Launching successful beginnings for early career faculty: Ten tips for new professors of recreational therapy

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-37
Author(s):  
Bryan P. McCormick, PhD, CTRS, FDRT, FALS ◽  
David R. Austin, PhD, FDRT, FALS
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Recreational Therapy ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Senior Faculty ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Faculty Careers ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Early Career Faculty ◽  
Faculty Positions

A number of previous authors have identified concerns about a shortage of future PhD graduates to assume recreational therapy (RT) faculty positions to educate future recreational therapists and contribute to the profession’s body of knowledge. While some recreational therapists have decided to pursue their terminal degrees and assume faculty positions, there is relatively little information to guide those transitioning from graduate student to new faculty member. Drawing upon the experiences of senior faculty reported in the literature as well as our own experiences, this article presents a series of tips to help those recreational therapists transitioning from practice to strategically navigate the beginning of new faculty careers. These tips cover careers across the spectrum of types of institutions of higher education.

Partnerships Enhancing Practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Servilio ◽  
Aleksandra Hollingshead ◽  
Brittany L. Hott
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Junior Faculty ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Senior Faculty ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Early Career Faculty ◽  
Teaching In Higher Education

In higher education, current teaching evaluation models typically involve senior faculty evaluating junior faculty. However, there is evidence that peer-to-peer junior faculty observations and feedback may be just as effective. This descriptive case study utilized an inductive analysis to examine experiences of six special education early career faculty, from different institutions, using the partnerships that enhance practice (PEP) model for technology-based observations of teaching in higher education. PEP paired early career faculty into dyads. Each participant served as a provider and a recipient of feedback on teaching. The data were derived from semistructured interviews with each dyad and additional information was obtained from four instruments that facilitated peer-to-peer observations. Findings suggest this technology-based model has the potential to improve teaching skills and serve as a tool for developing professional partnerships among special education early career faculty across institutions.

The recreational therapy faculty shortage: A crisis for the profession

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Marieke Van Puymbroeck, PhD, CTRS, FDRT ◽  
David R. Austin, PhD, FDRT, FALS
Keyword(s):  
Retirement Age ◽  
Recreational Therapy ◽  
Senior Faculty ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Faculty Shortage ◽  
Faculty Positions

A national shortage of doctorally prepared faculty is threatening the health and longevity of the field of recreational therapy. As more faculty reach retirement age, there are few new doctorally trained recreational therapists available to fill this gap. In 2014 alone, more than 15 faculty positions were available, and there was only one new PhD on the market. When existing faculty move to fill these positions, gaps are created in university recreational therapy programs across the country. This article reviews how substantial and potentially damaging this shortage is and provides a number of suggestions for addressing the shortage. These suggestions include retaining senior faculty, increasing the number of doctorally prepared recreational therapists, and recruiting new faculty.

Three Challenges of Early-Career Faculty and the Importance of Self-Care

2021 ◽  
pp. 227-250
Author(s):  
Aaron Samuel Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Faculty Member ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Learning To Teach ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Early Career Faculty ◽  
Taking Care

This chapter presents three challenges associated with being an early-career faculty member: learning to teach in the context of higher education, learning to advise in the context of higher education, and learning to cope with organizational change. After describing the nature of these challenges in detail, the framework of self-care is introduced. Seven strategies are presented: insisting that your students take responsibility for their actions, learning to say no, learning to identify burnout in your colleagues, establishing a network of family and friends, scheduling breaks throughout the day and doing things you enjoy, taking care of yourself physically, and not trying to be perfect. The aim of this chapter is for readers to understand more comprehensively (some of) the challenges associated with becoming an early-career faculty member and to acquire some strategies that can help one to cope with these challenges before, during, and after experiencing these challenges.

scholarly journals Rising Star Early-Career Faculty Award Lecture

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 868-868
Author(s):  
Cynthia Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Early Career ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Early Career Faculty

Abstract The Rising Star Early-Career Faculty Award lecture will feature an address by2020 recipient Laurinda Reynolds, MA. The Rising Star Early-Career Faculty Award acknowledges new faculty whose teaching and leadership stand out as influential and innovative.

scholarly journals Rising Star Early-Career Faculty Award Lecture and Cyber-Pedagogy Panel Discussion

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 271-272
Author(s):  
Kara Dassel ◽  
Candace Brown
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Panel Discussion ◽  
Early Career ◽  
University Of North Carolina ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Review Panel ◽  
Early Career Faculty ◽  
The University

Abstract The Rising Star Early-Career Faculty Award lecture will feature an address by 2021 recipient Candace S. Brown, PhD, MA, MEd, of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. The Rising Star Early-Career Faculty Award acknowledges new faculty whose teaching and leadership stand out as influential and innovative. This event will also feature a panel discussion led by the AGHE Awards Review Panel titled, “Cyber-Pedagogy to the Rescue: Creating Effective Online Programming for Students and Trainees During the Pandemic.”

