Mid-career Faculty Members Research Articles

“We have limited time, so it's a zero-sum game”: Influence of secondary organizational socialization on the forms of physical education teacher education provided by European, Asian, and North American-based mid-career faculty members

The purpose of this study was to describe the influence of secondary organizational socialization on six mid-career faculty members’ provision of physical education teacher education (PETE). The specific research questions we sought to answer were: (a) what forms of PETE did mid-career faculty members provide for their preservice teachers? and (b) what factors aided or undermined mid-career faculty members’ provision of PETE? The faculty members worked in universities situated on three continents. The primary data source was a semi-structured interview with each faculty member. Optional supplementary data were supplied by three of the participants in the form of artifacts and film. Data were reduced to themes through analytic induction and constant comparison. Key findings were that faculty members provided two forms of PETE that were combinations of the critical-inquiry, traditional/craft, personalistic, and behavioristic orientations to teacher education. Three faculty members worked in what they perceived to be negative cultures, two in positive cultures, and one in a neutral culture. All six faculty members worked in what they perceived to be unfavorable conditions. Collectively, this situation made it difficult for faculty members to provide PETE as they intended. Faculty members dealt with adverse cultures and conditions by attempting to strategically redefine them or by strategically complying with them. The findings of the study may help to improve the culture and conditions in which sport pedagogy faculty members work, negate the effects of reality shock on neophyte faculty members, and promote faculty members’ thinking about the forms of PETE they provide.

Advancing scholarly excellence at midcareer: the influence of exceptional others on faculty professional growth

PurposeThere is a need to support midcareer faculty who have demonstrated scholarly success but require additional development. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of an initiative for “star faculty” at midcareer, with an emphasis on the role of exceptional others in their professional growth.Design/methodology/approachThis is an exploratory, single-site case study of a midcareer faculty excellence initiative. Data sources include document/site analysis and individual interviews.FindingsFindings reveal the value of “exceptional others” in professional growth among high-performing midcareer faculty. Perceptions about excellence at midcareer emerged as an antecedent to developing midcareer faculty members. Analysis generated themes in behaviors related to supporting midcareer scholars’ professional growth.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is an initial step toward refining concepts such as exceptional others, academic stars and scholarly advancement within the academy. There is a need for equity-minded research about these topics. In addition to replication across institutional and disciplinary contexts, there is also a need for longitudinal mixed-methods studies of midcareer faculty mentoring outcomes over time.Practical implicationsThe study points to the role of the institution and its senior faculty in fostering midcareer scholarly excellence. Mentoring and development around individualized goals may be of value in addition to an emphasis on clarity around institutional expectations and norms in faculty performance reviews.Originality/valueMidcareer faculty are a crucial component of the academy, yet they are often overlooked as needing career support, resources and development. This study focuses on mentoring and coaching for postsecondary faculty at midcareer and the role of exceptional others in facilitating faculty professional growth.

INSIGHTS FROM A HAPF ALUMNUS ON AGING POLICY ADVOCACY IN SOCIAL WORK

Abstract “Once a fellow, always a fellow” and “Networks get things done”. The Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program has brought together experts in aging for more than ten years for policy education and fellowships, assembling an alumni network of more than one hundred and fifty fellows. Fellow alumni are social work scholars, physicians, nurses, gerontologists, sociologists, and many more. Each of these alumni completed one or more placements in policy making in congress, federal agencies, and advocacy organizations. Some have remained in those spaces while others are academics, state and local officials, and corporate leaders. They continue to advocate for and shape policy in aging in those positions. Told from the perspective of a non-residential program alumnus who is a mid-career faculty member in social work, this presentation will discuss the lessons learned during the fellowship, how the fellowship shaped future policy work, and present insights on how social workers can engage in policy advocacy in aging through the fellowship.

Supporting Midcareer Women Faculty in Academic Medicine Through Mentorship and Sponsorship.

