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June 27, 2008, 10:09 AM ET
More on the R1 Paradigm and the Job Search
As I hoped, my last entry on how graduate students and hiring committees are socialized by the culture of research universities has attracted a variety of divergent comments, including a thread on The Chronicle’s Forums.
People talked about how the job market functions relative to graduate training as well as about the priority placed on research, the challenges of finding money to support your work, the sometimes ill-functioning nature of institutions with high teaching loads, and so on.
Coincidentally, I recently received an e-mail message from a former student, one of the best I have taught in 20 years, who is now enrolled in a master’s program in English at a midlevel research university in the South. Her university, while perfectly good (in fact, I recommended that she go there), is not likely to be placing many of its English Ph.D.‘s in top research universities. I asked her permission to quote from the message she sent me (edited for privacy) because I think it is very telling given the context of her program. She writes:
“I am sick of the ‘publish or perish’ mentality and the snobbery. … The heart and joy of learning and literature has been so removed from this program. It is as if everyone is already competing for that tenure-track position at a Research-1 Institution (which, of course you know, is the only position that is worth taking). I was told by the head of the department here, during a one-on-one conversation about me and my studies, that teaching at a liberal-arts institution is the same as teaching high school.”
I taught that student at a liberal-arts university, and while she is a talented researcher, it has been clear since I got to know her a number of years ago that she is a born teacher and wants to be able to value that part of her work. Her department head, who really ought to know better, is doing her, and her fellow students, no favors with his attitude.
Categories: Faculty-hiring, General-interest
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