Pedagogical Possibilities: Working at Teaching-Oriented Institutions

Abstract

Teaching-oriented sounds like second best. The lucky graduate students get jobs in top research universities. This paper calls into question the value system underlying these two statements. I was a lucky new PhD in 1984, landing my first job at a Research I institu tion, Carnegie Mellon University. And while I spent eight highly productive and successful years working there, I left voluntarily, in part because of the limits that the institutional values of a research university put on assumptions about the undergraduate classroom and the faculty's teaching habits and practices. In how many research universities would a scene like the following be characteristic? A promising assistant professor of English with positive teaching evaluations and a strong record of scholarly publication is sched uled to come up for tenure and promotion. The dean of the college calls the young faculty member in for what is to be a reassuring chat, since the dean is in the happy position of being able to say that a positive outcome is all but certain. Let's suppose that this soon-to-be associate professor has strong in terests in composition and undergraduate teaching and has worked as part of the faculty leadership group administering and teaching in the university's freshman English program. How lucky, the dean offhandedly observes, that the candidate has such a strong record of scholarly publication, so that the two freshman textbooks and extensive consulting with the local schools that