the Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position Workshop on October 14-16, 2007. It was compiled by Karen Butler-Purry (Texas A & M), Jason Hafner (Physics & Astronomy), Kathleen Matthews (Natural Sciences), and Jennifer West (Bioengineering). This module is located on the cnx.org (Connexions) site.

Berk, R.A. (2005) Survey of 12 Strategies to Measure Teaching Effectiveness. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 17 (1): 49-62. Retrieved at http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE8.pdf on June 6, 2007.

Carnegie Mellon's Eberly Teaching Center provides a pdf on documenting teaching effectiveness which includes multidisciplinary examples .

Faculty Development Materials from a variety of colleges and universities.

The Chronicle has a vast number of articles for its
regular column, the Tenure Track at

http://chronicle.com/jobs/sidecol_library/tenuretrack.htm