M. Yvonne Taylor and Dr. Joshua Childs, both of The University of Texas at Austin, are two scholars who believe in the power of op-eds, especially as they draw attention to systemic inequity and the movement of U.S. society toward liberty and justice for all. In this interview, they articulated how op-eds can deliver timely, expert opinions on hot…

This article deals with my experience of struggling with mental health while trying to succeed in a management department. I will explore the realities of working as an academic in a business school, my experience as a new faculty member with mental health issues, the stigma I encountered, and how mental illness has challenged my opportunity for…

As a public artist and designer, I construct spaces that connect people and ideas. The social spaces I create challenge our traditional ways of thinking, knowing, and experiencing one another and our cities. This piece presents a resistance to preset disciplinary values and a recognition that exponential rather than incremental change in an…

This article is a letter to my son. In this letter I tell him the truth of my reality in theological education, as one filled with sexism, racism, and various other experiences. I express my fears for him in this world as a black boy who will grow into a black man. I also discuss my hope for his future and the future of theological education. I…

The university, for tenure-track professors and others, can become an intellectual prison, an environment where you learn to follow the long-established rules in order to survive. This essay is a call to action, aiming to reach and mobilize learners in the academy who might feel alone and trapped in an institution that primarily rewards…

Since the 1980s, as composition has grown as a scholarly field, the composition job market has grown correspondingly in both size and complexity. Specifically, over the fourteen years since academic year (AY) 2000-2001, ads seeking expertise in composition and rhetoric have consistently made up 30 percent or more of all job ads placed in the…

This interview with Elizabeth Flynn began over lunch at the 2014 Conference on College Composition and Communication. Bourelle and Flynn originally met to talk about a collaborative research project, but the conversation shifted to their personal lives. Bourelle and Flynn talked about how their lives and their research were intertwined, and…

In the last few years, all but a few U.S. states have rushed to enact tougher teacher evaluation systems. Spurred by the incentives offered by two federal education initiatives--Race to the Top and the ESEA Flexibility Program--these states have designed teacher evaluation systems designed to "remove ineffective tenured and untenured…

Debates over the efficacy of tenure are longstanding but tenure reform is now more prominent in the public eye given recent high-profile legislative battles in states like Ohio and Wisconsin. This focus on tenure also is a natural outgrowth of the large body of research showing that differences between individual teachers can have profound effects…

Ask any tenure-stream or tenured faculty member about how well prepared he or she was for entering the academy, and you will get a clear sense of a lack of preparation. One estimate is that only about 50 percent received any training for university teaching. To compound the problem, universities prepare most doctoral students to become…

Digital media and work with technology has become a critical, integral part of teaching, scholarship, and service in the academy, transforming the ways faculty engage with students, conduct research, and serve their campus, local, and national communities. These guidelines--originally written in 1998 and updated in 2015--are designed to advise…

When President Obama took office in 2009, his administration quickly seized on teacher evaluations as an important public-policy problem. Today, much of his legacy on K-12 education rests on efforts to revamp evaluations in the hopes of improving teaching across the country, which his administration pursued via a series of incentives for states.…

Tenure provides professors with a unique level of job security and utmost respect in the academy (Shea, 2002). Receiving tenure and progressing through the academic ranks are among the most visible and valued accomplishments for college and university faculty (Perna, 2001). Faculty who achieve excellence in teaching, research, and service readily…

This article is excerpted from Marshall Project staff writer and author, Dana Goldstein's 2014 book, "The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession." It begins by describing Goldstein's experience traveling as an education reporter in the late 2000s and the incredible amount of political scrutiny under which the…

The digital dissertation has been here for almost a decade, but people in the academe still don't seem to know what to do with it. How should it be presented? How should it be archived? In August 2005, the author successfully defended a media-rich digital dissertation in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). The…