8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 121

Gary M Burge

Charting the Courseof a Professorrsquos Life

Mapping Your

AcademicCareer

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 221

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 221

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 321

MappingYourAcademicCareerCharting the Course

of a Professorrsquos Life

Gary M Burge

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 421

InterVarsity Press

PO Box 983089983092983088983088 Downers Grove IL 983094983088983093983089983093-983089983092983090983094

ivpresscom

emailivpresscom

copy983090983088983089983093 by Gary M Burge

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from

InterVarsity Press

InterVarsity Pressreg is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian FellowshipUSAreg a

movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities colleges and schools of

nursing in the United States of America and a member movement of the International Fellowship of

Evangelical Students For information about local and regional activities visit intervarsityorg

All Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from HE HOLY BIBLE NEW

INERNAIONAL VERSION reg NIV reg Copyright copy 983089983097983095983091 983089983097983095983096 983089983097983096983092 983090983088983089983089 by Biblica Inctrade Used by

permission All rights reserved worldwide

While any stories in this book are true some names and identifying information may have been changed

to protect the privacy of individuals

Cover design Cindy Kiple

Interior design Beth McGill

Images old books copy dem983089983088iStockphoto

sailboat illustration copy debelaiStockphoto

ISBN 983097983095983096-983088-983096983091983088983096-983090983092983095983091-983089 (print)

ISBN 983097983095983096-983088-983096983091983088983096-983097983096983093983095-983090 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

As a member of the Green Press Initiative InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting theenvironment and to the responsible use of natural resources o learn more visit greenpressinitiativeorg

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Burge Gary M 983089983097983093983090-

Mapping your academic career charting the course of a professorrsquos life Gary M Burge

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index

ISBN 983097983095983096-983088-983096983091983088983096-983090983092983095983091-983089 (pbk alk paper)

983089 College teachers--Vocational guidance--United States 983090 Learning and scholarship--United States I

itle

LB983089983095983095983096983090B983096983095 983090983088983089983093983091983095983096983089rsquo983090983088983090983091--dc983090983091

983090983088983089983093983088983089983092983096983096983089

P 983090983090 983090983089 983090983088 983089983097 983089983096 983089983095 983089983094 983089983093 983089983092 983089983091 983089983090 983089983089 983089983088 983097 983096 983095 983094 983093 983092 983091 983090 983089

Y 983091983091 983091983090 983091983089 983091983088 983090983097 983090983096 983090983095 983090983094 983090983093 983090983092 983090983091 983090983090 983090983089 983090983088 983089983097 983089983096 983089983095 983089983094 983089983093

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 521

CONTENTS

Preface 983097

Introduction Mapping Our Lives 983089983091

Cohort One Will I Find Security 983090983097

Addendum he Mentorrsquos Role 983093983096

Cohort wo Will I Find Success 983094983091

Addendum A Financial Plan 983096983095 Addendum he Sabbatical 983097983088

Cohort Tree Will I Find Significance 983097983093

Addendum Retirement 983089983090983096

Select Bibliography 983089983091983091

Subject Index 983089983091983095

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 621

Introduction

MAPPING OUR L IVES

My interest in the developmental stages o the academic career

was born in the summer o 983090983088983088983095 I ound mysel in the office o an

orthopedic surgeon who was looking at an x-ray pinned to a wall-

mounted light table Ten he used a word oreign to my vocabulary

arthritis Arthritis I canrsquot have arthritismdashmy parents have arthritis

My grandparents had arthritis He went on ldquoActually you have

patello femoral chondromalacia But i you preer we also call it lsquorun-

nerrsquos kneersquo rdquo I preerred My psyche seemed to relax

Later that same month I received an envelope rom the AARP

(American Association o Retired Persons) encouraging me to join up

Join up A ree copy o AARP Te Magazine (beore 983090983088983088983090 Modern

Maturity ) had Clint Eastwood on the cover He was born in 983089983097983091983088

