Faculty at Midcareer

Dear Colleagues,

There is a twofold impetus for this proposed Special Issue. Firstly, there is recognition among scholars that the period in an academic’s career that follows the award of tenure and (usually) promotion to associate professor entails some form of decline. This decline occurs in the area that scholars identify as necessary for the attainment of full professor: research. There is a tendency among professors at midcareer to report less meaningful results from research and less research output. There is a risk that this decline can result in a flatline in measurable achievements over the 10 years that follows the tenure award. Secondly, there is recognition from the completion of a scoping review that the scholarly literature on the midcareer favors anecdotes, conjectures, and program evaluations as sources. These pieces of scholarly work are problematic in that they lack a system for data collection and analysis. There is not a clear method for the development of results. The third type of scholarly work is especially problematic—the authors of these studies conclude that their programs are successful but they do not clearly identify the metrics that they use to make such conclusions. These papers read instead as manifestos for the continuation of the program. They become pleas for more funds from the central administration of a single institution. It is unclear how the programs are replicable in other universities. This Special Issue is part of ongoing research on midcareer faculty, and its editors invite submissions from scholars who study this period of faculty life to help them shape a scholarly direction for the field.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Heather Kanuka
Dr. Jonathan Anuik
Guest Editors

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• midcareer faculty
• associate professor
• faculty life