Career In Higher Education Research Articles

Pedagogical Deficiencies in Political Science Doctoral Programs: Current Practices or Lack Thereof

Over a decade ago Ishiyama, Miles, and Balarezo (2010) published their work on the pedagogical training opportunities for political science doctoral students in the United States. The authors surveyed PhD-granting political science departments and found that pedagogical training for doctoral students was scant. Despite its age, the work remains influential and cited by scholars concerned with the state of teaching-training in the discipline. In this paper I uncover that little progress has been made in training opportunities for political science graduate students. Interviews with faculty in 66 PhD-granting departments reveal that less than a fifth of departments require students to complete credit-bearing courses and a plurality require no pedagogical training. Several departments have outsourced pedagogical training and do not maintain data on student completion. As such, many graduate students remain inadequately prepared for careers in higher education. I conclude by echoing colleagues who call for increased attention on pedagogical training, and for a benefit structure rewarding high quality teaching.

Encouraging a Unified Framework for Understanding Socialization Into Higher Education

Over the past few decades, scholars have directed increasing attention toward the socialization of physical education faculty members’ recruitment, preparation, and ongoing socialization. Parallel research trajectories have, however, resulted in varied approaches to conceptualizing and labeling the phases or types of socialization experienced by this occupational group. With the view of academic journals as spaces for discourse surrounding divergent approaches to conceptualizing and conducting research, the purpose of this research note was to overview two contrasting conceptualizations of physical education teacher education faculty socialization and propose a unified approach for moving forward in future research. Differing perspectives are reviewed, and an updated conceptual framework for understanding socialization into and through academic roles is proposed. We argue that this model better captures the diversity in and provides flexibility for the backgrounds that draw individuals into careers in higher education and their experiences once serving among the faculty in academia.

Psychological career pre-occupation and social connectedness in Ghanaian education staff’s career management

Purpose: This study examines the interplay of psychosocial career pre-occupation, social connectedness, and organisational commitment in higher education and offers insights for academia and practitioners. It also explores the impact of gender, job level, and the moderating effect of psychosocial career pre-occupation on employees’ commitment in this sector.Design/methodology/approach: A purposeful sample of 288 senior academic and administrative staff, mostly married males aged 31–40 years, completed the Psychosocial Career Pre-occupation Scale (PCOS), Workplace Friendship Scale (WFS), and Organisational Commitment Scale (OCS).Findings/results: Significant relationships were found among psychosocial career pre-occupation, social connectedness, and organisational commitment in higher education. Moderated analysis revealed predictive roles of gender, job level, and psychosocial career pre-occupation on organisational commitment, and illuminating sector dynamics.Practical implications: For human resource managers and practitioners in Ghana’s public higher education, this study offers insights to boost workforce commitment and engagement, which is vital for national progress.Originality/value: By validating essential elements of career self-management practices, this research extends career construction theory, enriching understanding and fostering professionals’ careers in higher education. It contributes to practical applications and scholarly knowledge by providing a deepening insight into organisational dynamics in this sector.

Counteroffers for faculty at research universities: who gets them, who doesn’t, and what factors produce them?

AbstractIn US higher education, faculty members may receive an outside offer of employment from an external organization, and then receive a corresponding counteroffer from their current institution. Counteroffers are written contracts made to individuals — either prematurely in anticipation of an outside offer, but most often after an outside offer — that outline improved salary, benefits, and/or other employment conditions with the hopes of retaining them. Though the norm of the “retention offer” is pervasive in the academy, in practice it can be much more nebulous, inefficient, discretionary, and inequitable. Few studies, however, empirically examine this process. In this study, we analyze quantitative institutional and survey data collected from 650 faculty by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) to explore whether certain populations of faculty are more likely to receive counteroffers, and why. We found that women and racially minoritized scholars were less likely to receive counteroffers, and identified other factors that impact reception of counteroffers like faculty members’ desire to leave and their notification of leadership. We conclude by situating findings within extant research and offering implications for future research on counteroffers and their practice in faculty retention.

Experts’ adaptation of apt epistemic performance: The role of practical knowledge

ABSTRACT Background Today’s complex information environment requires effective navigation and analysis of multiple sources to make reliable decisions about complex topics. Learners must enact thinking that reliably leads to well-justified decisions, adapt thinking to specific problems and contexts, and recognize the limits of their existing knowledge (i.e. demonstrate fully apt epistemic performance). Experts can enact such performance in their own discipline but questions of whether and how they adapt that expertise to other disciplines remain. More research is needed regarding whether and how experts adapt disciplinary knowledge to tasks for which they have practical knowledge. Methods We used inductive coding to analyze think-aloud data gathered from professors from a variety of disciplines (i.e. education, social sciences, and natural sciences) as they read and responded to a flipped classroom pedagogy scenario. Findings Education experts demonstrated fully apt epistemic performance and more nuanced conclusions than other participants. The social and natural scientists successfully adapted their epistemic performance grounded in practical knowledge, particularly about statistics and higher education careers, to their analysis of the scenario. However, natural scientists overgeneralized their research methods knowledge, demonstrating lower epistemic meta-competence. Contribution Our findings suggest ways in which practical knowledge supports or hinders adaptation of epistemic performance.