And then a very kind young woman who was about nineteen o-

ered me a ldquosenior discountrdquo at a local gol course All o a sudden my

consciousness was raised (perhaps alarmed is a better word) and it

orced me to consider the developmental passages I had moved

through and whether I was entering a new oneFrankly up till this point I wasnrsquot aware that there were passages

at all It seemed that once you entered adulthood well the road

was airly level till you retired And in a culture that worships

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 721

983089983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

youth in your ities you do your best to perorm like you are an

energetic thirty

Psychology has had a long history o mapping the development o

the personality From Freudrsquos (983089983096983096983094ndash983089983097983091983097) psychosexual theory to Jean

Piagetrsquos (983089983096983097983094ndash983089983097983096983088) cognitive development theory to Erik Eriksonrsquos

(983089983097983088983090ndash983089983097983097983092) eight-step psychosocial development model psychologists

have attempted to parse the ormative influences that make us what we

are and map the stages we travel through in our lives1048625

Te real question posed by Piaget and Erikson that seems to controlthe discussion is this are there milestones or competencies that we

must achieve in order or us to reach maturity Piaget suggested our

competencies and in his view i we do not achieve them we become

stuck and our development becomes handicapped For example a

Piaget model suggests that sel-interest and a simplistic worldview

must give way to generosity and complexity However many remain

stuck and stay in their adulthood with eatures they should have aban-

doned years earlier Wersquove each seen aculty members like this

Erikson disagreed In his model (with its eight milestones) we carry

orward in lie each o our developmental ailures and this shapes how

we address new questions that lie demands we answer as we grow

oday Eriksonrsquos view is popular Subsequent writers however have

added numerous caveats In Eriksonrsquos later adult stages it is crises and the stresses they impose as well as our adaptive responses to them that

will determine our progress Crises orce us to reevaluate our priorities

reorder our lives and prepare or age-related changes that are on the

horizon Most therapists I know think that this aptly describes most

o their clients

Te most well-known researcher who examined these critical crisis-

driven shifs was Daniel Levinson (983089983097983090983088ndash983089983097983097983092) Levinson wrote highly

1For a thorough summary o social and psychological research into adult development in the

twentieth century see George Vaillant Aging Well Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from

the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development (New York LittleBrown 1048626104862410486241048626) pp 10486271048633-10486321048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 821

Mapping Our Lives 983089983093

influential adult development theories called Te Seasons of a Manrsquos Life

(983089983097983095983096) and Te Seasons of a Womanrsquos Life (983089983097983096983094) Here he introduced the

notion o ldquomidlie crisisrdquomdashan idea incidentally that has not done well in

subsequent study Nevertheless the wider notion seems correct crises can

be ormative stimuli or change Levinson believed that we each expe-

rience these ldquocrisesrdquo in discrete periods o lie in our late twenties or

thirties sometime between orty and fify and later as we enter our sixties

Tese are three stages when certain things begin to slip away rom us and

other opportunities present themselves In this spirit in 983089983097983096983095 Judith Viorstwrote Necessary Losses Te Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible

Expectations Tat All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow and she

suggested that it is lossmdashembracing lossmdashthat is a catalyst to our growth

Richard Rohr (the inspirational Catholic speaker and writer) likes

to talk about ascent and descent to typiy the grand cycle o our lives

According to Rohr unless we understand the limits o ascent and how

to embrace descent our lives will end in tragedy But this is a difficult

assignment particularly since our society thinks we should be as-

cending like a rocket every year A quick look at his most recent book

Falling Upward A Spirituality for the wo Halves of Life (983090983088983089983089) tells it

all We all all Aging can be a crisis But this all can also be an ascent

And Rohr is eager to tell us how

A retired proessor now in his eighties offered me Paul ournierrsquosgood book Learn to Grow Old (983089983097983095983090) I assumed it would have little

relevance to anyone under eightymdashuntil ournier explained that the

patterns o our lives that we set now in early years determine how we

either celebrate or detest the later years o our lives1048626

Ten another riend a psychologist this time handed me George

Vaillantrsquos remarkable book Aging Well (983090983088983088983090) Tis is the outcome o the

longest study on aging ever completed entitled the ldquoStudy o Adult De-

velopment at Harvard Universityrdquo Based on three cohorts making up

2Tis reminds me o something that St Ignatius o Loyola was once to have said ldquoGive me

a child till he is seven and Irsquoll show you the manrdquo

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 921

983089983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

983096983090983092 people participants were selected careully as teenagers in the 983089983097983090983088s

and 983089983097983091983088s Tey represented three very different social strata in

