Contributors for a new STP e-book

Chapter #/ title

Brief and preliminary description

1. Introduction and Overview

Introduce readers to teaching-focused faculty positions; groups working for advocacy (e.g., AAUP)

2. Benefits and Joys

The purpose of this chapter is to underscore the value and joy we feel by teaching and by supporting others in their own teaching, and to encourage those in these roles in their work.    

3. Hiring and Promotion to 2nd Rank

An overview of the types and titles of teaching-focused positions; searching for jobs (e.g., identifying keywords in job ads), preparing for an interview, suggestions for the interview and hiring process, understanding workload and merit for annual review and promotion. 

4. Moving through the teaching-track promotion process at R1 institutions

Unique challenges to being a junior teaching-focused faculty at R1 institutions. These include: large class sizes, service expectations, and supervising graduate student TAs. There are also unique challenges at R1s that involve having a higher number of colleagues who are not involved in undergraduate teaching. 

5. Moving through the teaching-track promotion process at R2 institutions- the Teacher-Scholar Model 

Unique challenges to being a junior teaching-focused faculty at R2 institutions. These include: Service expectations, “high-touch” models of classroom teaching, supporting pedagogical programming in your department / institution. 

6. Alternative workloads: The clinical professor/ professor of practice track

Unique challenges/opportunities to being on the clinical/professor or practice track including service expectations, where administrative, research, or clinical supervision fits in their workload, and a discussion of promotion to second and third rank

7. Teaching-track with high advising workload

Some teaching-focused faculty are hired with high advising expectations, however there lacks consistency on how advising oversight and efforts count as service or administrative or teaching in workload calculations. This also includes “hidden advising” - advising students who are not listed as an advisee but come for advising. 

8. Working at medical schools, graduate-only centers, or technical schools

Teaching-focused faculty provide necessary teaching in these graduate and specialized schools. These faculty members teach psychology courses to primarily graduate students or undergraduate students on specialized tracks that may or may not be psychology adjacent

9. Professional service and leadership opportunities

This chapter will describe the myriad opportunities for teaching-focused faculty to find professional service and leadership beyond their home department. These include working with centers for teaching and learning (at their institutions) and opportunities with the Society for the Teaching of Psychology; Psi Chi, various teaching conferences, etc.

10. Demonstrating exemplary teaching and service, and promotion to 3rd rank faculty

Merit and workload vary across institutions. This chapter will address demonstrating ‘exemplary’ work at R1 and R2 institutions as faculty pursue the promotion to 3rd rank. 

11. Advocating for rights for teaching-track faculty 

This chapter will address common inequities in teaching-track compared to tenure-track faculty lines (including salary discrepancies, sabbaticals, voting rights, access to institutional governance (e.g., senate seats)). It will also discuss working with administration to add visibility to the teaching-track lines by comparing to peer-institutions. Additionally, this chapter will address how tenured colleagues, department chairs, and administrators can support teaching-focused faculty.

12. Tenured teaching-track faculty at research intensive institutions

The history of tenure and the process of earning tenure in teaching-focused positions at research intensive institutions. Tenure-eligible track teaching lines are rare at research-intensive institutions, but teaching-track positions and tenure are compatible. Different models will be explored in this chapter.

13. Burnout and recovery among teaching-focused faculty

Burnout among teaching-focused faculty may stem from systemic issues that are different from our tenured colleagues and thus must be addressed in a different manner. We will discuss how addressing contributing factors to burnout may differ, and offer suggestions on how to combat it. 

14. Conclusions, including resources

Listing of places to go (i.e., our resources collection, information from AAUP), and further suggestions for readers