Acculturating to the Role of Tenure-Track Assistant Professor: A Family Systems Approach to Joining the Academy

Abstract

The trajectory toward tenure is complex and arduous, and it requires one to balance attention among diverse and competing demands. It is not surprising that many newly appointed assistant professors report struggling with this process. Borrowing from family and ecological systems theories, we proffer a framework that may help junior faculty members-defined in this article as tenure-earning assistant professors-learn about the tenure-earning process as they navigate through the university system and beyond. We also describe and clarify the many parts of the tenure-earning process, including the roles, responsibilities, and multiple contexts that must be considered concurrently by junior faculty members as they progress through the stages of their tenureearning appointment in the academy.

Research productivity of doctor of physical therapy faculty promoted in the southeastern United States

“…The process of promotion from assistant professor to associate professor is most often associated with achieving tenure, although it does not always have to be [8]. Faculty members who wish to apply for tenure normally are employed as ‘tenure-track’ faculty and after a substantial amount of time in this position they are subjected to an evaluation process in which their body of work – including publications, presentations, courses taught, and funded research proposals – is evaluated by an institutional committee [9]. This committee then decides whether or not the faculty member should be promoted and/or granted tenure.…”

“…The time leading up to this evaluation period can be very stressful as the applicant must be sure their body of work and the contents of their curriculum vitae are at the necessary level for advancement. If the applying faculty member is not granted tenure, he or she often loses their faculty position [8,9]. …”

“…The decision to collect research productivity data from promoted and tenured DPT professors in specific regions of the country and calculating individual regional findings is supported by previous reporting in the literature of region-specific scholarly productivity [11], and by the notion that ‘the geographical location of the university, too, could affect the resources, barriers, and productivity (e.g., pilot research studies) a faculty member experiences’ [9]. Such factors may include collaborative potential, the types of regional industries local to the institution, physical distance to other research institutions, and economic factors such as institutional funding and available real property assets at the institution.…”

COVID‐19 and pre‐tenure counseling faculty: A collaborative autoethnographic investigation

“…For instance, pre‐tenured faculty avoiding expression of fear, frustration, and anxiety because of potential impact on promotion and tenure have reported increased isolation and disconnection, negatively influencing socialization and creating difficulties in development and promotion (Parker & Scott, 2010 ). Counseling faculty experiencing issues with immersion to professorship may find difficulty securing promotion and tenure (Hooper et al., 2012 ). This study's results offer data on our emotional experience and sense of attachment to the program and university, impacting our success navigating the earlier stages of promotion and tenure.…”

Research productivity of Doctor of Physical Therapy faculty promoted in the Western United States

“…Separating different regions of the United States for the purposes of identifying trends in scholarly activity is supported by a range of previous research, including previous studies of research productivity that have used similar methods (Barnard-Brak et al 2011;Holcomb et al 1990), investigations of barriers to research activity present in different regions (Hooper et al 2012), and even analyses of differing psychological and social traits among inhabitants of different regions (Rentfrow et al 2013). Different regions of the United States are subject to differing levels of research capacity, employment rates in different economic industries, and even population demographics and growth rates (Mackun and Wilson 2011;Current Employment Statistics 2017).…”