Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego (RA) has hired 16 new faculty members all in areas other than religion. Of these half are men. Six have MAs only but several of these 6 are in a doc program. In all cases the highest degree is from a school in the USA. Of the 10 docs eight are Phds, one EdD( 5 hired in Education) , and one DMA. I don't know if this data is of any significance at all, but I was a little surprised-- don't know if it is reasonable to be-- that some non docs were hired but none of the 16 hired were those with degrees from outside the USA. I think what most raised my eyebrows was one hired for the "Graduate Education Faculty" with only the MA in Educational Leadership;she has taught public school since 1990 though, guess that counts for something.
Bill, I just took a look at Point Loma's Graduate Studies website (http://www.ptloma.edu/graduate/) and I did not see any doctoral programs. I did, however, find five masters degrees and one educational specialist program: M.B.A. - Buisiness M.A./Ed.S. - Education M.S.N. - Nursing M.A./M.N. - Religion If the highest degree offered is at the masters or specialist level, a few non-doctorate faculty should not be a problem. Tony
Hi Tony I suppose that the gal mentioned as being hired into the "grad Ed Faculty" by Point Loma who has only an MA , despite your well intentioned reassurances, yet is enigmatic to me. I would think it curious for an MA only holder to teach in the MA curriculum. Seems a doc would be required to teach grad classes. In my MA in Theology work at Pasadena all the profs were docs. Except for one Thmmer , the Western Profs were all docs. Generally these had a ThD or PhD predicated on the 90 grad unit MDiv or the 120 grad unit ThM. In other words in my experience Theo profs have had 7-8 years of grad work whereas this gal teaching grad Ed has had 1-2. Bit of a discrepency there. Nice to hear from you.
Bill, My experience has been similar to yours. All of my graduate courses (At BYU, Arizona State and La Sierra U.) have all been taught by PhDs/EdDs. I have been teaching graduate (masters level) courses for Cal State U. since 1995 with a masters; however, I've been an adjunct prof. I've known universities to hire ABDs ("all but dissertation" completed in a doctoral program), but with the understanding that they must have their doctorate completed by a specific date. I have also known some full-time faculty at universities who have the masters as their terminal degree. In most every case that I recall, however, these non-doctoral faculty typically teach undergrad courses with an occassional grad course (one of the reasons that I am working heavily to finish my own doctorate). Some religiously affiliated institutions may have difficulty recruiting PhDs of their faith in certain subjects, although BYU (LDS) and La Sierra (Adventist) do not seem to have that problem. Tony Adjunct Faculty, School of Education California State U. San Bernardino
======================================== Tony Should you hear of an opening in the BYU faculty of Theology, put in a plug for me, would you? Perhaps I can straighten them out (hee, hee..sorry, couldn't resist...the devil made me do it! ) ===========================================
Bill, I'll be glad to put in a good word if you promise that after I finish at La Sierra, I can go back to BYU and take a Book of Mormon exegesis class from you! Tony (tongue place firmly on cheek) BTW, did you know that one of the BYU Religious Ed faculty used to be the chair of the religion department at a protestant-affiliated college? (bit o' meaningless trivia there)
I'm still slightly troubled by the assumption that only people with doctorates should teach graduate classes. I would argue that the determining factor probably should be knowledge, skills and experience. Particularly in applied subjects, the people with the most experience and the best skills might not have doctorates. In engineering, much of the cutting edge work is being done in industry where many employees have MSEE's and the like. And in education, who better to teach classroom practice courses than experienced teachers? If all of these people have to somehow obtain doctorates before they can become kosher, and if earning a doctorate takes years of full-time on-campus study, then either you will have a serious disconnect between theory and practice, or else you will have a real motivation to acquire a quick state-approved Ph.D.
Bill D I think that in the areas that I know much about, theology and education (to a much lesser extent) I would agree with you. Some few may be able to do a bang up job teaching grad classes in these with just the MA or even not having any degree because of significant experience and/or surpassing knowledge/skills. Again, my comment particularly was addressed to a woman hired to teach grad ed with only an MA. Yes, she has taught 10 years in public school. I don't see that as a *lot.* I'm in my 34th year. Of course, I could see myself by virtue of that experience teaching one or two selected classes in special ed..so you have a point.
Bill, All of the people I know who have gone the route of the state-approved doctorate have done so for the exact reason that you have stated above. While a grad student at Arizona State University, I noted that Walter Cronkite (who, according to the bios that I have read, left the University of Texas without having graduated) is a full professor of journalism at ASU. Of course, the school of journalism is named after him as well. The ASU journalism faculty listing is at http://www.asu.edu/cronkite/faculty.html There's a good argument for experience versus carnegie units. Tony
