Is There a Better Model for Promotion and Tenure Preparation and Evaluation of Geoscience Education Researchers in Geoscience Departments?

Abstract

The need to support and strengthen the geoscience education research (GER) community of practice is a theme that emerged from recent surveys and community discussions. A 2014 survey of members by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) Geoscience Education Research Division indicated that respondents (Lukes et al., 2015) felt there is a need to raise the perceived value of GER. This concept was further explored at a workshop for geoscience education researchers that took place at the 2015 Earth Educators Rendezvous. An 11 member working group in the ''Synthesizing Geoscience Education Research'' workshop (http://serc.carleton.edu/ earth_rendezvous/2015/morning_workshops/w3/index. html) addressed the question: What are the priorities for promoting and supporting geoscience education researchers? In response, the need for ''outreach'' to non-GER colleagues to elevate the value of GER, especially with respect to promotion and tenure preparation and evaluation, was raised. This idea of outreach to non-GER colleagues is consistent with suggestions made in a recent editorial on ways in which tenure-track geoscience education researchers can be proactive in communicating to their colleagues about what they do and why it is important (St. John, 2015).We know the GER field is growing-there are over 14 geoscience graduate programs that include GER as a field of graduate study. Tenure-track position announcements for GER are becoming more common, and many of those positions are in programs where the GER faculty member may be the only discipline-based education researcher in their department or college. As others have pointed out, this creates the potential for GER marginalization and isolation in the geoscience programs (Singer et al., 2012; Feig, 2013; Lukes, 2015; Lukes et al., 2015). In addition, the likelihood that promotion and tenure (PT to place specialties in a larger context; and to share results in ways that could also educate nonspecialists. …