Becoming a Successful Faculty: A Practical Guide

By Paulchris Okpala

This book focuses on the key qualities necessary to achieve tenure and promotion. The qualities mentioned in the book comprise enthusiasm, a drive to grow, and inventiveness. In a field fraught with obstacles and difficulties, junior faculty and those above them will be committed to cultivating and maintaining a positive outlook. Faculty members

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: May 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781648959493

Paulchris Okpala

This book's goal is to educate students and young researchers on conducting useful research and creating publishable articles. The first section of the book discusses the characteristics of high-quality research. Following that, the book gives succinct instructions for producing publishable research by defining the critical qualities and the many tactics utilized to develop it. In addition, the book discusses the issue statement and the characteristics of a well-written problem statement. The book discusses how to create a fascinating research subject and how to avoid vfrequent research blunders. Furthermore, fundamental components of conceptual and theoretical frameworks are investigated as are the criteria researchers should employ when developing conceptual and theoretical frameworks. Finally, the literature review, methods, explanation of findings, and abstract are all thorough.

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Preface

The desire to write this book stemmed from a desire to share what I believed to be critical information, particularly for junior faculty seeking success, for senior faculty seeking to provide leadership and nurture successful junior colleagues, and for college deans and department chairs seeking vibrant and successful faculty.

However, I did not collect the book’s original concepts, experiences, and anecdotes for inclusion in this edition. Most of what is revealed in this book evolved through my quest for achievement.

I conducted interviews with successful faculty members, studied diverse success books, and attended many professional development courses as part of my path. Additionally, some ideas were gained via casual encounters with academic colleagues.

As a faculty member of color, I have encountered and overcome several obstacles.

Due to overcoming these obstacles, I was inspired to pursue academic achievement and share my experiences.

I consider myself lucky to be employed at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). At this school, I encountered obstacles to achievement and possibilities for success. Therefore, identifying and seizing chances for success is critical at CSUSB.

Acknowledgments

My gratitude belongs to God Almighty, whose limitless mercy and grace allowed me to amass the resources necessary to compose this book.

This book is a product of my experience and the input from various minds. I began conceptualizing this book five years ago through reading various literature on faculty as part of preparing myself for success and as a means of providing evidence-based mentoring and assistance to junior faculty members.

Further, I am indebted to my dedicated wife, Frances Chinonso Okpala, BSc, MSc, who carefully studied this book and gave brilliant ideas on improving the flow of information.

Also, I am grateful to my children—Vanessa Somtochukwu Okpala (eighth grade), Bryan Chiemelie Okpala (fifth grade), Nicole Ifunanya Okpala (third grade), and Jason Chimaobim Okpala (second grade)—for emphasizing the importance of this book’s completion by providing me with the time and space necessary to do so successfully and comfortably.

Additionally, I am grateful to my colleagues at CSUSB and others from many institutions who reviewed and provided inputs on this material.

Introduction

Before defining a successful faculty, it is essential to understand what constitutes a faculty.

A faculty is defined as a branch of teaching or learning that comprises one subject area or many related subject areas in a university setup.

Therefore, the lecturers of different academic ranks who work within a specific branch of teaching and learning are considered faculty members.

The faculty members’ work differs considerably based on the percentage of time they allocate to teaching, research, and service.

Faculty members can be differentiated based on their tenure status into three groups: (1) tenured, (2) tenure-track, and (3) nontenure-track members. Tenured faculty members are the professors who are permanently employed and therefore protected from being fired without cause. Tenured faculty have academic freedom, and they can research and teach any topic. Those members of faculty who are on their path to promotion and academic job security associated with tenured positions are considered to be on a tenure track. In most universities, the assistant professorship is considered an entry-level tenure-track position, and they usually progress to associate professorship and later to professorship. The nontenure-track faculty include the members of the faculty who teach part-time and those who teach full-time, but they are not on the tenure-track lines. The nontenure-track faculty are signed to temporary contracts and not tenure-eligible.