Midcareer women faculty face unique career challenges that may benefit from mentorship and sponsorship, yet such programs focused on the needs of this career phase are scarce in academic medicine. Many midcareer faculty require intentional and individual career planning to choose a path from the broad array of options in academic medicine. Ambiguous promotion criteria, increased workloads because of service or citizenship tasks, and a lack of sponsorship are among the barriers that inhibit midcareer faculty's growth into the high-visibility roles needed for career advancement. In addition, issues faced by women midcareer faculty members may be further exacerbated by barriers such as biases, a disproportionate share of family responsibilities, and inequities in recognition and sponsorship. These barriers contribute to slower career growth and higher attrition among women midcareer faculty and ultimately an underrepresentation of women among senior leadership in academic medicine. Here, we describe how a mentoring program involving individuals (eg, mentors, mentees, and sponsors) and departments/institutions (eg, deans and career development offices) can be used to support midcareer faculty. We also provide recommendations for building a mentoring program with complementary support from sponsors targeted toward the specific needs of women midcareer faculty. A robust midcareer mentoring program can support the career growth and engagement of individual faculty members and as a result improve the diversity of academic medicine's highest ranks.

‘We’re trying to produce serious educators’: impact of secondary organizational socialization on mid-career faculty members’ delivery of PETE

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of secondary organizational socialization on mid-career faculty members’ (FMs) delivery of physical education teacher education (PETE). Data were collected with four qualitative techniques and analyzed using analytic induction and constant comparison. FMs delivered PETE based on the behavioristic, traditional/craft, and critical-inquiry orientations to teacher education. Cultural components and conditions that supported or undermined the FMs’ implemention of PETE were identified. FMs fully complied with positive aspects of their cultures and conditions and coped with negative and unfavorable aspects by strategically complying with or strategically redefining their situations, or finding a new position. These FMs’ stories should help doctoral students transition into higher education and inspire other FMs and administrators to reflect on the extent to which they support or undermine those attempting to conduct PETE.

Preparing the Next Generation of Institutional Leaders Strategic Supports for Mid-Career Faculty

Calls for leadership development and associated supports for faculty members are growing in prominence in higher education. Yet, traditional leadership development efforts in higher education fail to account for both individual and institutional needs as critical to fostering a leadership pipeline with multiple entry points. This manuscript offers succession management and onboarding as important and necessary steps to facilitating a more deliberate, strategic approach to supporting the next generation of institutional leaders – mid-career faculty members.

Faculty development using a virtual community of practice: Three-year outcomes of the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine Faculty Incubator program.

The Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) Faculty Incubator program is a longitudinal, 1-year, virtual faculty development program for early- and mid-career faculty members that crosses specialties and institutions. This study sought to evaluate the outcomes among 3years of participants. This cross-sectional survey study evaluated postcourse and 1-year outcomes from three graduated classes of the ALiEM Faculty Incubator program. The program evaluation survey was designed to collect outcomes across multiple Kirkpatrick levels using pre/post surveys and tracking of abstracts, publications, speaking opportunities, new leadership positions, and new curricula. Over 3years, 89 clinician educators participated in the program. Of those, 59 (66%) completed the initial survey and 33 (37%) completed the 1-year survey. Participants reported a significant increase in knowledge (4.1/9.0 vs. 7.0/9.0). The number of abstracts, publications, and invited presentations significantly increased after course completion and continued postcourse. A total of 37 of 59 (62.7%) developed a new curriculum during the course and 19 of 33 (57.6%) developed another new curriculum after the course. A total of 29 of 59 (49.2%) began a new leadership position upon course completion with 15 of 33 (45.5%) beginning another new leadership position 1year later. The ALiEM Faculty Incubator program demonstrated an increase in perceived knowledge and documented academic productivity among early- and mid-career medical educators.

Education in uncertainty: Academic life as Indigenous health scholars during COVID-19

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to develop, communities around the world find themselves living in new and uncertain times. School and university closures are significantly disrupting the lives of students, educators and researchers alike. With the sudden shift to online learning platforms, the limitations on research projects and the lack of standardised policies and procedures, many concerns arise surrounding the unequal impacts of this crisis. This article brings together diverse perspectives on the effects of COVID-19 on post-secondary life for students and scholars engaged in the field of Indigenous health research. The authors reflect on how this time has impacted them as a graduating student, incoming PhD student, junior faculty member and mid-career faculty member respectively. Their experiences of teaching and learning at a large, research-intensive university in Toronto, Canada have been profoundly transformed, and will continue to change the way they work, research and interact at the graduate level. Working with Indigenous communities and organisations requires relationship building, collaboration and ceremony. In these unprecedented times, scholars cannot simply continue “business as usual”. They must adapt everything, including how they teach, learn and work with Indigenous peoples, who are particularly vulnerable to this pandemic. Reflecting on the impacts that have already occurred and those that are still likely to come, the authors discuss what changes may need to be made in academia to support diverse actors within their scholarly community. They suggest changes to their scholarship with Indigenous communities in Canada to help them continue to work in a respectful, reciprocal and culturally appropriate way.

