Choosing your engagements: tenure and work life at state comprehensive universities

Gump, Steven E.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/29547 Copy

Description

Title

Choosing your engagements: tenure and work life at state comprehensive universities

Author(s)

Gump, Steven E.

Issue Date

2012-02-01T00:54:53Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Cain, Timothy R.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Ikenberry, Stanley O.

Committee Member(s)

• Cain, Timothy R.
• Bresler, Liora
• Schwandt, Thomas A.

Department of Study

Ed Organization and Leadership

Discipline

Ed Organization and Leadership

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Tenure
• Faculty
• Work Life
• State Comprehensive Universities
• United States Postsecondary Dducation

Abstract

Based on interviews with eighteen tenured faculty members in departments of history at eight non-urban state comprehensive universities in the Midwestern, Northeastern, and Southeastern United States, this qualitative study investigated the perceived effects of tenure on faculty work life. The data suggest that these faculty members see tenure as an opportunity to choose their own engagements with the aspects of faculty work life that most suit their interests, abilities, and personalities. A sense of liberation, flexibility, and control is grounded, post-tenure, in an increased sense of responsibility that is located and manifested both within their institutions as well as within the discipline of history. / Preliminary chapters describe the institutional and disciplinary contexts and survey the evolution of studies on the occupational culture of academe. Findings are presented in two chapters, with the first exploring institutional considerations, including how tenure is conceptualized and how the expectations for tenure were understood and negotiated, and the second focusing on how the participants’ post-tenure work lives have differed from their pre-tenure work lives. Both findings chapters include sections addressing the domains of teaching, research, and service; the second explores additional themes related to faculty work life. / A concluding chapter summarizes the core findings, offers implications for the future of tenure, presents reflections on noteworthy conditions, and provides suggestions for future research. Appendices include an essay on faculty unions (present at three of the eight sites) and a list of the 273 state comprehensive institutions in the United States (based on the 2010 classifications by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching).

Graduation Semester

2011-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/29547

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2011 Steven E. Gump

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