Transitioning from Adjunct to Tenure Track

摘要

Three faculty members in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech discusstheir successful transitions from adjunct faculty to tenure-track faculty. One faculty member hadindustrial experience, worked as an adjunct in a community college before becoming tenuretrackfaculty, and is now a tenured faculty member. The second faculty member had experienceas a university researcher, worked as an instructor in one department and as an adjunct in anotherdivision at Virginia Tech before becoming a tenure-track faculty member in 1999. The thirdfaculty member worked as an adjunct for 2.5 years in what is now the Department ofEngineering Education and was hired as a tenure-track faculty member in 2003.The faculty members discuss differences in job expectations, employee benefits, and universityresources for adjunct and tenure-track positions, what they did to prepare for a tenure-trackposition, why they believe they were successful in obtaining a tenure-track position, andinterviewing for a tenure-track position. With the recent departmental shift from a primarilyteaching to a research-oriented focus, these three faculty members also elaborate on how they areapproaching this transition as well.