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

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).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Ed Organization and Leadership

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Gump, Steven E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cain, Timothy R.
• Ikenberry, Stanley O.
• Bresler, Liora
• Schwandt, Thomas A.

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

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Steven E. Gump

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/29547