Nationally accredited doctorate for teaching college classes

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by anngriffin777, Jul 9, 2017.

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  1. anngriffin777

    anngriffin777 New Member

    Hello. I want to teach college classes, perhaps online. I want a doctorate, but they are very expensive. I have a regionally accredited masters degree, but I am thinking about doing a nationally accredited doctorate degree. Do you folks think I can become a college professor anyway with those credentials at a regionally accredited college? I'd love your thoughts.
    Thanks.
    Ann Griffin.
     
  2. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I believe it's certainly possible; there have been people who've achieved tenure at RA schools with no doctorate at all, but they brought some sort of other expertise or notoriety to the table.

    I think some factors to consider are the field of study, the school where you would earn the doctorate, and the type of school where you'd like to teach. If you'd be happy teaching at an RA community college, where a Master's is generally all that's required, the doctorate would just be icing on the cake, so to speak. If you aspire to teach at a large university, then your doctorate will come under more intense scrutiny.

    So, I think the definitive answer is......"maybe". :ponder:
     
  3. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    It might depend a little on the subject to hope to teach. NA doctoral degrees are professional degrees and even the DA from Harrison Middleton is a teaching degree of sorts. In many cases your competition for jobs will be coming from people with RA doctoral degrees. We are generally led to believe that the NA doctoral degree will lose that competition in the vast majority of cases. It might give you an advantage over a Masters degree holder in the competition for a CC teaching job. Others may have a different opinion:dunno:
     
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Considering how poorly online teaching usually pays, it's rarely worth it to get a doctorate just for the chance to maybe get a few more gigs. Probably better to take 18 regionally accredited semester-hours in something that's hard for schools to find, like finance or statistics.
     
  5. Gabe F.

    Gabe F. Active Member

    "Expensive" is kind of an ambiguous term. Let us know a comfortable price range and perhaps someone here can identify some regionally accredited programs instead (then we can debate the pros/cons, merits, challenges, whatever of teaching online).
     
  6. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    Your odds are better if you spend more and get an RA doc. It's the safer route.
     
  7. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Hi anngriffin777. To answer your question: Yes, you can teach at an RA college with an RA Masters degree, particularly if you have valuable industry experience.

    Do you have any other questions you would like to have answered?
     
  8. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    That's not true, you technically don't even need a masters degree. I went to one Community College randomly and found four facility members teaching with no masters degree at all. The more rural you are willing to go, less credentials you need to teach.

    Two right here in this list-- AC Introduces New Hires for 2015-2016 - Angelina College
     
  9. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    What did he say that was not true? He said that you can teach with a masters, which is true. He did not say that a masters is the minimum required for all teaching jobs.

    There are some differences between the accreditors; but, from the guidelines I've read, an associate's or bachelor's is usually recommended for vocational instructors.
     
  10. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Online teaching pays squat for sure, but I think Ann is just asking about teaching in general.

    However, your point is relevant to classroom teaching as well; a doctorate is a huge investment of time and money if the sole purpose is to be an adjunct somewhere.
     
  11. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    You are taking me all wrong, it wasn't an attack. I found at that one school other instructors teaching course ranging from Human development to Criminal Justice.

    I checked other schools in rural areas and found the same. Seems as thought there is some slack in SACS. I taught a vocational course for several years at a CC at the time only had to have an associates degree. But the courses were for non-credit or could only be applied to a vocational associates degree. My friend teaches AC and has no degree, just the proper license
     
  12. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    b4cz28 :)

    Hi b4cz28. As Steve Levicoff would say: < SIGH >

    b4cz28, yes, it IS TRUE that anngriffin777 is eligible to teach at an RA college if she has an RA Masters. It's not a guarantee of employment because other variables must also be considered i.e. industry experience, certifications, instructional vacancies, the needs of the institution, politics, etc. However, to address what you are referring to, below you will find general RA guidelines for instructional qualifications at various levels.

    Degree Level & Academic Requirements to Teach at Various Degree Levels:

    1. AAS - Instructor needs to have an AAS in the discipline to be taught (and/or needs to be certified or licensed in the area to be taught).

    2. AS - Instructor needs to have an AS in the discipline to be taught.

    3. AA/BA/BS - Instructor needs 18 graduate-level credits in the discipline to be taught.

    4. Masters - Instructor needs a doctorate with a "specialization" in the discipline to be taught. The specialization must be listed on the doctoral transcript.

