12.827, Disc: New: The Role of Lecturers in Universities

[The LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-12-827. Sun Mar 25 2001. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 12.827, Disc: New: The Role of Lecturers in Universities

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>
            Andrew Carnie, U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org):
	Simin Karimi, U. of Arizona
	Terence Langendoen, U. of Arizona

Editors (linguist at linguistlist.org):
	Karen Milligan, WSU 		Naomi Ogasawara, EMU
	Lydia Grebenyova, EMU		Jody Huellmantel, WSU
	James Yuells, WSU		Michael Appleby, EMU
	Marie Klopfenstein, WSU		Ljuba Veselinova, Stockholm U.

Software: John Remmers, E. Michigan U. <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
          Gayathri Sriram, E. Michigan U. <gayatri at linguistlist.org>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.


* The LINGUIST Fund Drive for 2001 has begun!  We need your help to
* continue providing the LINGUIST services.  Please go to the URL
* http://linguistlist.org/funddrive.html and make a donation.


Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karen at linguistlist.org>

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Sun, 25 Mar 2001 08:27:28 -0400
From:  Alain Thériault <theriaal at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA>
Subject:  What is the role of a lecturer?

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Sun, 25 Mar 2001 08:27:28 -0400
From:  Alain Thériault <theriaal at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA>
Subject:  What is the role of a lecturer?





	I just read a posting for a lecturer position on the list.
It seems to confirm some observations I have  made over the last few
years, observations that I shared with a few  colleagues and
professors. It looks like universities are trying to hire lecturers
as if they were trying to fill up tenure positions.
One can see more and more universities looking for people holding a
Ph.D. with great teaching  and research experience to teach at both
undergraduate and graduate  levels. I haven't seen any that would
include the supervision of graduate students, but  I wouldn't be
surprise to see this in a near future. I seem to remember  seeing
positions for teaching assistants demanding a Ph.D...
	What is the role of a lecturer? I was under the impression
that the responsibility of a lecturer was to teach within his/her
field of specialization. This "job" was introduced within the
university system in order to offer students a greater variety of
classes while allowing tenures to do their research. I don't know if
this trend is common in other countries, but in Canada, a big part
of  the classes (more than 50% in some departments) are given by
lecturers.  And, by looking at the announcement I just read,
universities are trying to select candidates that are  overqualified
(I don't see why a candidate should "have a  demonstrated potential
for and a strong commitment to research" in  order to teach, nor do I
see how this is relevant, unless the candidate is expected to do some
research, which the job announcement doesn't mention).
  	This trend of looking for overqualified  people for more and
more precarious jobs (usually 8 to 10 months) is not only seen in
the academic world but in many other areas as well. It fits within
the same old circle where only experienced people are looked for and
in order to gain experience, you have to have had some...
	I know this is a great experience but I don't think there are
many of us who would like to contemplate a career as a lecturer, at
least under these conditions. If universities want to have career
lecturers, they ought make these positions more appealing as far as
length of contracts is concerned and if they want their lecturers to
do some research, they also ought to make it easy for them to do so
and pay them. When a lecturer post is announced that requires research
experience, it looks like they are looking for someone to do research
under that university affiliation. In fact, they want to have people
spreading the names of these universities without paying the author
for the publicity space under the author's name... It is not the
affiliation that makes the renown of a researcher, it is the quality
of the work of these researchers that make, and maintain, the name of
a University.

Any thoughts on this?


Alain Theriault
Ph.D. Student (Linguistics)
Universite de Montreal
Research Fellow
Concordia University

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-12-827