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Article Excerpt
The purpose of the present study was to determine the perceptions of expectations and practices that contribute to decisions regarding promotion and tenure for counselor educators. Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs liaisons for 74 counselor education programs responded to an Internet-based survey about perceptions of promotion and tenure practices in their programs and institutions. The responses indicate that relatively equal emphasis is placed on teaching, scholarship, and service. Implications for defining promotion and tenure criteria are discussed, and recommendations for further research are provided.
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There is a paucity of literature addressing perceived expectations of counselor educators related to tenure and promotion decisions and how these expectations shift across academic rank. Pretenured faculty members report frustration and anxiety associated with unclear and conflicting information about the tenure process (Austin & Rice, 1998). The lack of clarity about what is necessary for success in the academic arena confounds the role overload of pretenured faculty. Emmert and Rollman (1997) proposed a formula for productivity (i.e., articles, papers/presentations, and books = scholarly contributions) to quantify the amount of scholarly contributions expected of faculty. Ramsey, Cavallaro, Kiselica, and Zila (2002) further supported a redefinition of a more broad and inclusive approach to scholarship. Yet there seems to be a developmental shift as counselor educators progress through the tenure and promotion process. The concerns of tenured faculty tend to revolve around departmental climate and collegiality rather than tenure and promotion practices (Leinbaugh, Igelman, & Hill, 2001).
Little has been written in the area of how counselor education programs actually view the critical elements associated with tenure and promotion decision making. Ramsey et al. (2002) provided perhaps the first study in more than 20 years related to promotion and tenure specific to counselor educators. The data collected in this foundational study examined scholarly productivity of counselor educators from 1992 to 1995. What is not yet clear, however, is how counselor education faculty perceive expectations not only in scholarship but also across requirements for promotion and tenure. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the counselor education literature regarding the perceptions of promotion and tenure processes. This research has significance to the profession in two broad categories. First, such research can provide a comprehensive perception of the current climate of promotion and tenure practices within counselor education, as represented by Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) liaisons. This perspective has received only limited attention in contemporary research. Second, pretenured faculty may feel better informed and more prepared to enter the promotion and tenure process with an understanding of perceptions of liaisons for accredited programs in the profession.
History and the Current Academic Arena
Most American institutions of higher education were founded in the dual missions of teaching, or the pursuit of higher learning, and service to humankind to aid an emerging nation. The Germanic model of scholarship began to take hold in North American institutions of higher education, and, as a result, scholarly productivity became the yardstick for measuring that productivity (Boyer, 1990). Research and publication have continued as a primary measure of faculty productivity in contemporary higher education (Boyer, 1990).
Measurement of productivity has evolved to now include teaching and service activities. Faculty members in most disciplines tend to engage in a wide variety of roles within, and outside of, the academy (Emmert & Rollman, 1997). It can be asserted that given the nature of the professional service focus of counseling, much of the work undertaken by a counselor education faculty member reflects a wide range of roles and functions. As a result, counselor educators continue to find themselves trying to balance the demands of research and the demands of teaching and service (Leverenz, 2000; Wilson, 2001). Arguments exist that such dualistic views are counter to what is being asked of, and valued in, a pretenured faculty member (Antony & Raveling, 1998). This view of criteria may run counter to the mission and expectations of both the institution and the counselor education programs therein. Disagreement about tenure criteria between individual departments and institutions as a whole further clouds the ability of pretenured faculty to determine their best practices within the profession (Leverenz, 2000).
It is safe to assume that good research, teaching, and service are expected of faculty members. Traditional scholarly activities, such as...
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