http://curricublog.org/2006/10/21/grad-students-dictionary/ Tony Whitson's blog on curriculum-related matters Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:45:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU hourly 1 http://curricublog.org/2006/10/21/grad-students-dictionary/#comment-2272 constructivism v. postpositivism « Tony’s curricublog Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:25:25 +0000 http://curricublog.wordpress.com/2006/10/21/grad-students-dictionary/#comment-2272 [...] afraid that all they found from that search on this blog was The First Year Grad Student’s Dictionary of Educational Terms, which probably has each of those terms, but not what this blog reader was looking [...] [...] afraid that all they found from that search on this blog was The First Year Grad Student’s Dictionary of Educational Terms, which probably has each of those terms, but not what this blog reader was looking [...]

]]> http://curricublog.org/2006/10/21/grad-students-dictionary/#comment-1931 M. Lee Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:47:13 +0000 http://curricublog.wordpress.com/2006/10/21/grad-students-dictionary/#comment-1931 You might want to approach the problem of sabbaticals and tenure a little more realistically and, dare I say it, a little more sensitively. Instead of feeding the stereotypes in the popular imagination about Tenure and Sabbaticals as meaningless and gratuitous wastes of time, maybe you could look up the published research on the topic and discover that most tenured professors continue to work damn hard after achieving tenure, much, much harder than they ever did as grad students. Sabbaticals are often gruelling and lonely. Some of you have and are writing dissertations, right? Do you appreciate your non-grad school friends telling you that writing a dissertation is a cushy life? Well, a sabbatical is a lot like that except usually with a total lack of support, community, friends in the same boat etc. and a much higher standard of quality expected. The project has to be published to have been considered worthwhile and to make you eligible to reapply for another research leave in 7 years. Every professor I know was actually miserable on sabbatical, because the work is hard, much harder than teaching, and the rewards minimal, much fewer than teaching. Some institutions have wisely changed the word "sabbatical" (a year of rest) to "research leave" -- a far more accurate description of an academic sabbatical. You might want to approach the problem of sabbaticals and tenure a little more realistically and, dare I say it, a little more sensitively. Instead of feeding the stereotypes in the popular imagination about Tenure and Sabbaticals as meaningless and gratuitous wastes of time, maybe you could look up the published research on the topic and discover that most tenured professors continue to work damn hard after achieving tenure, much, much harder than they ever did as grad students. Sabbaticals are often gruelling and lonely. Some of you have and are writing dissertations, right? Do you appreciate your non-grad school friends telling you that writing a dissertation is a cushy life? Well, a sabbatical is a lot like that except usually with a total lack of support, community, friends in the same boat etc. and a much higher standard of quality expected. The project has to be published to have been considered worthwhile and to make you eligible to reapply for another research leave in 7 years. Every professor I know was actually miserable on sabbatical, because the work is hard, much harder than teaching, and the rewards minimal, much fewer than teaching. Some institutions have wisely changed the word “sabbatical” (a year of rest) to “research leave” — a far more accurate description of an academic sabbatical.

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