Diversity of Career Transitions Across the Mid-Career Rank

• In Event: 56.081 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 56.081-10 - Mid-Career Faculty Transitions: Identity and Being the "Slow" Professor

Abstract

Structure and format of the session, including the designation of a moderator and strategies to facilitate audience discussion

1. Setting the stage (15 minutes): Jaime Lester will frame the session topic and provide an overview of the structure of the small breakout groups. She will briefly report on the research on mid-career faculty and the issues presented in national surveys, such as that of Harvard’s COACHE project.

2. Small group work (45 minutes): Four groups will be available for participants to select for the small and targeted discussions. One panelist will facilitate each of these groups and lead any future efforts. The groups will include: 1) Diversity of career transitions across the mid-career rank; 2) Impact of institutional type on mid-career faculty opportunities; 3) individual identity and framing or defining the mid-career experience; 4) Contemporary demands on faculty work and the impact on scholarship. Guiding questions will be crafted for each of the small groups. Each group will collect their discussion and commentary on a Google document that allows for real time construction of information and can serve as a space for a longer, extended conversation and dialogue after the conclusion of the session and the conference. The Google document will be projected during the session so individuals in all groups can see contributions even if they do not have a device with them. We will also encourage individuals to use the AERA Twitter feed to post commentary during the session. The Google document will serve as the working space for the future working groups.

Each of the four groups will have a set of questions it uniquely explores. Some of these questions may include:

1. Diversity of career transitions across the mid-career rank
• What transitions mark the mid-career stage?
• How does mid-career vary by rank? (thinking here about how mid career might be different for a new assistant professor who might be mid career in terms of overall career by early career in terms of academic ranks)
• How does institutional type shape the mid-career stage?
• What is mid-career?
• How is gender manifest for mid-career faculty?
• How does race shape the mid-career stage?

Author

• Kelly A. Ward, Washington State University