Indeed, regardless of how the discussion is framed, this power struggle between administrators and educators remains a constant and relevant force. Still, some research comes to support this idea that tenure helps to promote inequality across certain lines. For instance, Evans et al. (2008) remark on the gender and race lines that permeate the educational hierarchy. According to Evans et al., "sixteen percent of faculty in undergraduate and graduate pro- grams are of ethnic minority decent. African-American men make up 2.6% and African-American women make up 2.7% of all faculty (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). These startlingly low percentages are mirrored in most psychology departments where women and ethnic minorities continue to earn less than men on average and are still underrepresented in most academic departments (APA, 2000b; Wicherski & Kohout, 1996)." (p. 50).
This suggests that to an extent which has little to do with administrative power, tenure has been used to advance and protect educators who identify with the hegemonic order of higher education while diminishing opportunities for those in the minority. The text by Williams & Williams (2006) points out that many African-Americans who do rise to the status of part or full-time professors tend to experience a sense of cultural isolation within the profession. (p. 288) And according to the text by Modica & Mamiseishvili (2010), while some changes have occurred which have increased the population of African-Americans in graduate educational programs, their numbers still remain highly disproportionate from their white counterparts. This alone seems a sufficient cause for some measure of intervention. However, there is little evidence that post-tenure review in its current form is the type of intervention which is called for. According to Montell (2002), "post-tenure review has not translated into significant firings of either lazy professors or controversial ones. But this extra layer of evaluation continues to split academics. Some credit it with single-handedly saving tenure; others suggest that it has quietly watered down faculty authority, eroded tenure, and encouraged scholars to focus on quantity over quality." (p. 1)
Ultimately though, this back and forth still leaves us with a firm sense of the importance of tenure as an institution improving the output quality and organizational...
The eventual findings in the research by English et al. (2009), for instance, show that beyond a reasonable doubt, tenure is connected to certain positive institutional realities. According to its surveys, the article by English et al. finds that "although the findings of earlier studies investigating the relationship between tenure and affective commitment have been contradictory (see Gellatly, 1995; Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2001; Lok and Crawford, 2001), the present research showed employees with more than nine years' tenure had higher levels of affective commitment than those with less than one year's tenure, suggesting that affective commitment strengthens with tenure." (p. 403).
This helps to feed an overarching assumption of the present research endeavor, which is that tenure must at least to an extent be protected as efforts proceed to give it administrative oversight and regulatory control. In proceeding forward from this discussion, compromise will be a strong recommendation.
Works Cited:
Custer, R.L., Foster, T., & Martin, E. (1999). Post-tenure review in industrial and technology education. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 37(1). Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JITE/v37n1/custer.html
De George, R.T. (Ethics, Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure. Journal of Academic Ethics, 1, 11-25.
DiLeo, J.R. (2005). Uncollegiality, Tenure and the Weasel Clause. Symploke, 13(1-2), 99-107.
Elias, R.Z. (2001). Accounting Faculty Opinions on Post-Tenure Review. Accounting Educators' Journal, XIII.
English, B.; Morrison, D. & Chalon, C. (2009). Moderator Effects of Organizational Tenure on the Relationship Between Psychological Climate and Affective Commitment. Journal of Management Development, 29(4), 394-408.
Evans, G.L. & Cokley, K.O. (2008). African-American Women and the Academy: Using Career Mentoring to Increase Research Productivity. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 2(1), 50-57.
Fuchs, R.F. (1963). Academic Freedom -- Its Basic Philosophy, Function, and History. Law & Contemporary Problems, 28(431).
Horn, J.M. (1998). On the Ineffectiveness and irrelevancy of Tenure. Academic Questions.
Knight, W.B. (2010). Sink or Swim: Navigating the Perilous Waters of Promotion and Tenure: What's Diversity Got To Do With It. Studies in Art Education, 52(1).
Licata, C.M. & Andrews, H.A. (1990). The Status of Tenured Faculty Evaluation in the Community College. Community College Review, 18(3).
Modica, J.L. & Mamisheishvili, K. (2010). Black Faculty at Research Universities: Has Significant Progress Occurred? The Negro Educational Review, 61(4).
Montell, G. (2002). The fallout from post-tenure review. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1-8. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Fallout-From-Post-Tenure/46063
Williams, B.N. & Williams, S.M. (2006). Perceptions of African-American Male Junior Faculty on Promotion and Tenure: Implications for Community Building and Social Capital. Teachers College Record, 108(2), 287-315.
Wilson, R. (2002). Court upholds Kansas State's use of post-tenure review to dismiss professor. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(14), A10.
Wriston, H.M. (194). Academic Tenure. The American Scholar, 9(3).
Allen makes the case that this functions to improve the quality of higher education and the experience had by the student. Like Scheuerman, Allen argues that tenure is under attack for reasons other than the perceived erosion of educational quality, but makes a more direct case against administrators and public officials by arguing that tenure is actually attacked as a matter of posturing for control over the work of
http://chronicle.com Similar to ERIC, the Chronicle of Higher Education website provides links to many articles and studies concerning tenure and post-tenure review on both sides of the issue. The vast majority of these articles were produced by the Chronicle itself, for its print and online subscribers. Given that most of the subscribers to the Chronicle are almost certainly employed in the realm of higher education, the balanced views presented by the
Specifically, the Association warns against limits and dangers to academic freedom that could result from post-tenure reviews, and essentially suggests a bevy of alternative options for imposing sanctions and other disciplinary actions rather than resorting to post-tenure review, and that a proper review process can be identified by its lack of intrusion into areas best covered by other processes contractual agreements. It is not surprising that they conclude post-tenure
Fairweather (2002) advocates the well-rounded professor who is a master of both teaching and research. In his study, Fairweather (2002) found that the emphasis on research vs. teaching varies significantly based on the type of institution. Further, the researcher found that a very small number of faculty members were able to achieve both teaching and research excellence, and that being in the classroom positively affected both variables. Miron, J.A. (2001,
" (Zemsky, 1) Null Hypothesis The null hypothesis of the research endeavor is that online professors will report no perceptible connection between post-tenure review and job performance. Alternate Hypothesis The alternate hypothesis of the research endeavor is that online professors will report that post-tenure review improves job performance. Nature of the Study Significance of the Study The significance of the proposed research is based in the need for greater study of online instruction in higher education with
Incentives and Performance Kopelman, R., et al. (2012); Further Development of a Measure of Theory X and Y Managerial Assumptions. Journal of Managerial Issues. 24 (4): 450-62. Certainly, there is no one best way to ensure that either employees or managers are properly motivated. Most scholarship, in fact, indicates that motivation is a balance between the task-relevant behavior and the maturity and acumen of the group in which the individual manages
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