On being reviewed: from ghosts that haunt in isolation toward connection and unexpected agency

ABSTRACT Our group of early- and mid-career women faculty members in a mid-sized Canadian university examined the peer review process and our experiences of being reviewed. Using post-structural feminist literature, we theorised how subjectivities are shaped by the pressures of neoliberal incursions into university work. The impact of peer review can be severe and feel highly personal. The peer review system contains assumptions that create conditions for misuse: that reviewers have expertise and that notions of quality scholarly work are shared; that they will be supportive and intellectually ethical; and that they will encourage innovation. We engaged with what it feels like to be reviewed through using collaborative autoethnography as a methodology, and narrative and poetic inquiry as data as well as methods of analysis. We found that how a writer received a review depended on the amount of respect and collegiality in the reviewer’s language. Uninformed critical review comments appeared to be particularly damaging. We also found the obscure nature of the process meant that misunderstandings characterised our experiences. Many of us suffered feelings of powerlessness, a homogenisation of writing style, and a decrease in creativity. However, we also found solace and agency in sharing our stories. We shared our experiences within a relational holding space drawing on an ethic of care where well-being flourished, and in which there was an equality of respect, dignity, and mutual concern. We argue this perspective has potential to be applied more broadly to review processes.

Three-Generation Academic Mentoring Teams: A New Approach to Faculty Mentoring in Nursing.

New faculty are often not prepared for a career in academia, and the transition can be challenging. They often come from practice environments where work expectations are clearly delineated. Traditional mentoring programs typically pair new with experienced faculty members who are expected to provide guidance and advice. Results of the hierarchical dyad method have been mixed. Three generations of faculty formed a team composed of a tenured, a midcareer, and a new faculty member. The midcareer educator was better suited to help the novice prepare to teach, as they had recently been through the process, whereas the tenured faculty member was able to provide scholarship support to both. Providing new faculty with 2 mentors in a constellation format, along with the opportunity to network during structured mentoring meetings, contributed to a smooth onboarding of new faculty and provided scholarship support for the midcareer faculty member.

Patching Up the “Leaking Leadership Pipeline”: Fostering Mid-career Faculty Succession Management

The research presented here contributes to research and practice focused on faculty leadership development by examining the leadership pipeline for mid-career faculty in a consortium of 13 liberal arts colleges. Research findings revealed that mid-career faculty members are in the leadership pipeline, with the department chair position serving as an entry point. However, leadership aspirations beyond the department chair position decline serving as a source of the leaking leadership pipeline. Differences were found by gender. Further, issues of lack of preparation for current and future leadership roles was connected to few mid-career faculty members aspiring to executive leadership positions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Faculty mentoring faculty: career stages, relationship quality, and job satisfaction

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand faculty mentoring experiences across career stages and the influence of mentoring relationship quality on job satisfaction. The study participants were faculty members from a consortium of liberal arts colleges in the USA. The theoretical lens draws from scholarship on career stages, developmental networks, and working alliances.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on a subset of 415 faculty member responses about mentoring from a larger data set on faculty development. The online survey was conducted in Spring 2014. Frequencies, χ2, regression equations, and confirmatory factor analysis were computed using R statistical software.FindingsOver half the faculty members were both mentors and protégés; although, a sizable minority of faculty members did not engage in mentoring. Early-career faculty members were significantly more likely to have a mentor than were mid- or late-career faculty members. For both mentors and protégés, the higher they rated the quality of the mentoring relationship, the more job satisfaction they reported; this finding was greatest for mid-career (associate rank) faculty members. Participants reported significantly higher relationship quality with their mentors than with their protégés.Research limitations/implicationsThe results may not generalize to faculty members who work at other institution types, for example, research-intensive or two-year schools, or to non-US higher education contexts. Statements made regarding those who do not participate in mentoring are speculative on the part of the authors.Practical implicationsInstitutions may need to develop support for faculty members who may not desire to engage in mentoring. More attention may be warranted to create individual and institutional supports focused on high-quality mentoring.Originality/valueThis study extends the literature on mentoring by establishing that many employees serve in mentor and protégé roles simultaneously. Further, employees engage in mentoring relationships across career stages as mentors and as protégés. The authors developed a reliable measure of mentoring relationship quality that may be used in future mentoring studies. Higher quality mentoring relationships were associated with significantly greater job satisfaction.

