"You Know, It's an Entrepreneurial Field": Problematizing Institutional Policies for Assistant Tenure-Track Professors at R1 Hispanic-Serving Institutions

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Analyzing Leadership Trajectories, Faculty Policies, Student Outcomes, and STEM Program Diversity at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Abstract

This qualitative case study highlights the experiences of 10 assistant tenure-track professors at two Research 1 institutions with a Hispanic-Serving Institution federal designation (R1-HSIs). The rank of tenure-track assistant professors was intentional for the study as tenure-track assistant professors represent 85% of contingent faculty at R1s and have a direct line to Latino (interchangeably with Hispanics keeping with the original language [Instituto Cervantes, 2018] and context) undergraduate populations. This study utilized organizational theory (Tierney, 1988, 2008) as a theoretical framework, supported by critical theory (Wellmer, 2014) and critical consciousness (Freire, 2009). The findings were consistent in what scholars contend that efforts to increase revenue for R1-HSIs is highly determined by faculty entrepreneurship and the corporatizing of academia in higher education.

Authors

• Jocelyn Gutierrez, The University of North Dakota

• Rosa Maria Banda, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi