Reconceptualizing Faculty Hires: The Strengths and Benefits of One's Own Graduates

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Division J Poster Session: Faculty, Curriculum, and Teaching 2

Abstract

There are not many questions that evoke a stronger response in the academy when discussing faculty hires than deciding whether program graduates should be considered for a faculty position, in particular those graduates whose doctorates are newly-minted. Higher education administrators will overwhelmingly argue that there is little value in hiring from within, and as much of what the graduate knows has been taught by the current faculty in the department, nothing new to be gained. The purpose of this scholarly personal narrative, written from a strengths-based perspective, is to discuss why and in what ways early career faculty members should challenge the system if they desire to obtain tenure-track positions at the same institutions where they completed their doctorates.

Authors

• Elizabeth Cecilia Apodaca, New Mexico State University

• Rene O Guillaume, New Mexico State University