Textbook of Limnology

Textbook of Limnology

Beyond Teaching and Research: Faculty Perceptions of Service Roles at Research Universities

Faculty members in higher education institutions frequently have the responsibility of providing service activities to their institutions, professional societies, and external communities. This responsibility, however, generally carries little reward in the workplace and does not play a major role in promotion criteria. For the study we report here we drew upon a sample of 4,400 research university faculty members to explore their satisfaction with service roles by academic rank. Findings showed that mid-career faculty members at the associate professor rank were significantly less satisfied with their service functions, including workload, equity, work balance, recognition, and institutional support, when compared with both assistant and full professors.

Comparing Research Productivity Across Disciplines and Career Stages

In academia, productivity continues to be a major factor in decisions of salary raises as well as promotion. The current study thus examines and compares the research productivity of faculty members across disciplines and career stages. The research tests three life course theories (cumulative advantage, utility maximization theory and obsolescence theory) with data from eight disciplines (biology, computer sciences, mathematics/statistics, physical sciences, psychology, social sciences, engineering, and health fields). The data for this study are taken from the 2003 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. Unlike past studies, which solely use journal articles as a measure of research productivity, this study also takes into consideration publications in books and monographs. The study found that the majority of the research output (articles and books) produced in Health and Physical Sciences disciplines is by early and mid career faculty members, providing support for the obsolescence theory, which suggests that research performance declines as faculty members progress in their careers. Further, aging shifts the output mix more towards books for social scientists, making them the most productive group when books or monographs are taken as a measure of research productivity.

Leadership Development in Dental Education: Report on the ADEA Leadership Institute, 2000–08

This report describes participants' assessment of their experiences in the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Leadership Institute program. The ADEA Leadership Institute is designed for mid-career faculty members who desire to attain administrative roles within their own or other institutions or enhance their effectiveness in these roles. This year-long program, conducted in four phases, is ADEA's flagship career enhancement program and provides dental educators with perspectives about oral health policy and legislation, organization and financing of higher education, the dental school's role within the parent institution, financial management, legal issues, recruiting faculty, and opportunities to acquire and practice skills associated with effective leadership. ADEA Leadership Institute Fellows also explore team-building, personality preferences, leadership styles, emotional intelligence, stress management, work-life balance, strategies for leading change, and giving and receiving feedback, as well as engaging in self- and peer assessment throughout the year. Each year up to twenty-one fellows are selected to participate in the institute in a competitive application process. In 2009, 149 fellows who participated in the institute from 2000 to 2008 were invited to take part in a survey to establish their profiles and academic leadership roles, determine their perceptions of the benefits from the institute curriculum, and elicit their suggestions for improvement. The survey response rate was 73 percent (n=109). Ninety-nine percent of respondents gave an overall positive assessment of their experiences. The most beneficial experiences, according to respondents, included networking with the program participants, advisors, and instructors (78 percent); self-discovery through self-assessments and evaluations (44 percent); and a 360 degree feedback process to provide additional reflection about areas for improvement (17 percent). Least beneficial experiences identified by survey respondents included sessions devoted to oral health legislation (33 percent), group projects (28 percent), and mentorship received during the institute year (12 percent). In the final part of the survey, participants provided suggestions for improvements and new areas for program planners to consider. Additions to the current curriculum (30 percent)-such as how to recruit and retain faculty-and advanced leadership training (15 percent)-including behavioral change theory-topped the improvement list. The results of this study indicate that the ADEA Leadership Institute is fulfilling its mission. Fellows are advancing in their careers and assuming administrative leadership roles within their home institutions while making scholarly contributions to the literature and undertaking leadership positions in ADEA.