American society and they have been studied careully throughout their

lives (they are now in their 983095983088s and 983096983088s) And in this book we have Vail-

lantrsquos careul interpretation o these cohorts (chiefly using Freud and

Erikson) We can learn that it is possible to age well and it is possible to

age poorly as their many subjects demonstrate I each o us are aging

(and o course we are) then I or one want to discover the keys the se-

crets that acilitate not only a live well lived but a lie that ages wellIn each case these writers have identified ormative influences that

bring each o us to maturity (sexual resolution individuation social-

ization attachment personal loss etc) And rom here we consolidate

our identities we test them we either flourish or ail and we ready

ourselves or decline and mortality Numerous actors weigh into these

results our genetic history our gender how we were parented birth

order relational crises amily systems our motherrsquos mental outlook etc

Not surprisingly there is ofen a correlation between personality traits

seen early in childhood and traits exhibited in adult lie I sometimes

imagine some o the college presidents Irsquove known when they were five

years old I can see them now taking charge o the kindergarten and

giving orders on the playground

I am narrowly interested in adult development stages as they areexperienced within the traditional academic career in a college or uni-

versity We can find manuals that will tell us the specifics o career

success such as Faculty in New Jobs (983089983097983097983097) How to Succeed in Academics

(983090983088983088983088) Managing Your Academic Career (983090983088983088983088) or Te Joy of eaching

A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (983090983088983088983093)1048627 But these do not

3R J Menges Faculty in New Jobs A Guide to Settling In Becoming Established and Buildingraditional Support (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048633) L L McCabe and E R B McCabe

How to Succeed in Academics (San Diego Academic 1048626104862410486241048624) D Royce Sadler Managing Your

Academic Career Strategies for Success (St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin 1048626104862410486241048624) P Filene

Te Joy of eaching A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill University o

North Carolina Press 1048626104862410486241048629)

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 421

InterVarsity Press

PO Box 983089983092983088983088 Downers Grove IL 983094983088983093983089983093-983089983092983090983094

ivpresscom

emailivpresscom

copy983090983088983089983093 by Gary M Burge

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from

InterVarsity Press

InterVarsity Pressreg is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian FellowshipUSAreg a

movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities colleges and schools of

nursing in the United States of America and a member movement of the International Fellowship of

Evangelical Students For information about local and regional activities visit intervarsityorg

All Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from HE HOLY BIBLE NEW

INERNAIONAL VERSION reg NIV reg Copyright copy 983089983097983095983091 983089983097983095983096 983089983097983096983092 983090983088983089983089 by Biblica Inctrade Used by

permission All rights reserved worldwide

While any stories in this book are true some names and identifying information may have been changed

to protect the privacy of individuals

Cover design Cindy Kiple

Interior design Beth McGill

Images old books copy dem983089983088iStockphoto

sailboat illustration copy debelaiStockphoto

ISBN 983097983095983096-983088-983096983091983088983096-983090983092983095983091-983089 (print)

ISBN 983097983095983096-983088-983096983091983088983096-983097983096983093983095-983090 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

As a member of the Green Press Initiative InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting theenvironment and to the responsible use of natural resources o learn more visit greenpressinitiativeorg

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Burge Gary M 983089983097983093983090-

Mapping your academic career charting the course of a professorrsquos life Gary M Burge

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index

ISBN 983097983095983096-983088-983096983091983088983096-983090983092983095983091-983089 (pbk alk paper)

983089 College teachers--Vocational guidance--United States 983090 Learning and scholarship--United States I

itle

LB983089983095983095983096983090B983096983095 983090983088983089983093983091983095983096983089rsquo983090983088983090983091--dc983090983091

983090983088983089983093983088983089983092983096983096983089

P 983090983090 983090983089 983090983088 983089983097 983089983096 983089983095 983089983094 983089983093 983089983092 983089983091 983089983090 983089983089 983089983088 983097 983096 983095 983094 983093 983092 983091 983090 983089

Y 983091983091 983091983090 983091983089 983091983088 983090983097 983090983096 983090983095 983090983094 983090983093 983090983092 983090983091 983090983090 983090983089 983090983088 983089983097 983089983096 983089983095 983089983094 983089983093