Creating Cultures of Daring Greatly for Early-Career Teachers and Early-Career Faculty

2021 ◽  
pp. 329-348
Author(s):  
Aaron Samuel Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Role ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Academic Cultures ◽  
Early Career Teacher ◽  
Early Career Faculty ◽  
Career Teachers ◽  
Career Teacher

Being an early-career teacher and an early-career faculty member are experiences that are fraught with vulnerability. Yet, the vulnerability that underlies these processes of becoming are not always addressed within academic cultures. Unless early-career teachers and early-career faculty are taught how to engage with vulnerability productively, early-career teachers and early-career faculty may blame themselves for the challenges that they encounter, when, in fact, these challenges may be more indicative of the complexity of their professional role rather than a reflection of their personal shortcomings. This chapter will draw on the writing of Brene Brown to describe how early-career teachers and early-career faculty members can choose to engage with vulnerability by daring greatly. This chapter will also make recommendations for how programs of teacher education and institutions of higher education can promote cultures in which the disposition of daring greatly is encouraged and supported.

scholarly journals A short Teaching Residency Spanning 1,657 Miles

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-90
Author(s):  
Michèle Shuster ◽  
Karen Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Training ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Undergraduate Teaching ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Faculty Positions ◽  
Academic Faculty

In scientific disciplines, most postdoctoral fellowships focus on research training. Postdoctoral fellows (“postdocs”) develop research expertise and research projects that they will use in future independent faculty positions. This research focus often precludes opportunities for undergraduate teaching. However, most academic faculty positions require faculty to teach at the undergraduate level. The result is that many postdocs are exceptionally well-qualified to meet the research expectations of future faculty positions, but lack experience and training in innovative and evidence-based undergraduate teaching strategies. Training in evi-dence-based teaching approaches can result in two tangible outcomes. First, the quality of applications by the postdocs for tenure-track faculty positions at institutions with substan-tive teaching expectations can be improved. Second, we can anticipate stronger alignment of teaching and learning expectations between new faculty and their undergraduate students. There are many programs that provide training in teaching to early career researchers. We describe the design and implementation of a mentored teaching experience that faced some unique challenges, including a large geographic distance between the postdocs and the teaching mentor and teaching site. We describe how we addressed the challenges, what the benefits to various stakeholders have been, and the key elements that contributed to the success of the program.

scholarly journals Enacting Efficacy in Early Career: Narratives of Agency, Growth, and Identity

10.28945/3623 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 043-058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth K Niehaus ◽  
Jillian Reading ◽  
Crystal E Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Graduate Education ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Education Administration ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Professional Identities ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Early Career Faculty ◽  
The Many

Aim/Purpose: To explore how early career faculty in the field of higher education administration develop and enact their personal and professional identities. Background: Participants sought to understand themselves, to understand their environments and the “rules” of the academic “game,” and to reconcile conflicts between their own values and identities and the expectations and culture of their environments. Methodology: In-depth case studies of seventeen early career scholars in the field. Contribution: The participants’ experiences underscore important implications for mentoring and socialization that takes into consideration the unique motivation and identity development of aspiring and new faculty members. Findings: Identifies the early career period as one where new faculty are working to develop a strong internal foundation upon which they can manage the many challenges of their personal and professional lives. Recommendations: The findings point to implications for practice, both in graduate education and in departments hiring new faculty members.

Seeking “better ways”: early career faculty researcher development

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Claire K. Robbins ◽  
Lucy A. LePeau
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Instrumental Case Study ◽  
Graduate Preparation ◽  
Researcher Development ◽  
Early Career Faculty

Purpose Researcher development is an important but underexplored topic with implications for knowledge production, graduate education, faculty development and equity in higher education. The purpose of this constructivist instrumental case study was to understand how the process of writing and publishing from qualitative dissertations sparked researcher development among two pre-tenure faculty members in higher education. Design/methodology/approach Two researchers and seven data sources (i.e. six essays and one dialogue transcript) were used to construct the case. Researchers first inductively and independently coded the data sources. Researchers then collectively used the constant comparative technique (Charmaz, 2014) for data analysis. Findings Data analysis uncovered an iterative, three-phase process of seeking “better ways” (Evans, 2011) to translate dissertations into publications. This process included (1) recognizing one or more issues in the research design or conveyance of data, (2) rallying in a multitude of ways to seek better ways to address the issue(s) and (3) resolving the issue(s) by following internal voices and finding “better ways”. Originality/value Findings offer implications for faculty members’ approaches to mentoring and graduate preparation, and for postdoctoral and early career scholars’ agentic approaches to publishing, teaching and reflecting on one’s own researcher development.

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