A Substantive Model of Canadian Tenure-Track Experiences

Year 2020, Volume: 6 Issue: 14, 455 - 469, 31.10.2020

Timothy Sibbald , Victoria Handford

Abstract

This paper presents a substantive model derived from the experiences of faculty members during their years in tenure-track positions. The findings arose from the editorial development of contributed chapters to a book exploring tenure-track experiences and subsequent synthesis of the narrative accounts. Using a multiple case-study approach we were immersed in the development of individual chapters contributed by tenure-track professors in education faculties from across Canada. Collectively, the chapter authors had varying lengths of time in the tenure-track and had different backgrounds prior to joining the academy. The development of narratives considered multiple interpretations, but it was subsequent to the completion of the structural elements of the manuscript that a synthesis of the cross-case details led to the development of a substantive model of the tenure-track experience. The model uses self-determination theory and augments it with the Kubler-Ross model of grief.

Keywords

tenure-track, tenure model, tenure experiences, self-determination theory

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