The roles and responsibilities of college and university faculty members are closely tied to the central functions of higher education. The faculty is committed to the tripartite mission of teaching, scholarship, and service.

Teaching engages in specifically designed interactions with the student, which facilitate, promote, and result in student learning.

Faculty members are expected to remain active through research, creative output, and other professional activities. The professional activities can include the following:

Maintaining memberships in professional organizations

Attending in-service training

Conferences

Professional meetings

Activities that directly impact the college’s well-being

The scholarly activities include conducting research, consulting, grant writing, and publishing research.

In addition, it is the role of the faculty members to serve the university, the community, and their professions using their expertise and professional experience. Service can include assisting with student placement, serving on departmental committees, and course scheduling.

To different faculty members, success means different things. So let me take you through my encounter with various faculty members in my many years of teaching.

In 2016, we engaged in what success as a faculty member meant with my colleagues. A lot, we said.

Everyone had their interpretation of what success means. Unsurprisingly, one of my colleagues, albeit jokingly, said that success meant the faculty with the most number of grants, citations, and students when they die. We laughed.

The other said you should focus on everything, just what you are doing. He said, The idea is to define whatever you are doing as success.

After lots of back and forth among us, one of my colleagues indicated that he had no idea what a definition of success would be for others. He said that there was a need to have a sense of perspective and realize the fact that if we have access to resources that allow us to think about success and not about survival, we are already in the top 0.1 percent of the successful faculty or at least at the part toward success.

I have talked to many senior faculty and found that their definitions of success trap them.

Faculty members who are research-focused would tell you that success as a faculty member is when you publish in nature or science or are the most cited person in your field. Others feel that focusing on the number of publications or grants, citations, and students is problematic because they are all external measures of success.

The faculty member has minimal (if any) control, and one ends up being miserable trying to control the uncontrollable. As such, success becomes a rat race, one you cannot win.

Such individuals consider success as doing something so interesting that you don’t have time to think about whether you are successful or not.

Some faculty members, mostly senior, are averse to the talk or measurement of success. Such as, individuals consider success as a retrospective analysis of past achievement, which they consider less important than focusing on what one has learned from previous experiences.

Some do not want to talk about success because they think there is too much to do without worrying about success. According to such individuals, as a faculty, one does not have to be a slave to success. But is it? It must be said that even those opposed to defining and focusing on success still seek to excel and progress in their careers.

Some faculty members view success as personal and not external. Success to such faculty members entails personal achievements and engagements such as helping students or the class to understand complex ideas or principles that they would not have gotten on their own.

Such faculty members also consider being respected by colleagues or helping the academic senate or some university-wide committee and benefitting the university in some way as success. They also consider presenting at a conference and representing their institutions or professional bodies’ success.

To such individuals, the external success indicators such as tenure, promotion, or some awards are just recognition of the real achievements—the personal small daily achievements.

Views regarding success as a faculty member are diverse. So what is a successful faculty?

A faculty member’s success can also be defined based on the degree of faculty professional growth.

In this case, faculty professional growth is understood as the change that occurs in the faculty’s career and life, which facilitates the acquisition of new and diverse knowledge, skills, values, and professional orientation to the faculty’s work.

Based on the definition of success as faculty’s growth, success is viewed as an ongoing and constant state of becoming. The relevant areas that support faculty growth and define success include learning, agency, professional relationships, and commitments.

Tenure and promotion can define a faculty’s success.

Based on this view, a junior faculty member would measure success based on the advancement to tenure-track ranks, starting with the assistant professor, then associate professor, when the tenure decision is made, and finally full professor. The time taken to advance to the full professorship would be factored in determining success.

Although typically, junior faculty would take ten to fifteen years to attain full professor status, it can be shorter or longer. The faculty at the top of the pyramid (full professors) would still measure their success, which can be done by focusing on honorifics and awards