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 521

CONTENTS

Preface 983097

Introduction Mapping Our Lives 983089983091

Cohort One Will I Find Security 983090983097

Addendum he Mentorrsquos Role 983093983096

Cohort wo Will I Find Success 983094983091

Addendum A Financial Plan 983096983095 Addendum he Sabbatical 983097983088

Cohort Tree Will I Find Significance 983097983093

Addendum Retirement 983089983090983096

Select Bibliography 983089983091983091

Subject Index 983089983091983095

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 621

Introduction

MAPPING OUR L IVES

My interest in the developmental stages o the academic career

was born in the summer o 983090983088983088983095 I ound mysel in the office o an

orthopedic surgeon who was looking at an x-ray pinned to a wall-

mounted light table Ten he used a word oreign to my vocabulary

arthritis Arthritis I canrsquot have arthritismdashmy parents have arthritis

My grandparents had arthritis He went on ldquoActually you have

patello femoral chondromalacia But i you preer we also call it lsquorun-

nerrsquos kneersquo rdquo I preerred My psyche seemed to relax

Later that same month I received an envelope rom the AARP

(American Association o Retired Persons) encouraging me to join up

Join up A ree copy o AARP Te Magazine (beore 983090983088983088983090 Modern

Maturity ) had Clint Eastwood on the cover He was born in 983089983097983091983088

And then a very kind young woman who was about nineteen o-

ered me a ldquosenior discountrdquo at a local gol course All o a sudden my

consciousness was raised (perhaps alarmed is a better word) and it

orced me to consider the developmental passages I had moved

through and whether I was entering a new oneFrankly up till this point I wasnrsquot aware that there were passages

at all It seemed that once you entered adulthood well the road

was airly level till you retired And in a culture that worships

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 721

983089983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

youth in your ities you do your best to perorm like you are an

energetic thirty

Psychology has had a long history o mapping the development o

the personality From Freudrsquos (983089983096983096983094ndash983089983097983091983097) psychosexual theory to Jean

Piagetrsquos (983089983096983097983094ndash983089983097983096983088) cognitive development theory to Erik Eriksonrsquos

(983089983097983088983090ndash983089983097983097983092) eight-step psychosocial development model psychologists

have attempted to parse the ormative influences that make us what we

are and map the stages we travel through in our lives1048625

Te real question posed by Piaget and Erikson that seems to controlthe discussion is this are there milestones or competencies that we

must achieve in order or us to reach maturity Piaget suggested our

competencies and in his view i we do not achieve them we become

stuck and our development becomes handicapped For example a

Piaget model suggests that sel-interest and a simplistic worldview

must give way to generosity and complexity However many remain

stuck and stay in their adulthood with eatures they should have aban-

doned years earlier Wersquove each seen aculty members like this

Erikson disagreed In his model (with its eight milestones) we carry

orward in lie each o our developmental ailures and this shapes how

we address new questions that lie demands we answer as we grow

oday Eriksonrsquos view is popular Subsequent writers however have

added numerous caveats In Eriksonrsquos later adult stages it is crises and the stresses they impose as well as our adaptive responses to them that

will determine our progress Crises orce us to reevaluate our priorities

reorder our lives and prepare or age-related changes that are on the

horizon Most therapists I know think that this aptly describes most

o their clients

Te most well-known researcher who examined these critical crisis-

driven shifs was Daniel Levinson (983089983097983090983088ndash983089983097983097983092) Levinson wrote highly

1For a thorough summary o social and psychological research into adult development in the

twentieth century see George Vaillant Aging Well Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from

the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development (New York LittleBrown 1048626104862410486241048626) pp 10486271048633-10486321048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 821

Mapping Our Lives 983089983093

influential adult development theories called Te Seasons of a Manrsquos Life

(983089983097983095983096) and Te Seasons of a Womanrsquos Life (983089983097983096983094) Here he introduced the

notion o ldquomidlie crisisrdquomdashan idea incidentally that has not done well in

subsequent study Nevertheless the wider notion seems correct crises can

be ormative stimuli or change Levinson believed that we each expe-

rience these ldquocrisesrdquo in discrete periods o lie in our late twenties or

thirties sometime between orty and fify and later as we enter our sixties

Tese are three stages when certain things begin to slip away rom us and

other opportunities present themselves In this spirit in 983089983097983096983095 Judith Viorstwrote Necessary Losses Te Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible

