This roundtable discussion offers insights from first-year and recent faculty members about the ups and downs of the transition from graduate student to faculty member. While uch of the last year of graduate school is focused on finding a job that fits, adjusting to that job requires a shift in self-identity and role competence in addition to the physical relocation. The expectations and responsibilities as a faculty colleague, instructor, and advisor are greater. Unlike graduate school, you may be the only new person in the department, and so must acclimate to a new culture and navigate new departmental politics alone. And of course, the tenure clock starts ticking. The presenters will each discuss an aspect of the transition based on their own experiences and offer strategies for surviving and thriving in a new position.

This study examines perceptions of 12 full-time non-tenure track faculty members about their professional and academic selves in a research-intensive university. A phenomenological approach is used to gain insight into the complexities of the experience of being a full-time faculty member, off the tenure-track, whose primary responsibility is teaching within a research-intensive institution. The notion of tenurestream as the only desired path to being an academic is challenged by these faculty members’ understanding of their identities. This researcher considers how professional identities may be understood and suggests that the meanings and values these faculty members attach to their professional roles may be embedded in their perceptions of how their role fits within the department. Throughout this qualitative inquiry, the perspectives of these faculty members are positioned as a primary source of data about the experience of being a full-time non-tenure track faculty member. By using a phenomenological approach and taking a constructivist perspective this researcher finds that extant theories that view this population through a deficit model are inaccurate. Additionally, essentialist and homogenizing descriptions of this population are also found to be insufficient. A qualitative analysis suggests the viability of an alternative description of this population, one which reflects the nuanced view of professional identity these participants expressed. Based on structural categories adapted from Martin’s (2002) three perspective view of organizational culture, their perceptions are categorized according to the congruence expressed between their social identity and their professional role. Perceptions shared about their departmental culture are similarly categorized which provides insight about the influence of policies, practices, and collegial interactions on professional lives.

Institutions of higher education are widely known to be places that help solve the problems of society; however, few college professors seem to practice engaged scholarship after receiving tenure. In a time of decreased funding for public higher education institutions and increased competition for students with private institutions, public higher education institutions would do well to maintain their images as community partners. In this regard, public institutions need to know whether engaged scholarship among the professoriate has decreased, why this may be occurring, and how to inspire professors to create positive social change. This qualitative case study applied Frederick Herzberg's motivational theory of job satisfaction on engaged scholarship and tenure to determine the extent to which faculty members practice engaged scholarship pretenure and posttenure. The main research question addressed was whether the study participants perceived a negative relationship between tenure status and engaged scholarship. Fourteen face-to-face interviews of faculty and administrators, obtained through purposeful convenience sampling, provided the answer to this and other questions. Interviews were coded according in alignment with the methods used in the Herzberg study in 1959. The data analysis revealed institutional issues to address, specifically, to include institutional support for engaged scholarship and the accuracy of perceived administrative and faculty workloads. From this analysis, a comprehensive engaged scholarship program evolved that, on implementation, would address the concerns of the participants and increase faculty engaged involvement in scholarship that higher education institutions can continue to contribute to positive social change.

This qualitative, phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of tenure-track faculty serving in dual roles as administrators at Carnegie classified R2 and R3 higher education institutions within the United States. Fourteen participants completed one-on-one, semi-structured interviews about their lived experiences as tenure-track faculty members serving in dual roles. Participants discussed rewards and motivations as well as challenges. Additionally, participants discussed perceptions of their academic identities. Key themes emerged during data analysis. Rewards and motivations included the following: Community change agent and student advocate, a “seat at the table,” collegiality, flexibility, confidence from prior experience and clear tenure procedures, and job security and potential for career advancement. Challenges included workload and time management, research, operational confusion, politics including power dynamics and bureaucratic or hierarchical obstacles, changing conditions in higher education, professional invisibility, untenured stress and anxiety, and personal obstacles such as family and health issues. Themes related to academic identities included self-identity in relation to audience, perceptions from others based on interaction, and metaphors of identity. The findings from this study led to recommendations for best practice concerning tenure processes and policies as well as recommendations for dual role processes and policies. The findings from this study also revealed a need for more research concerning dual roles to aid in the creation of more equitable policy and practice for faculty serving in dual roles both pre- and post-tenure.

