Without discounting the work of the departmental RTR committees, I'm posting
this message for your reflection.

----------
From: Rick Reis <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 17:51:13 -0800
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: TP  Msg. #691 TEACHING AND RESEARCH: THE TABLES TURNED

"Faculty members emerge from the library or laboratory and heave a
sigh of relief: "Thank goodness I've finished all my research for
this year!  Now I can get on with my real work!"  Rushing back to the
classroom, they throw themselves with relish into the job they have
trained to do through years of graduate study, the labor for which
they are recognized and rewarded by their peers and their
institutions: the "real work" of teaching."

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Folks:

The posting below is an interesting take on how things would look if
the roles of university teaching and research were reversed. It is by
Helen Sword, Centre for Professional Development University of
Auckland, New Zealand. ([log in to unmask]) First published in
Educational Developments 6.2 (May 2005). Reprinted with permission.

Regards,

Rick Reis

[log in to unmask]
UP NEXT: New Multi-disciplinary College Curriculum about Wal-Mart

                   Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning

               ----------------------------------- 356 words
----------------------------------

               TEACHING AND RESEARCH: THE TABLES TURNED

Imagine, if you can, an academic universe in which the roles of
teaching and research have been suddenly and magically reversed.

Faculty members emerge from the library or laboratory and heave a
sigh of relief: "Thank goodness I've finished all my research for
this year!  Now I can get on with my real work!"  Rushing back to the
classroom, they throw themselves with relish into the job they have
trained to do through years of graduate study, the labor for which
they are recognized and rewarded by their peers and their
institutions: the "real work" of teaching.

Committed research scholars, meanwhile, profess frustration at the
inequities of the system, but their complaints fall on deaf ears.
Indeed, their excessive attention to research is secretly regarded by
their peers as a sign of intellectual deficiency. "If so-and-so were
a truly talented teacher," colleagues mutter to one another at
cocktail parties, "s/he wouldn't waste so much time and energy on
research."  Newly hired faculty who want to pursue cutting-edge
research methodologies are actively discouraged by their department
Chairs, who urge them to focus on their teaching instead: "You have
to think about your career, you know!"

When asked by administrators and promotion committees to develop
measures for demonstrating research competence, faculty rise up in
anger. "How can anyone really measure or evaluate good research?"
they demand.  "Research is a private matter, a matter of personal
style."  These same scholars have no qualms, needless to say, about
subjecting their teaching to collegial scrutiny and rigorous peer
review.  Indeed, they love to fly off to far-flung conferences where
they can engage in lively disciplinary debates with teaching
colleagues from around the world, leaving behind the drudgery of
their research obligations.

Top universities maintain their international stature by offering
generous funding for innovative teachers, with additional support
from government and industry sources.  Academic units devoted to the
promotion of research excellence, by contrast, remain consistently
underfunded and understaffed.  University administrators do pay a
certain amount of lip service to the importance of supporting stellar
researchers; but under their breaths, they all recite the same
mantra:  "This is a teaching university!"

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-- 
Dr. Deborah A. McAllister, Ed.D., UC Foundation Professor
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
College of Health, Education, and Professional Studies
Teacher Preparation Academy, Dept. 4154
310C Hunter Hall, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37403

Phone: (423) 425-5376 - FAX: (423) 425-5380 - Home: (423) 842-1607
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