Addressing gender in STEM classrooms: The impact of gender bias on women scientists' experiences in higher education careers in Germany

AbstractGender bias underlying discrimination against women are particularly salient in STEM higher education. Complementing top-down measures to mitigate these issues identified in the extant literature, we aim to highlight a complementary bottom-up approach. First, to elicit gender stereotypes and gender bias in STEM, we conducted a group concept mapping (GCM) study involving women professors, teaching staff, and scientific staff from different STEM disciplines at German universities (N = 70). We first asked them to provide statements reflecting their experience in response to the following focus prompt: ‘In my career as a STEM teacher, I experienced gender issues related to:’ Experts were then asked to thematically cluster and rank the statements according to their importance and feasibility with respect to a potential pedagogical intervention that may target these issues. Findings revealed an agreement across STEM disciplines regarding stereotypical beliefs about women, heteronomous gender roles, gender workload, sexism, and structural power relations, in that they remain significant factors for hindering female success in STEM careers in higher education. Based on their experience, however, the women saw potential in working on the awareness of gender bias with pedagogical interventions in online group learning scenarios (CSCL). Statements rated most appropriate were discussed in the light of the aspects of gender bias addressed, with a specific focus on addressing them in collaborative scripts.

Apprenticeship of Observation in Kinesiology: Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Faculty Roles

ABSTRACT While kinesiology scholars have focused on how future faculty members are socialized, recruited into, and prepared for academia, limited attention has been given to the apprenticeship of observation for faculty roles when college students first develop impressions and initial understandings of faculty work. This qualitative study aimed to understand undergraduate kinesiology students’ perceptions and beliefs about faculty roles and careers in higher education. Data were collected from 58 undergraduate kinesiology students at a large doctoral-granting institution in the Midwest region of the U.S. The findings were communicated through three themes: (a) incomplete understanding of faculty work limits motivation to pursue faculty careers; (b) positive associations but distal relationships with faculty through coursework; and (c) research involvement fosters an understanding of research process and faculty work. This study has implications not only for the recruitment and socialization of future faculty, but also for building public trust in kinesiology and higher education.

Is it time for a new job or career?

By the time I was 20, I knew I wanted a career in higher education. I met with a dean at my junior college and thought his job was something I’d like to do.

National Policies Supporting Gender Equality in Academic Careers: Are the “Global Leaders” Doing What It Takes?

ABSTRACT National policies used to advance gender equality in academic careers in higher education in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, are examined based on publicly available documents from 1990 to 2023. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from public policy research and feminist political theory, we investigate to what extent policies are likely to lead to organizational transformation, in line with the intentions of gender mainstreaming. The analysis maps the policy instruments according to their behavioral assumptions, as well as the type of gender equality strategy they entail. The analysis suggests that policies aiming at organizational transformation typically are associated with weak policy instruments where it is up to the individual institution to decide how to implement them. This makes policy instruments particularly sensitive to contestations over the prioritization of goals and power relations in the organization. The analysis suggests that gender mainstreaming policies lack sufficient constraint and/or accountability to lead consistently to organizational transformation.

Pathways of Women Who Are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing to Faculty Careers in Higher Education

Pathways of Women Who Are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing to Faculty Careers in Higher Education

The Crisis of Transcendent Values: Higher Education at a Crossroads

ABSTRACT The faith in progress that propelled the West for over four centuries is in decline due to its own success. The emergence of capitalism with its novel market imperatives has created both the poverty that causes political crises and the material growth that has destabilized the Earth’s climate. There is a growing sense that we are dominated by the technologies and social organizations that we hoped would liberate us. Individualism and secularity have left people feeling isolated and without a sense of higher purpose, leading some to reject Enlightenment values in favor of traditionalisms and even neofascism. In universities, faculty struggle to prove their utility and relevance, because they cannot guarantee their graduates a decent living in a world of automation and globalized production. As a result of these trends, the West’s ability to produce responsible citizens is in question. Our students are largely inured to appeals to transcendent values because they are urged to be “practical.” Faculty are no longer encouraged to care about the character-building nature of a liberal education. United States universities are in danger of not having an independent voice, as those departments that can consistently get major external funding seek commercial applications for the products of their research. In the United States, ideologically based harassment and censorship of unpopular ideas takes place regularly and is a major deterrent to pursuing a career in higher education. Given these challenges, can intellectuals still make a difference in universities? Many have taken to social media and other ways of getting their ideas around the increasingly steep paywalls of academic publications and the de facto censorship in their institutions. Some of the most vibrant exchanges of ideas are now happening in other places, largely online. These venues draw in people who are trying their best to learn something they are unlikely to learn at universities. But are such alternatives truly sustainable or good enough? Higher education is at a crossroads in which even this “retreat and regroup” strategy is highly problematic.

