[2012-Jan-17] Academician vs someone from anywhere else

[FarcicalFiend]

Actually, the "Do your job" for a professor ought to be teaching the freaking class that their students are paying to take. Ironically, the pressure to publish often causes that part of things to fall by the wayside...

FALSE!

Well, somewhat false. If you look at the history of higher education you'll see that universities exists much more for the purpose of providing a place for knowledge to grow via discussion, research, etc. than a place for people to go and get degrees. Secondly, most professors are not trained as educators. They have little knowledge of actually 'teaching'. What they tend to be is experts in their field and the idea is that they can share their knowledge with a body of students who are smart enough to figure it out on their own with a little guidance and direction.

Now some professors actually do a good job of "teacher" but speaking as someone with two degrees in education it was woefully apparent to me how many of my college professors (especially in the non-education domains) knew about topics such as curriculum design, authentic and accurate assessment, and effective instructional strategies. Far too often I could pass a class just by applying game theory to the syllabus and not learning a lick of the subject matter (if I so chose).

Yes, I am speaking in generalities, but the notion that college professors are principally paid educators is just erroneous.

As others have mentioned, this is generally different in community colleges where the atmosphere is more of an extension of high school. This also can vary depending on the coursework or class load assigned to a professor. But ultimately it comes down to "do your job" if your employer expects you to publish research then "do your job" and publish research. Can't get published? Get a new job where the expectations are quite so high. I honestly enjoy the research element of my field and even though I'm in a job where my primary focus is "teaching," I work with primary age students, I am constantly looking for ways to become more involved in research and professional publication.

[PapaSloth]

As others have mentioned, this is generally different in community colleges where the atmosphere is more of an extension of high school.

I wouldn't say that's it's an extension of high school, exactly. My average student's age is 34. I bet that's higher than any of your average students' ages, unless you teach CC as well. What I would say is that CC focuses more on preparation of applicable job skills and less on theoretical knowledge. My students are either working for a living, or want to get a job in the field they're studying in, for the most part. I need to teach them the skills they need to succeed at their profession. There is a level of focus and maturity that you wouldn't find in most high school students, though my students may lack the study skills and background knowledge you'd expect to see in many university students.

I chose to teach CC because I wanted to make a difference in my students' lives. If you want prestige or you value the advancement of knowledge, teach at a Uni. If you value teaching and community service, teach at a CC (if you can afford to. I've done pretty well in the "real world," so I can afford to treat teaching as a hobby that happens to pay a little bit. If I needed the money, things might be different).

[Keef]

I’d like to drop in a quick word from someone who isn't part of the Academic world. I have a job which has a very precise and detailed job description. This job requires several hours a day of stressful skilled work as well as creative problem solving. The basic job alone drives many people away screaming. But that's not all there is to it. I'm also expected to maintain certifications, many of which serve only one purpose. They look good on paper and that makes management look good to upper management. Many of the certifications I'm required to have contain no relation to my job. Yet if I don't do the extracurricular training on the side, in my own time and on my own dime, I lose my job. Publish or die, certify or die, overtime or die. It's all the same. I've known several people from the Academic field that have come down to the cushy life in the so called real world only to run back to their institutions when they can't cut it. I'm not saying the Academic world isn't hard, unfair, and ridiculous. I'm saying it doesn't matter what you do, unless you're self employed doing something you love it's going to make demands. Zach's comic seems to be to be simply pointing out that none of us have it any easier or harder than each other, with rare exceptions of course. Then again maybe I'm wrong. I've got no right to speak for other people, these are only my thoughts.

[KidArt]

I think a lot of people here are missing the point - research and publishing are two completely different things.
Let's assume a university professor's main job is research (and I really do believe this assumption is correct in almost every case, but that's not the point). In theory, it should be possible to work for a decade on an extremely hard problem, solve it, publish one paper - and, well, that IS doing your job. In practice, the "publish or perish" system forces constant publishing just to stay afloat (especially for young researchers without tenure), which takes time away from *actual* research, and doesn't let researchers focus on long-term projects. Now, if we happen to remember that the ability to focus on long-term projects without constantly looking into short-term gains is exactly what's supposed to set academia apart from the industry... well, this situation sucks, not even on a personal but on a systemic level.

[Pitch Hitter]

all this is very important


it's important we get this sorted, imagine the consequences!

[PapaSloth]

all this is very important


it's important we get this sorted, imagine the consequences!

Damn, I didn't realize we were doing something important. I thought we were just shooting the shit for our own entertainment. Boy, is my face red!

[Gangler]

I’d like to drop in a quick word from someone who isn't part of the Academic world. I have a job which has a very precise and detailed job description. This job requires several hours a day of stressful skilled work as well as creative problem solving. The basic job alone drives many people away screaming. But that's not all there is to it. I'm also expected to maintain certifications, many of which serve only one purpose. They look good on paper and that makes management look good to upper management. Many of the certifications I'm required to have contain no relation to my job. Yet if I don't do the extracurricular training on the side, in my own time and on my own dime, I lose my job. Publish or die, certify or die, overtime or die. It's all the same. I've known several people from the Academic field that have come down to the cushy life in the so called real world only to run back to their institutions when they can't cut it. I'm not saying the Academic world isn't hard, unfair, and ridiculous. I'm saying it doesn't matter what you do, unless you're self employed doing something you love it's going to make demands. Zach's comic seems to be to be simply pointing out that none of us have it any easier or harder than each other, with rare exceptions of course. Then again maybe I'm wrong. I've got no right to speak for other people, these are only my thoughts.

Hell, a lot of people would be happy if they could just get called in for a shift once in a while. Job security? I think there's a single person in my life who has that. A relatively easy job. The ability to contact a union representative if she's asked to do something outside her job description. Underpaid and the stress of dealing with the clients is probably what'll kill her when all is said and done. She says I have an easy life. I say she's got a house, a fridge full of food, and personal safety. Grass is always greener on the other side.

[ibreed]

I am an academic. When I saw this cartoon, I was immensely and immediately offended and I didn't find it funny at all. However, I've found it quite hard to say why, other than that it cut me to the core. This does indeed seem to be true enough. I hate publish and perish. I probably work a 90 hour, 7-day week on teaching and research, and I'm probably still going to perish, because in fact sheer time devoted to research does not equate regularly to publications. However, I accept that many jobs have similar issues. I think what I found so offensive about this is then not that it implied that the problems facing academics are not unique, but that it implies that this situation is ok across the board. The non-academic is smiling broadly in the cartoon. I think we should all be quite pissed off about the situation for professionals where our jobs have taken over our lives and have no security attached to compensate, rather than attacking academics for being pissed off about this.

There's also something else about publish-or-perish, namely that it has really invidious consequences in terms of the research that gets done. If you pump out glib publications you are rewarded; people are no longer allowed to spend years working on a problem before getting results. I actually think there might be a difference between research work and other types of job in this regard. Some things just take an inordinate amount of time to gestate and finalise. Now, everyone publishes everything at the first opportunity. Moreover, everyone is now too busy publishing to read very much. It is, in short, destroying the intellectual culture of academia, even if thereby eliminating lazy academics who never did any work.