The rapid increase in the number of non-tenure-track faculty members (Curtis, 2014), has prompted research about this group (Allison, Lynn, and Hovermann, 2014; Coalition on the Academic Workforce, 2012; Eagan and Jaeger, 2009; Umbach, 2007). There is also a large body of literature that explores the experiences of faculty members of color (Joseph and Hirshfield, 2011; Stanley, 2006a; Turner, González, and Wood, 2008). However, there is very little research about the experiences of non-tenure-track faculty members of color (NTFOCs). This study centered the experiences of NTFOCs to understand how this group experiences racism and other forms of systematic oppression in their work environments. The theoretical frameworks for this study were critical race theory (CRT) (Bell, 1980; Delgado and Stefancic, 2012; Ladson-Billings and Tate, 1995) and critical race feminism (CRF) (Wing, 1997). Critical race methodology was integrated throughout the research process (Solórzano and Yosso, 2001; Solórzano and Yosso, 2002). The sample consisted of 24 NTFOCs who worked at four-year, historically White colleges and universities. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Ten themes emerged that revealed the ways NTFOCs experienced racism and marginalization in their work environments: (a) not treated like a professional; (b) lack of support; (c) formal discrimination; (d) racialized evaluations; (e) racialized and gendered microaggressions; (f) feeling unsafe in the classroom; (g) unpaid labor; (h) balancing job responsibilities; (i) lack of resources; (j) different treatment than White colleagues. Four additional themes regarding the ways NTFOCs navigated these experiences with oppression and marginalization: (a) relying on systems of support; (b) negotiating speaking out against forms of oppression; (c) disclosing personal information; (d) deciding how to interact with department/program colleagues. These findings have implications for the personal well-being of NTFOCs, how they perform their job, and their ability to gain secure employment. The findings highlight the need for campus constituents to recognize the work of NTOFCs and to create better work conditions for them. / Ph. D.

Balancing the needs of family with career ambitions is often challenging for women who pursue science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) careers, particularly in academia. In these male-dominated workplaces, few incentives exist for women who decide to manage both work and family. In this basic qualitative research study, a modified approach combining in-depth interviewing with life-history interviewing was used to examine the work-life balance experiences of 12 tenured and tenure-track women engineering faculty who have children. The research question addressed participants' perceptions of engineering academia and experiences regarding family formation, child-raising, and the tenure process. Data were analyzed using the constant comparison method. The conceptual lens consisted of identity formation, feminine ethic of care, procedural knowing, and social learning. Four themes or key findings surfaced from this study: Participants experienced gender stereotyping in engineering academia, participants recognized overlap between the tenure and biological clocks, participants expressed a default arrangement in assuming the burden of childcare, and participants revealed that work-life balance is a false concept. The most significant finding was that the notion of work-life balance was inconsistent with participants' experiences with managing childcare and career; they described their experiences to be more about work-life integration. Implications for positive social change include improving gender diversity and the representation of women in engineering academia. Senior leaders and administrators at institutions of higher education may use study findings, for instance, to undertake program reform to recruit more women into engineering academia.

This qualitative phenomenological dissertation explored The Departmental Work Lives of Full-Time Non-Tenure Track Faculty (FTNTT) at two public four-year universities located in the Southeastern region of the United States. This study is based on interviews with twelve (FTNTT) faculty members representing departments traditionally associated within the College of Arts and Sciences. This study found FTNTT faculty participants highly credentialed and reasonably satisfied in their positions. This study adds the descriptor heterogeneous to FTNTT faculty members’ job roles, work environments, daily engagements, and work experiences and contradicts existing literature that finds FTNTT faculty positions to be resource deficit and administratively non-supporting. Literature surrounding FTNTT faculty, Agency Theory, and the concepts of Agency of Perspective, Agency of Action, and Action of Avoidance informed this study. This study extended Agency of Action to include intentional, strategic behaviors of inaction (coined within this study as Action of Avoidance) toward the departmental contexts of policies and practices concerning discipline, employability, employment longevity, and personal FTNTT faculty career trajectories. Agency Theory, Agency of Perspective, Agency of Action, and Action of Avoidance, as identified by the researcher, emerged as strong frameworks used by FTNTT faculty to construct behaviors to successfully navigate long-term careers under short-term conditions. Based on FTNTT faculty responses, this study outlines policies and practices that are perceived as supportive or non-supportive. Policymakers may use this data to inform strategies for improving support among FTNTT faculty members.

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