In a tight job market, visiting professorships can be appealing way stations for new Ph.D.'s while they search for permanent posts. Unlike adjunct positions, which are often renewed semester by semester, visiting professorships are set by annual or even multiyear contracts, with most capped at three years. The visiting jobs often come with health…

What should graduate teaching look like when it aims to prepare students for a range of careers? That's a welcome question, but it is not an easy one. The author takes up the problem in two parts, this month from the individual faculty member's perspective, and next month on the curricular level (that is, from the point of view of departments and…

A month ago, the author wrote about the "official" materials one submits for a tenure-track academic hire, like a statement of one's teaching philosophy and a list of references. But in the Internet age, the "unofficial" part of an application is what exists about a person online. In 2009 the author wrote columns about the role of social media,…

It's expected that athletes will slowly decline in ability as they age. Every athlete accepts that. But not every professor does. It seems more or less forbidden to talk about what happens to academics as they age. There is virtual silence about the kind of age-associated changes that affect teaching, learning, and research. Baby boomers, known…

As Congress rushed to finish the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (after five years and 14 short-term extensions), nearly 3,000 miles away, on a corner of the Stanford University campus, Lee S. Shulman officially said goodbye to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching after 11 years as its president. In this article, Mr.…

In this article, the author contemplates two books dealing with developing a teaching persona. These books are Elaine Showalter's "Teaching Literature" and Jay Parini's "The Art of Teaching". Showalter and Parini present very different perspectives on the issue. Showalter addresses it in a section called "Personae: The Teaching Self," in which she…

In this article, the author laments higher education's lack of concern towards the development of teaching in the public schools over the last half of the 20th century. Most of academe's work on the topic of teacher training has been done at the branches of state universities that needed to make money and create a niche. The author observes that…

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching report, "The Academic Life," finds that too often teaching is undervalued on college campuses. Teachers and teaching need to be elevated in the hierarchy of the academic profession. (MLW)

The death of his father prompts the author and university professor to reflect on the acts of grieving and teaching. He offers a tribute to his deceased father while commenting on the importance of teaching in his life.

Academics welcome summer with a collective sigh of relief. Finally they can get to those tasks that are nearly impossible to accomplish during a busy academic year: working on that manuscript, completing the revisions on an article, learning the new laboratory technique from the colleague across the hall. However, those going on the job market in…

The annual survey conducted by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, found that freshmen continue to be preoccupied by material wealth and career success. Liberal stances on policy issues, new interest in teaching careers, and heightened fears of AIDS were also noted. (MLW)

Good research and good teaching are not mutually exclusive, professors and deans demonstrated at the meeting of the Association of American Colleges. The traditional "teacher-scholar model" is seen as intimidating, since most faculty members aren't publishing enough. The model should include scholarship that doesn't end up in print. (MLW)

Writing and teaching high school are not an unprecedented combination, especially when it comes to creative work. In this article, the author recounts her teaching experience as a high school teacher and how she was able to facilitate a learning experience to her high school class. Before she became a high school teacher, she was a college…

The intertwined fortunes of the Danforth Foundation and Washington University are discussed. The foundation has phased out its regular programs in higher education in favor of secondary education and regional projects, leaving for higher education only the Dorothy Danforth Compton Minority program and support of Washington University. (MLW)

Support is reported for the proposals of the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession for sweeping reforms of the public schools and the teaching profession, including rigorous national teacher certification, emphasis on liberal arts in teacher education and increased graduate study, and improvements in conditions of the profession. (MSE)