What counts in the Tenure Process: Teacher Perceptions of the Scholarship of Teaching and its Relationship to Faculty Promotion
Location
1048
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
Boyer’s (1990) groundbreaking work has identified that scholarship should have four separate yet overlapping meanings: the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, and the scholarship of teaching. Boyer’s purpose was to highlight teaching, suggesting that excellent teaching is marked by the same habits that are characteristics of other types of scholarly work. Cardinal Stritch University has adopted the Boyer model, but how that model has been defined and used by the four colleges has been unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method design was to understand Cardinal Stritch University faculty’s perceptions of the Scholarship of Teaching and its relationship to the current tenure promotion process. As researchers and scholars, we engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching conversation with a primary question: ‘what counts as scholarship’ and how do faculty in our four colleges define it? We do not wish to further “codify teaching and learning practices” (Servage, 2009, p. 27), but rather grapple with the complexities embedded in 1) the act of categorize teaching and learning and 2) applying traditional standards for the inclusion or exclusion of teaching practices in rank and tenure promotion. Our questions are important particularly for institutions that honor and endorse innovative teaching as delivered through both traditional and non-traditional methods.
This paper describes a research project undertaken in the 2015-2016 academic year to explores faculty members' understanding of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at a small, private university that has recently adopted the Boyer model. The paper describes the process used to gain faculty input, the topic's relationship to rank and tenure, the results, and intended recommendations of the group conducting the project.
Keywords
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Faculty Research, Promotion and Tenure
What counts in the Tenure Process: Teacher Perceptions of the Scholarship of Teaching and its Relationship to Faculty Promotion
1048
Boyer’s (1990) groundbreaking work has identified that scholarship should have four separate yet overlapping meanings: the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, and the scholarship of teaching. Boyer’s purpose was to highlight teaching, suggesting that excellent teaching is marked by the same habits that are characteristics of other types of scholarly work. Cardinal Stritch University has adopted the Boyer model, but how that model has been defined and used by the four colleges has been unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method design was to understand Cardinal Stritch University faculty’s perceptions of the Scholarship of Teaching and its relationship to the current tenure promotion process. As researchers and scholars, we engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching conversation with a primary question: ‘what counts as scholarship’ and how do faculty in our four colleges define it? We do not wish to further “codify teaching and learning practices” (Servage, 2009, p. 27), but rather grapple with the complexities embedded in 1) the act of categorize teaching and learning and 2) applying traditional standards for the inclusion or exclusion of teaching practices in rank and tenure promotion. Our questions are important particularly for institutions that honor and endorse innovative teaching as delivered through both traditional and non-traditional methods.
This paper describes a research project undertaken in the 2015-2016 academic year to explores faculty members' understanding of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at a small, private university that has recently adopted the Boyer model. The paper describes the process used to gain faculty input, the topic's relationship to rank and tenure, the results, and intended recommendations of the group conducting the project.
Comments
Breakout Session A