Disciplining Documents: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum of Earning Tenure at Private Engineering Schools

• In Event: Promise and Precarity: A Discussion of Tenure and Promotion Pathways

Abstract

This study analyzed institutional documents in engineering at research-intensive institutions to uncover the hidden curriculum for achieving tenure. Our analysis uses Critical Discourse Analysis to contextualize the continued underrepresentation of FOC in engineering through exploring the implicit social, academic, and cultural messages within institutional documents. The main findings were the lack of recognition of service and inclusion work as a tenure criterion, variable “norms” of tenure of achievement, and identity evasiveness. This demonstrates implications for hiring, onboarding, and the tenure process to improve FOC’s experiences and outcomes.

Authors

• Charlie Diaz, University of Pittsburgh

• Linda DeAngelo, University of Pittsburgh

• Nelson O.O. Zounlome, University of Pittsburgh

• Jacqueline Rohde, Georgia Institute of Technology