    5. Doctorate - Ibid

    (The above is rusty, so others can feel free to add updates or changes)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 10, 2017
  13. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    A "related field" or "closely related field" is usually sufficient. In my CJ Master's program, I had professors with doctorates in (besides CJ/Criminology) Sociology, Psychology, and Human Development. At my undergrad alma mater, the head of the CJ Master's program has his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology.
     
  14. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    That's true. And sometimes the field is completely unrelated. For example, our CJ program (circa 2001) had a tenured professor in the CJ department with an EdD, but he also had experience as a police chief, along with peer reviewed publishings. However, it seems that today, many institutions are tightening-up their requirements to be more in-line with RA standards (but not always). For example, there was a recent article here about a university that stopped a tenured professor from teaching philosophy because their Doctor in Philosophy degree was not in philosophy, but it was in a completely unrelated field.
     
  15. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    A large university, where I know people, advertised in the Chronicle of Higher Education -- the main place in the US for faculty help wanted ads -- for a position involving online work and four on-campus weeks a year. HRM. In the first week, they got 478 replies.

    Ms. Griffin (whom I used to correspond with privately) has three demographic characteristics that may well improve her chances.

    I have told here the story of how my wife, with an RA PhD in philosophy, was told by the local community college that she did not meet their degree requirements to teach philosophy. Because philosophy is in the humanities department, she would need a Master's in humanities. Happily she had one of those -- the online MA from Cal State Dominguez Hills -- and had a long and happy teaching career.
     
  16. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    I understand this all. I'm saying it seems lots of people are getting on at rural CC's with the minimum. Just saying lol. Not trying to start stuff...for once ;)

    I was just surprised. I expanded my search to four CC's and found over 15 faculty members without the proper qualifications.
     
  17. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    CJ is a combination of disciplines anyway. There aren't nearly enough people graduating with doctoral degrees in CJ and criminology, so schools are willing to hire anyone with a degree related to human behavior and research experience in CJ/criminology. I can't remember his name, but there is a prominent criminology professor with a degree in economics. His research applies economic theories to criminal behaviors.

    I don't know if this is still true, but my professor had us read this article in our proseminar class that talked about CJ/criminology professors. At the time, those with PhDs in sociology made up a plurality of the CJ/criminology professors at schools ranked in criminology.

    Off topic, but U.S. News hasn't ranked graduate criminology programs since 2009.
     
  18. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Here is the academic progression of CJ:
    - Sociology (it was all under this discipline)
    - Police Science (this was the first attempt as a discipline in the 1930s)
    - Administration of Justice (still in use in some places)
    - Criminology (somewhat rare as a degree unto itself, but still in use)
    - Criminal Justice (most popular)
    - Criminal Justice Administration (more marketable for aspiring supervisors)
    - Homeland Security (the newest specialization)

    Note: Public administration was popular for CJ administrators for a while, even though it has almost nothing to do with CJ.
     
  19. anngriffin777

    anngriffin777 New Member

    Doctoral degree expense

    For the person that asked what my idea of an expensive doctorate is, I'd say anything over 25k-30k sounds expensive to me. It seems that a DEAC accredited doctorate is doable in that price range at schools like Anaheim, Aspen, or Columbia Southern University. The regionally accredited schools that may be in that price range are American College of Education, University of The Cumberland, California Southern University, and Liberty University. Liberty is really my first choice and may be in the range with my job's corporation discount with Liberty. I'm not adventurous enough to try UNISA, and all of these fascinating inexpensive, overseas, doctorates I read about. Some genius needs to come up with a regionally accredited 2 year 15-20k fully online regionally accredited doctorate that includes ebooks, and all fees, with no gmat, mat, or gre exam. This degree may exist in a parallel universe, Oz, or in Narnia. Ha ha. Guess I'll get ready to work some overtime. No student loans for this gal. I truly don't want to go backwards to national accreditation since I've made it time regional. I'll see how it works out. I may say the heck with it and be satisfied with my awesome Masters degree.
    Ann Griffin.

    Ann Griffin.
     
  20. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    If you volunteer for some kind of emergency response organization (fire department, Civil Air Patrol, etc.), you can get a 25% discount at Liberty.
     

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