Expectations Tat All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow and she

suggested that it is lossmdashembracing lossmdashthat is a catalyst to our growth

Richard Rohr (the inspirational Catholic speaker and writer) likes

to talk about ascent and descent to typiy the grand cycle o our lives

According to Rohr unless we understand the limits o ascent and how

to embrace descent our lives will end in tragedy But this is a difficult

assignment particularly since our society thinks we should be as-

cending like a rocket every year A quick look at his most recent book

Falling Upward A Spirituality for the wo Halves of Life (983090983088983089983089) tells it

all We all all Aging can be a crisis But this all can also be an ascent

And Rohr is eager to tell us how

A retired proessor now in his eighties offered me Paul ournierrsquosgood book Learn to Grow Old (983089983097983095983090) I assumed it would have little

relevance to anyone under eightymdashuntil ournier explained that the

patterns o our lives that we set now in early years determine how we

either celebrate or detest the later years o our lives1048626

Ten another riend a psychologist this time handed me George

Vaillantrsquos remarkable book Aging Well (983090983088983088983090) Tis is the outcome o the

longest study on aging ever completed entitled the ldquoStudy o Adult De-

velopment at Harvard Universityrdquo Based on three cohorts making up

2Tis reminds me o something that St Ignatius o Loyola was once to have said ldquoGive me

a child till he is seven and Irsquoll show you the manrdquo

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 921

983089983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

983096983090983092 people participants were selected careully as teenagers in the 983089983097983090983088s

and 983089983097983091983088s Tey represented three very different social strata in

American society and they have been studied careully throughout their

lives (they are now in their 983095983088s and 983096983088s) And in this book we have Vail-

lantrsquos careul interpretation o these cohorts (chiefly using Freud and

Erikson) We can learn that it is possible to age well and it is possible to

age poorly as their many subjects demonstrate I each o us are aging

(and o course we are) then I or one want to discover the keys the se-

crets that acilitate not only a live well lived but a lie that ages wellIn each case these writers have identified ormative influences that

bring each o us to maturity (sexual resolution individuation social-

ization attachment personal loss etc) And rom here we consolidate

our identities we test them we either flourish or ail and we ready

ourselves or decline and mortality Numerous actors weigh into these

results our genetic history our gender how we were parented birth

order relational crises amily systems our motherrsquos mental outlook etc

Not surprisingly there is ofen a correlation between personality traits

seen early in childhood and traits exhibited in adult lie I sometimes

imagine some o the college presidents Irsquove known when they were five

years old I can see them now taking charge o the kindergarten and

giving orders on the playground

I am narrowly interested in adult development stages as they areexperienced within the traditional academic career in a college or uni-

versity We can find manuals that will tell us the specifics o career

success such as Faculty in New Jobs (983089983097983097983097) How to Succeed in Academics

(983090983088983088983088) Managing Your Academic Career (983090983088983088983088) or Te Joy of eaching

A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (983090983088983088983093)1048627 But these do not

3R J Menges Faculty in New Jobs A Guide to Settling In Becoming Established and Buildingraditional Support (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048633) L L McCabe and E R B McCabe

How to Succeed in Academics (San Diego Academic 1048626104862410486241048624) D Royce Sadler Managing Your

Academic Career Strategies for Success (St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin 1048626104862410486241048624) P Filene

Te Joy of eaching A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill University o

North Carolina Press 1048626104862410486241048629)

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 521

CONTENTS

Preface 983097

Introduction Mapping Our Lives 983089983091

Cohort One Will I Find Security 983090983097

Addendum he Mentorrsquos Role 983093983096

Cohort wo Will I Find Success 983094983091

Addendum A Financial Plan 983096983095 Addendum he Sabbatical 983097983088

Cohort Tree Will I Find Significance 983097983093

Addendum Retirement 983089983090983096

Select Bibliography 983089983091983091

Subject Index 983089983091983095

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 621

Introduction

MAPPING OUR L IVES

My interest in the developmental stages o the academic career

was born in the summer o 983090983088983088983095 I ound mysel in the office o an

orthopedic surgeon who was looking at an x-ray pinned to a wall-

mounted light table Ten he used a word oreign to my vocabulary

arthritis Arthritis I canrsquot have arthritismdashmy parents have arthritis

My grandparents had arthritis He went on ldquoActually you have

patello femoral chondromalacia But i you preer we also call it lsquorun-

nerrsquos kneersquo rdquo I preerred My psyche seemed to relax

Later that same month I received an envelope rom the AARP

(American Association o Retired Persons) encouraging me to join up

Join up A ree copy o AARP Te Magazine (beore 983090983088983088983090 Modern

Maturity ) had Clint Eastwood on the cover He was born in 983089983097983091983088

