On we need more voices from outside the Ivory Tower in our classrooms (and how to do it without undercutting faculty).
A practitioner recently ask how I felt about non-degree holders from practice teaching university courses.
The question felt loaded.
I felt some apprehension answering.
Why?
Because too often universities hire non-tenure track faculty, undercompensate them, & use them as an excuse to not hire tenure-track faculty with a terminal degree (PhD or its analog).
In answering, I did not want to undermine any of my colleagues - those with rich practitioner experience & those with rich academic experience.
My view is pretty simple. We need both views represented in classrooms at universities, particularly if we are to fulfill our mission to prepare students for the future.
While we may be instilling academic principles & concepts, which a PhD helps you to acquire, there are many topics which are forward looking & found in practice that have not yet made there way into the canon taught at universities.
Moreover, there are some topics that people in industry have dealt with, that will never make their way into the academic canon, bc technology & society move quickly, so practitioners are better suited to teach students about such fast moving content areas.
However, that does not mean that universities should have more contingent or non-tenure track or adjunct faculty - in fact - I think that would be counterproductive.
Why?
Because tenure track faculty serve as long term stewards, who are difficult to dislodge, for the university community. Non-tenure track faculty serve in similar roles - except they lack the protection afforded by tenure.
Also, in the current climate in the United States, Uni's are shortchanging non-tenure track, adjunct, & contingent faculty. They do not extend them the intellectual protection (aka job security) or the support (aka income & benefits) needed to be vested as stewards AND teach tough topics
So what to do?
First, Uni's need to more creatively & more aggressively bring industry to classes.
Kids need exposure to ideas & tools found in practice.
Second, we need a mechanism to make such exposure simple for all universities.
We need to map unis to firms firms willing to send staff to train students on new technologies or business practices.
We need to partner to make sure quality standards are met.
Third, Uni's must compensate "non-degree holders" or "degree-holders" who hold non-tenure-track positions fairly.
At Pitt, full-time non-tenure track faculty make 45k in 2019. It's tenure track faculty averaged 156k. (https://lnkd.in/ekqzJ6CQ).
This is nonsense.
No more needs to be said.
Finally, maybe it's time we reimagine how Uni's teach?
Semester long courses make it tough to partner with practice.
Let's re-engineer how we deliver instruction to ensure our #students get access to all the skills and voices they can learn from.
Let's build a better Academy!
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