What the ADEA CCI Series of Articles Means to Me: Reflections of a Mid‐Career Dental Faculty Member

In this reflection article, Dr. Karen Novak, a mid-career faculty member at a U.S. dental school, identifies important messages and insights she gained from a series of twenty-one articles about the future of dental education published in the Journal of Dental Education from October 2005 to February 2009. This article addresses four questions: 1) What influence have these articles had on an academic dentist's perspectives about her role and priorities as a dental school faculty member and her own career plans and future directions? 2) What are the key messages in these articles for other dental educators who are at similar places in their careers? 3) What additional topics concerning the future of academic dentistry should be covered in future articles? and 4) What issues and priorities should receive the most attention from academic dentistry in the next decade? The American Dental Education Association's Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education (ADEA CCI) was established to provide a mechanism for stakeholders in academic dentistry to meet and consider future directions in the education of the nation's dental workforce. Along with ADEA, these stakeholders included dental schools, the American Dental Association (ADA) Board of Trustees, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), the ADA Council on Dental Education and Licensure (CDEL), the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations (JCNDE), the dental licensure community, the ADA Foundation, and advanced dental education programs. The ADEA CCI was created to build consensus within the dental community for innovative changes in the education of general dentists. One outcome of this process was a series of articles intended to raise awareness and stimulate dialogue about issues and forces shaping the future of dental education. Collectively, this series of articles is known as the Perspectives and Reflections in Dental Education (PRIDE) series to acknowledge the commitment of the academic dental community to reflect on current practices and future directions and also to represent the pride of dental school faculty members in their educational responsibilities and accomplishments.

New Challenges and Paradigms for Mid-Career Faculty in Academic Medical Centers

Success, like beauty, is difficult to define, but one knows it when one sees it. A reasonable definition is the achievement of satisfaction and happiness in one's profession, which then defers the definition to that of happiness and satisfaction. These will be dependent on the extent and directions of one's passion, the pursuit of which promotes satisfying productivity. Physicians who choose to conduct their careers in an academic setting have a multitude of career models to pursue, representing varied mixes of effort devoted to clinical care, research, teaching, and administration. Not uncommonly, the particular blend of activities may evolve over time and there may be transition from one institution to another. Despite these variations, the mid-career faculty member of North American medical schools share many common experiences and challenges. Despite their track record of success within academic medical centers, mid-career faculty may also experience frustration or loss of direction. There are many reasons that this may occur. For example, the academic “honeymoon” is over, whereby forgiveness for the errors of inexperience or naivete are long gone. Filling a niche within the institution brings stability, but may also engender the perception by the mid-career faculty member of being taken for granted. This may, in fact, be a misperception. In contrast to junior colleagues, the successful mid-career faculty member may no longer receive direct mentoring or institutional resources and may misinterpret this as abandonment. Contrary to this sentiment, supervisors of mid-career faculty members may see this evolution of institutional support as a discrete indication of success and the opportunity to redirect resources to those at an earlier stage in their careers. It is with these observations that we offer insights into maintaining and advancing a successful academic medical career. These challenges are part of a developmental process that unfolds in response both …

Success, Regret, and the Struggle for Balance

The genesis of this article was a conversation between the authors: M.I., a senior faculty member, and J.C., his primary care doctor and a midcareer faculty member. It addresses the challenges facing physicians today as they struggle to strike the proper balance between career and personal life; it also addresses the potential toll to oneself and loved ones when career success is placed above all other concerns.

Professional currency among midcareer college faculty: Family and work factors

This study examined work and family factors that differentiate midcareer faculty members who were current from less current faculty with regard to the disciplinary knowledge base. The sample included 97 faculty (69 males, 28 females; 72 English, 25 Engineering) and their spouses. Cluster analyses of the work and family variables identified faculty subgroups within discipline. ANCOVAs showed a significant relationship between the clustered work-family profiles and levels of currency.Family differences: Current faculty and spouses reported spending more time on family-related responsibilities and experiencing greater stress from combined work-family responsibilities. Current Engineering faculty reported less flexibility in reallocating family responsibilities.Work differences: Faculty reported a greater commitment to their careers and to professional development: They reported higher scores on the Inner Work Standards scale; current English faculty read more professional journals and spent more time on research; current Engineering faculty spent more time on research and had more publications.