Any College Profs in CatheNation?

[JT]

Hello Friends.

Consideirng a career in education at the college level, I have done some investigating on my creditentials to some colleges and I have some qualifications to teach.

My concern is I need full-time although many schools are hiring per class or per online semester plus my only teaching experience has been pre-schools at church.

Any advice and suggestions will be welcome. This is only one possibility for me because others are already in motion. Thanks for your assistance.


JT

 

[kathryn]

Hi, JT
I'm a French professor.

Do you have a PhD? In general, you will need one to be a full-time, tenure-track professor at a college, though it can vary based on department and university. Some of my now-retired (or deceased) collegues got a position with either an ABD (all but dissertation) or a Master's, but they were hired in the 60's or 70's when that was possible.

Some 1- or 2-year positions are sometimes available to ABD's or maybe those with a Master's degree (in some departments).

There are also annually-contracted positions, which are usually not full time (but can be) and can go to people with less than a PhD. We have two annually-contracted faculty in Spanish, who have been here for years. Sometimes they teach part-time, sometimes full time, depending on need. Both taught Spanish for years at High School level. Church pre-school teaching would not qualify.

At our University, once you are an AC for a few years, you can get a three-year (?) contract rather than a one-year contract.

What is your area of specialization?

You might try to look into Community College teaching, but you will still need at least a Master's degree in the area you are teaching.

HTH!

 

[maddiesmum]

I concur with everything Kathryn has said for the field of teaching modern languages. Unless you have the Ph.D and can go the tenure track route, there is not a whole lot of security in this profession.

Clare

 

[JT]

Hi Kathryn.
Yes, I have an MBA in Healthcare Management plus work experience in banking/finance. The community colleges and one four year university in my area accepts my degree but most require a PhD to get tenure.
It was a short-lived window of opportunity but worth investigating.

Thanks for your help.

JT

 

[Davidj]

I agree with kathryn's statements here.

I went back to do a PhD in my early 30's -- as a career change -- and it took a lot of work and study. One should only do a PhD unless you are a keener in your line of study, where you already are doing a lot of reading in your area. In my case, I found university work a reqarding career, the best move I have ever made.

Where I live and work, my university is laying off liberal-arts profesors, and only hiring a few science and health professors. Some are saying that university teaching is becoming obsolete, where more students are going on-line for their university education. You may want to try looking at teaching at an on-line school. Try going on the internet to find out the differences and growth prospects of bricks-and-mortar universities vs. on-line schools. My suspicion are that the on-line schools are growing faster. But I could be wrong.

Generally, university professors have three areas of work they must do: teaching, research and administrative duties. To get tenure (steady work with no layoffs) one must publish research. Otherwise, if you do sessional teaching, all you are required to do is to teach. But with sessional teaching, the pay is low and job security may not be that good.

If you know someone at college or university, I recommend speaking to that person to see if teaching is a practical career.
-- David