Higher education careers in the National University of Itapúa, 2019

Este trabajo se propone describir y analizar los principales elementos resultantes de una investigación orientada a caracterizar la demanda de carreras de grado de la educación superior en Paraguay, priorizando la demanda sobre la educación universitaria pública en los distritos con sede y filiales de la Universidad Nacional de Itapúa. El estudio se llevó a cabo en el segundo semestre de 2019, suponiendo la colecta de información mediante cuestionario estructurado en colegios representativos de Itapúa, como una aproximación a las intenciones de continuar estudios superiores, las carreras elegidas y las universidades previsualizadas. Los datos muestran que la demanda de educación superior se encuentra fuertemente condicionada por la escasa capacidad del subsistema educativo básico y medio para retener la población ingresante, la des- igualdad de oportunidades originadas en la estructura social, así como de la relación entre cupos ofertados, preinscritos e ingresantes a la educación de grado universitario. La descentralización de la oferta educativa por parte de la UNI representa un esquema válido para acercar las ofertas de carreras y titulación a la población en edad de educación superior en los treinta distritos del Departamento, aunque requiere ajustes para su maximización. Los resultados podrían contribuir a la toma de decisiones para la mejora continua de la educación y con la satisfacción de las necesidades de la población. Se concluye en que la descentralización de las carreras de la UNI acerca las posibilidades de estudio a la población, sin embargo, esta situación no es suficiente para llegar a toda la población con interés de estudiar, existen barreras en cuanto al transporte y los recursos económicos para hacer frente a los costos de estudio. Es necesaria la sistematización de la información que sirva de base a este tipo de investigaciones, y profundizar dentro de los datos sistematizados o bien, ir en busca de nuevos elementos que permitan comprender con mayor seguridad el porqué de los datos que acaban de presentarse y analizarse.

Imagining a Higher Education Career in African American Studies

This article was written during the 2020 summer seminar “Imagining a Higher Education Career in African American Studies” at Princeton University, coordinated by Dr. Dannelle Gutarra Cordero. This summer seminar aimed to be a safe and restorative space for ten undergraduate students of Princeton University from underrepresented backgrounds that intend to pursue or explore a career in higher education in African American Studies. This article is the culmination of the scholarly collaboration throughout this summer seminar, where, as research associates, all participants researched the possibilities and challenges of a higher education career in African American Studies in the United States. This article explores institutional anti-Blackness in higher education in the United States, identifies research challenges for scholars of African American Studies, and advocates for educational reform in the institutional valuation of mentorship, of decolonizing academia, of tenure justice, and of anti-racist and reparative support for Black faculty and students.

Washing Up: Deciding on a Career in Higher Education

Scholars have identified Physical Education (PE) as a marginalized subject within schools. This may lead to feelings of isolation, marginalization and reality shock and may end in washing out of best practice or exiting from the profession altogether. Some Physical Educators choose to leave the K-12 classroom and pursue a career in teacher education. The authors have conceptualized the upward movement into Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) as “washing up”. This phenomenon is examined through the lens of Occupational Socialization Theory (OST) to better understand PETE doctoral students and PETE faculty members’ career paths. Two types of trajectories for DPETE students and PETE faculty are discussed. Type 1 have had no K12 teaching experience, whereas Type 2 have had at least 1 year of K-12 teaching experience. This manuscript is the beginning of a conversation to better understand career paths in PETE with numerous implications for research.

(In)visibility to Advocacy: The Insider–Outsider Experiences of AfroLatinX Higher Education Professionals

ABSTRACT Despite the racial, ethnic, linguistic, geographic, and cultural heterogeneity of LatinXs, extant educational research positions them as a monoracial, and oftentimes monolithic, group. Most research on LatinXs primarily focuses on mestizX-identified individuals. Inadvertently, the presence and experiences AfroLatinXs have largely been invisibilized. The limited research on AfroLatinXs in higher education mostly presents the experiences of students. Minimal published empirical research centers on the lived experiences of AfroLatinXs working in higher education. This study seeks to address this gap by exploring the racialized educational and professional experiences of self-identified AfroLatinX higher education professionals. Findings reveal how they experience an outsider–insider paradox that amounts to (in)visibility, lack of recognition in both Black and LatinX circles, and how language is utilized as a tool of exclusion and inclusion. Collaborators underscore how their racialized experiences motivated them to pursue a career in higher education.

