Collegiate educators - a question.

Long story short:
The question came up at work today about what does it take to teach college. Several of us knew/know those who are elementary or secondary teachers and know that there are college courses and degrees for such. But what about at the college level? I know it differs from community college to ivy league educators, but what does it take to become one?
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Unlike K-12 where teachers have to be certified by the state and have to complete a minumum number of hours in education coursework to be certified, colleges have more flexiblity in hiring.

As has been noted, most faculty possess at least a masters degree and many have a doctorate. Most schools focus more on expertise in a subject area and less on coursework in education. One regional accreditor (SACS, I believe) works with a minimum standard of 18 hours in a field before being considered qualified to teach. Professional accreditors generally expect more. In some cases schools value industry experience or certification (such as a CPA).

One general rule of thumb is that college teachers normally possess a college degree above the level of those they are teaching - that is to say, undergraduate faculty have at least a masters and graduate faculty have a doctorate. This isn't always followed.

It would seem that adult leaners require less focus on teaching methods and more on the subject. However, there is a field called "androgy", that is pedagogy for adults. It is encouraging to see more research and work in the methodology of teaching at the college level.

Regards - Andy

 

Andragogy. Androgy would be the study of men.

Andragogy as an academic field has been around a while though - we just call it Training and Development.

There is a certain expectation at the collegiate level that professors will have specific expertise in the subject area whereas at the K-12 level we require teachers to have a degree in education (education as the academic field).

It surprises most people to learn that a person with a PhD in Physics isn't qualified to teach HS Physics according to most states - he'd have to get some additional training in education and possibly even a Master's in education depending on the state.

Generally speaking, vocational educators can get by with having whatever certification is required in their field plus some experience. Those teaching at the academic level in a community college or the lower levels at a 4-year would be required to have a master's (preferably in the subject) and can get by with a master's in anything as long as they have 18 grad hours in the subject.

Teaching specialized courses in a 4-year will require a master's in the subject but the doctorate or other terminal degree will be preferred. Full tenure positions (such as Professor of History) will almost always require a PhD though in a couple fields other doctorates (even certain master's) will be sufficient if the candidate is otherwise outstanding. A well published fiction writer with an MFA can sometimes get a tenure track position in creative writing for example.

There is generally no state licensing of collegiate educators as there is in the K-12 realm.

 

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools requires that one should have a doctorate in one's field or a master's in one's field or a master's with concentration (18 hours) in one's field. Frankly, though one could qualify to teach college under the 18 hour rule, the more degrees the better given the tight academic labor market. If one hopes to get a full-time tenure track position at a doctorate-granting institution, you will want a record of publishing journal articles in your field on top of your brand shiny new PhD. The master's degree might get you an adjuncting position, though with the glut of PhD's on the market, many of them will be looking for adjunct positions as well. Those universities that cater to working adults (those with primarily online and evening/weekend programs) will tend to place a premium on actual work experience in your field.

By the way, can somebody go back into the archives and find Tony Pina's most excellent essay on what it takes to become a professor?

 

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=23206

 

Everything above is great advice. About the lowest qualifications I have seen for an instructor is a Bachelors Degree and a CPA for a small community college that was really having trouble finding adjuncts.

 

There is generally no state licensing of collegiate educators as there is in the K-12 realm.[/QUOTE]

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I don't know about nationally, but at my community college in Iowa, our FULL TIME college instructors are required to be licensed in post-secondary education. Part time has no requirement. I want to add, that depending on the employer, this may be earned AFTER you are hired. That was my case, I had a year from my date of hire to obtain my license.

 

I found that very interesting indeed. What really surprised me though is that the requirement in Iowa that licenses a post-secondary instructor doesn't meet the standards set by SACS.

Are there other states that have licensing of community college faculty? I find this a little interesting and might like to write on it.

This doesn't seem like an unreasonable set of requirements for a community college educator, it actually appears relatively easy to achieve.

Any thoughts?

 

These requirements are what I would expect if a dean of a college of education got to write the law. I would be very interested in the history of this law and who lobbied for it.

 

• If you want to teach at the AS level, then you need an AS or a terminal degree in that field.
  
• If you want to teach at the AA level, then you need 18 graduate-level credits in the field that you want to teach.
  
• If you want to teach at the Bachelors level, then you need 18 graduate-level credits in the field that you want to teach.
  
• If you want to teach at the Masters level, then you need a Doctorate with 18 specialized credits in the field that you want to teach.

 

I'm not sure that this is correct in a majority of states and is definitely not true in some subjects in California. The California rules are used in other Western states and/or are followed informally. http://www.cccco.edu/divisions/esed/aa_ir/psmq/min_qual/min_quals%20_revFeb2406.pdf

For example, to teach community college Economics, you need a MA in Economics or a BA in Economics and an MBA or some similar combination. For some community college classes you do not need a masters, if a masters is not generally available in that discipline (auto repair comes to mind).

To teach at the Bachelor's level, you need a Masters including or in addition to 18 graduate hours in the subject in which you wish to teach. Thus you could teach English with an MBA plus 18 grad hours in English.

Although some schools and accreditors require it, not all schools require a doctorate to teach at the graduate level. However, one would definitely need the 18 grad hours and a PhD would give you an edge on your competitors who only posses a Masters.

 

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Yes, and community colleges really find ways to "meet the need" and fill positions outside of Arts and Sciences. Any career or trade track will value industry experience highly. Especially if there are certifications available. The loop hole they use is using adjunct faculty. We have dozens of programs that have NO full time faculty-probably never will.
Our culinary program has been in existence since 1992 and has over 100 students; we have never had a full time teacher. (the dept chair is the only full time employee, he does no teaching) My boss has total discretion to hire who he wants, and when it comes down to crunch time- if we have students in the seats, he WILL find a teacher...any teacher. The fact is, that the terminal associate degree programs ARE SO POPULAR that if someone wants to get into teaching, this really is a super easy way to do it. They will most likely fall on the floor and kiss your feet- there are never enough teachers to teach in these programs. (they are all busy working in industry to be available three days a week for peanuts).