Professing to Learn: Creating Tenured Lives and Careers in the American Research University

by Anna Neumann

Overview

Research, teaching, service, and public outreach—all are aspects of being a tenured professor. But this list of responsibilities is missing a central component: actual scholarly learning—disciplinary knowledge that faculty teach, explore in research, and share with the academic community. How do professors pursue such learning when they must give their attention as well to administrative and other obligations?

Professing to Learn explores university professors’ scholarly growth and learning in the years immediately following the award of tenure, a crucial period that has a lasting impact on the academic career. Some launch from this point to multiple accomplishments and accolades, while others falter, their academic pursuits stalled. What contributes to these different outcomes?

Drawing on interviews with seventy-eight professors in diverse disciplines and fields at five major American research universities, Anna Neumann describes how tenured faculty shape and disseminate their own disciplinary knowledge while attending committee meetings, grading exams, holding office hours, administering programs and departments, and negotiating with colleagues. By exploring the intellectual activities pursued by these faculty and their ongoing efforts to develop and define their academic interests, Professing to Learn directs the attention of higher education professionals and policy makers to the core aim of higher education: the creation of academic knowledge through research, teaching, and service.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801891311
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2009
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Anna Neumann is a professor of higher education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the author of Professing to Learn: Creating Tenured Lives and Careers in the American Research University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Into the Middle: Mapping the Early Post-Tenure Career in the Research University
2. The Heart of the Matter: Passionate Thought and Scholarly Learning
3. Mindwork: What and How Professors Strive to Learn
4. Location: Where Professors Pursue Their Scholarly Learning
5. Becoming Strategic: Recently Tenured University Professors as Agents of Scholarly Learning
6. Organizing to Learn: What Universities Provide for Professors' Scholarly Learning
7. The Middle Remapped: Toward an Ecology of Learning in the Early Post-Tenure Career
Appendix A: Study Designs and Background Data
Appendix B: Interview Protocols and Consent Forms for the Four Universities Project
Appendix C: Framework: University Professors' Scholarly Learning
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Jack Schuster

An unusually nuanced, textured look at this special group of faculty who have recently 'passed the test' and been awarded tenure.

— Jack Schuster, coauthor of The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers

Gary Rhoades

Neumann's insightful analysis of early post-tenure faculty explores critical uncharted territory, debunking myths about tenured faculty. In framing faculty as learners she underscores our need to cultivate this core intellectual resource. Neumann's work reveals what animates professors, as they seek, over time, to learn. A must read for scholars and policymakers.

— Gary Rhoades, General Secretary, American Association of University Professors

Catharine R. Stimpson

By exploring the lives of newly tenured professors, Anna Neumann provides a compelling picture of the modern university itself. Animating her work and adding to its value is her belief that scholarly learning, or passionate thought, is nothing less than the 'heart of the university enterprise.' Professing to Learn is wise, humane, and sensible, and it will guide all of us who believe in the necessary and profound attractions of learning.

— Catharine R. Stimpson, New York University

From the Publisher

By exploring the lives of newly tenured professors, Anna Neumann provides a compelling picture of the modern university itself. Animating her work and adding to its value is her belief that scholarly learning, or passionate thought, is nothing less than the 'heart of the university enterprise.' Professing to Learn is wise, humane, and sensible, and it will guide all of us who believe in the necessary and profound attractions of learning.
—Catharine R. Stimpson, New York University

An unusually nuanced, textured look at this special group of faculty who have recently ‘passed the test’ and been awarded tenure.
—Jack Schuster, coauthor of The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers

Neumann’s insightful analysis of early post-tenure faculty explores critical uncharted territory, debunking myths about tenured faculty. In framing faculty as learners she underscores our need to cultivate this core intellectual resource. Neumann's work reveals what animates professors, as they seek, over time, to learn. A must read for scholars and policymakers.
—Gary Rhoades, General Secretary, American Association of University Professors

Editorial Reviews

Neumann has written a passionate text. She asks us to think about what matters to us—and what should matter. She contends that academic work is a calling, or a vocation . . . Any text that is so elegantly written on such an important topic deserves a careful reading even if we end up disagreeing with one or another point.
—William G. Tierney, Academe

A new perspective on the faculty career . . . Neumann provides the reader with an elegant and reverent understanding of this often misunderstood time in the career lives of faculty members while at the same time reminding us why we do what we do.
—Teachers College Record

This book should be read by all university leaders, policy makers, and professors because it sheds light on one of the most important aspects of higher education.
—Peter Grabe, Teaching Theology and Religion

From the Publisher

A new perspective on the faculty career . . . Neumann provides the reader with an elegant and reverent understanding of this often misunderstood time in the career lives of faculty members while at the same time reminding us why we do what we do.

Teachers College Record

This book should be read by all university leaders, policy makers, and professors because it sheds light on one of the most important aspects of higher education.

Teaching Theology and Religion - Peter Grabe

Neumann has written a passionate text. She asks us to think about what matters to us—and what should matter. She contends that academic work is a calling, or a vocation . . . Any text that is so elegantly written on such an important topic deserves a careful reading even if we end up disagreeing with one or another point.

Academe - William G. Tierney

This book should be read by all university leaders, policy makers, and professors because it sheds light on one of the most important aspects of higher education.

— Peter Grabe

Teaching Theology and Religion

Neumann has written a passionate text. She asks us to think about what matters to us—and what should matter. She contends that academic work is a calling, or a vocation... Any text that is so elegantly written on such an important topic deserves a careful reading even if we end up disagreeing with one or another point.

— William G. Tierney

Academe