Systematic Review: AI's Impact on Higher Education - Learning, Teaching, and Career Opportunities

AI is transforming many fields, including higher education. The pandemic has shown how AI can improve learning and teaching in higher education. This review examines how AI affects education quality, learning assessment, and higher education jobs (HE). The study employs a systematic qualitative method to review the academic literature on AI and higher education between 1900 and 2021. The data was gathered from various sources, including ERIC, Scopus, and the Web of Science, using specific exclusion and inclusion criteria centred on publication date, language, reported outcomes, setting, and publication type. From there on, the articles were analysed by Rayyan Software and categorised in Excel according to a scale that included aspects such as the quality of learning and teaching, assessment, and potential ethical future careers. The research also produced two bibliometric figures using VOSviewer to investigate co-authorship and the frequency of keyword occurrences in academic journals published in AI and HE. The analysis was done to ensure the study's validity in the scientific community. The study found that AI can improve education quality, provide practical learning and teaching methods, and improve assessments to better prepare students for careers. The study also emphasises the potential of AI to shape future employment opportunities and the need for higher education institutions to adopt AI to meet market demands. The study calls for more research on AI's effects on assessment, integrity, and higher education careers.

Fostering effective and wholesome learning experiences: educators’ reflections during the late career stage

PurposeThe article discusses salient factors related to fostering effective and wholesome learning experiences. These factors, based on the reflective insights of the authors, are discussed with the intent of encouraging further discussion and exploration that may contribute to even more effective and more wholesome learning experiences. In addition, these insights are shared with the intent of assisting new or emerging educators/trainers in facilitating effective and wholesome learning experiences.Design/methodology/approachThe tone of the article is reflective in nature, summarizing key insights of the authors gleaned from over 40 collective years in higher education, as well as two decades of work-related experience in the corporate world.FindingsThe insights and reflections during the later stage of the authors’ careers in higher education led to the identification of five major themes or factors related to facilitating effective and wholesome learning experiences. These include: 1. Relevant and Applicable; 2. Engagement, Interaction, and Critical Thinking; 3. Organization and Clarity; 4. Fostering Trust Through Communication, Responsiveness, and Feedback; 5. Flexibility and AugmentationOriginality/valueWhile many of the factors highlighted in the article align with related literature, the reflective insights of the authors contribute to a more nuanced discussion of several factors. The nuanced nature of the discussion is influenced by the collective experiences of the authors from over 40 years of collective experience in higher education, combined with 20 years of collective experience in the corporate world.

Not only enrollment and retention: comparing the study trajectories at German universities and Universities of Applied Sciences

ABSTRACT While there is an existing scholarly debate on whether less research-oriented universities disrupt or enable higher education success, we know less about students’ actual study patterns beyond static indicators, such as completion or dropout. To address this gap, this article analyzes the study trajectories of bachelor’s students at German universities and Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs). As a methodological contribution, study trajectories are reconstructed using sequence analysis, thereby providing a holistic perspective over a period of more than five years using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) – a panel study that follows first-time higher education students throughout their higher education career. This study finds that UAS students are more likely than university students to experience linear study trajectories, whereas university students more often experience discontinuous trajectories. This finding remains robust against differences in individual student characteristics, including access pathways. Thus, this study concludes that studying at a UAS safeguards against engaging in detours or long and winding study trajectories.

The Effects of USR and Its Communication on Faculty Satisfaction

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship of University Social Responsibility (USR) initiatives, its social media communication and faculty satisfaction. The increasing importance of USR for stakeholders is reflected in relevant rankings, accreditation institutions, and the expectations of faculty and students. However, most researchers have ignored this topic. This study adopted social identity theory to explore the effects of USR on faculty satisfaction. We surveyed 107 academics from top 50 business schools listed in the Financial Times. Our survey was based on the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) scale and a pre-established USR scale. Using the PLS-SEM analysis, we found that the relationship between USR communication and the general satisfaction of faculty is mediated through the faculty’s satisfaction with university management.

Transitioning to Academic Librarianship from Outside the Profession

Even with experience, transferable skills, and education, a new job always has a learning curve. When the new job is also part of a new career in higher education, the curve is often steeped with different expectations, communication practices, and workplace culture in general. As two academic librarians who previously worked in other fields, we have discussed our observations with other second-career librarians and noticed some similarities. In this column, we share our perspectives on the differences in work procedures and culture. We hope these considerations will be helpful to librarians entering the profession, to their colleagues, and to supervisors.