Sep 3, 2020
How institutions derail the tenure of women faculty of color
Recently, on a panel for an event called Negotiating Power & Status in the Academy, I spoke about how teaching is one of the main ways that institutions derail tenure for women faculty of color. In this episode, I break down why women faculty of color are so uniquely qualified to be excellent teachers; how they benefit the institutions where they teach; how they are derailed from promotions and tenure; the impacts of this treatment; and how to fix it. Sounds like a lot, right? We better get started!
Let’s talk about teaching
Institutions derail women faculty of color’s tenure primarily via teaching. We tend to focus on grants and research, but we must not overlook the importance teaching has for tenure, especially for women faculty of color. The experiences women faculty of colour have with teaching demonstrates a gendered and racist pattern in higher education, and it needs to be addressed. This experience isn’t anecdotal; this experience is grounded in research.
In this episode, I review the research on:
- The unique features and benefits of women faculty of color’s teaching (including how we teach students to question objectivity and the world at higher rates than other faculty)
- How campuses benefit from women faculty of color’s teaching (including helping them fulfill their stated commitments to a global, diverse society.
- How institutions derail us through teaching (including how women faculty of color and other diverse faculty are assigned higher teaching loads, have more new preps, more service and intro courses.
- How this impacts women faculty of color (including the physical and mental health outcomes, as well as retention, promotion and tenure)
- Strategies for administrators and allies (including the importance of changing classroom observation to bring in line with best practices. )
- And most importantly, strategies for women faculty of color (including how important it is to be strategic about teaching, not just for student learning, but to put yourself in a position to be retained, tenured and promoted)
Additional Resources (including articles mentioned in the podcast)
Evaluating the Teaching Effectiveness of Black Women Faculty https://effectivefaculty.podia.com/evaluating-the-teaching-effectiveness-of-black-women-faculty
Race and Gender Oppression in the Classroom: The Experiences of Women Faculty of Color with White Male Students
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0092055X10370120
Email me at chavella@effectivefaculty.org for more resources or support
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