The Tenure System in Engineering

工程领域的终身教职制度

• 批准号: 0610402
• 负责人: Roli Varma
• 金额: $ 1.02万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-03-01 至 2006-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0610402&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Tenure; System; Engineering

The Tenure System in EngineeringRoli VarmaUniversity of New MexicoThis proposal studies the importance of the tenure system in engineering in institutions of highereducation. The tenure system distinguishes the academy from other forms of professional work.However, the rapid reduction of tenure-track positions and the rise of part-time and non-tenuretrack positions has reduced the importance of the tenure system. Most importantly, the tenuresystem has become a controversial subject that passionately divides scholars between those whoargue for maintaining the system and those who argue for eliminating it. The proposal focuses onengineering because it makes an interesting case study of the technical system and human values.This is primarily a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 15+ subjects. Thissample includes 10-12 engineering faculty who are tenured and on tenure-track, female andminority faculty, and faculty who are in their terminal year from one public university and oneprivate university. The sample of tenured and on tenure-track faculty will be drawn randomlywhere as the sample of female and minority faculty and the faculty in their terminal year will beselected via snowball sampling method.Intellectual MeritEngineering is one of the best disciplines in which to illuminate the underlying roles of thetenure system that go beyond the traditional justification of academic freedom. Engineering, as atechnical field, is unlikely to investigate those problems that result in deep-rooted prejudice andintense emotional reaction for which tenure has been justified. Yet engineering design is adecision-making process in which technical knowledge is applied to convert resources into asocially required product. Engineering design implies some understanding of the structure ofsociety, social organizations, work environment, peoples safety, and protection of theenvironment. Furthermore, engineering deals with technologies that have profoundlytransformed society since World War II. Most importantly, engineering faculty increasinglycollaborate with industry which undermines the traditional notion of academic autonomy. Inother words, engineering is not really value neutral as proclaimed. An investigation intowhether engineering faculty involved in social and political questions relevant to the universityface challenges during the tenure process, whether the engineering faculty with industry s linkshave a competitive edge in securing tenure, and whether women and minorities face additionalhardship in tenure promotion in engineering, will show the underlying relationship betweentechnical and social systems.Broader ImpactThis is a pilot study; findings from this study will result in a full proposal to the NSF on August1, 2006. In probing the importance of tenure to academic personnel, it is likely to illuminatestructures of status and opportunity in academia. It will also show the ways in which thesupposed political neutrality of engineering is constructed despite patently social and politicalviews held by engineering faculty. It will provide data for social scientists concerned with socialequity. This project also has great potential to contribute to undergraduate teaching; the findingscan be incorporated in future teaching. It is especially important because engineering students arein great need of understanding the social and political dimensions of their own curricular anddisciplinary worlds.

美国新墨西哥大学工程学终身教职制度的研究本提案研究了高等教育机构工程学终身教职制度的重要性。终身制使学院有别于其他形式的专业工作。然而，终身制职位的迅速减少以及兼职和非终身制职位的增加降低了终身制的重要性。最重要的是，终身制已经成为一个有争议的话题，学者们激烈地将其分为支持保留终身制的人和反对废除终身制的人。该提案关注工程学，因为它对技术系统和人类价值进行了有趣的案例研究。这主要是一项基于对15个以上主题的深入访谈的定性研究。这个样本包括10-12个工程系的终身教职和终身教职的轨道，女性和少数民族教师，以及教师谁是在他们的终端一年从一所公立大学和一所私立大学。终身教职和终身教职的样本将被随机抽取，女性和少数民族教师的样本以及他们最后一年的教师将通过滚雪球抽样方法选出。智力卓越工程是最好的学科之一，它阐明了终身教职制度的潜在作用，超越了学术自由的传统理由。工程学作为一个技术领域，不太可能调查那些导致根深蒂固的偏见和强烈的情感反应的问题，而终身教职是合理的。然而，工程设计是一个决策过程，在这个过程中，技术知识被应用于将资源转化为社会所需的产品。工程设计意味着对社会结构、社会组织、工作环境、人员安全和环境保护的一些理解。此外，工程学涉及自二战以来深刻改变社会的技术。最重要的是，工程学院越来越多地与工业界合作，这破坏了学术自主的传统观念。换句话说，工程学并不像宣称的那样是价值中立的。本研究通过对涉及大学相关社会和政治问题的工程系教师在终身教职过程中是否面临挑战、与行业有联系的工程系教师在确保终身教职方面是否具有竞争优势以及女性和少数族裔在工程系终身教职晋升中是否面临额外困难的调查，将揭示技术和社会制度之间的潜在关系。这项研究的结果将于2006年8月1日提交给美国国家科学基金会。在探讨终身教职对学术人员的重要性时，它可能会阐明学术界的地位和机会结构。它还将显示，尽管工程学院持有明显的社会和政治观点，但工程的政治中立性是如何构建的。它将为关注社会公平的社会科学家提供数据。该项目也有很大的潜力，以促进本科教学; findingcan被纳入未来的教学。这一点尤其重要，因为工程专业的学生非常需要了解他们自己的课程和学科世界的社会和政治层面。