And then a very kind young woman who was about nineteen o-

ered me a ldquosenior discountrdquo at a local gol course All o a sudden my

consciousness was raised (perhaps alarmed is a better word) and it

orced me to consider the developmental passages I had moved

through and whether I was entering a new oneFrankly up till this point I wasnrsquot aware that there were passages

at all It seemed that once you entered adulthood well the road

was airly level till you retired And in a culture that worships

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 721

983089983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

youth in your ities you do your best to perorm like you are an

energetic thirty

Psychology has had a long history o mapping the development o

the personality From Freudrsquos (983089983096983096983094ndash983089983097983091983097) psychosexual theory to Jean

Piagetrsquos (983089983096983097983094ndash983089983097983096983088) cognitive development theory to Erik Eriksonrsquos

(983089983097983088983090ndash983089983097983097983092) eight-step psychosocial development model psychologists

have attempted to parse the ormative influences that make us what we

are and map the stages we travel through in our lives1048625

Te real question posed by Piaget and Erikson that seems to controlthe discussion is this are there milestones or competencies that we

must achieve in order or us to reach maturity Piaget suggested our

competencies and in his view i we do not achieve them we become

stuck and our development becomes handicapped For example a

Piaget model suggests that sel-interest and a simplistic worldview

must give way to generosity and complexity However many remain

stuck and stay in their adulthood with eatures they should have aban-

doned years earlier Wersquove each seen aculty members like this

Erikson disagreed In his model (with its eight milestones) we carry

orward in lie each o our developmental ailures and this shapes how

we address new questions that lie demands we answer as we grow

oday Eriksonrsquos view is popular Subsequent writers however have

added numerous caveats In Eriksonrsquos later adult stages it is crises and the stresses they impose as well as our adaptive responses to them that

will determine our progress Crises orce us to reevaluate our priorities

reorder our lives and prepare or age-related changes that are on the

horizon Most therapists I know think that this aptly describes most

o their clients

Te most well-known researcher who examined these critical crisis-

driven shifs was Daniel Levinson (983089983097983090983088ndash983089983097983097983092) Levinson wrote highly

1For a thorough summary o social and psychological research into adult development in the

twentieth century see George Vaillant Aging Well Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from

the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development (New York LittleBrown 1048626104862410486241048626) pp 10486271048633-10486321048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 821

Mapping Our Lives 983089983093

influential adult development theories called Te Seasons of a Manrsquos Life

(983089983097983095983096) and Te Seasons of a Womanrsquos Life (983089983097983096983094) Here he introduced the

notion o ldquomidlie crisisrdquomdashan idea incidentally that has not done well in

subsequent study Nevertheless the wider notion seems correct crises can

be ormative stimuli or change Levinson believed that we each expe-

rience these ldquocrisesrdquo in discrete periods o lie in our late twenties or

thirties sometime between orty and fify and later as we enter our sixties

Tese are three stages when certain things begin to slip away rom us and

other opportunities present themselves In this spirit in 983089983097983096983095 Judith Viorstwrote Necessary Losses Te Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible

Expectations Tat All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow and she

suggested that it is lossmdashembracing lossmdashthat is a catalyst to our growth

Richard Rohr (the inspirational Catholic speaker and writer) likes

to talk about ascent and descent to typiy the grand cycle o our lives

According to Rohr unless we understand the limits o ascent and how

to embrace descent our lives will end in tragedy But this is a difficult

assignment particularly since our society thinks we should be as-

cending like a rocket every year A quick look at his most recent book

Falling Upward A Spirituality for the wo Halves of Life (983090983088983089983089) tells it

all We all all Aging can be a crisis But this all can also be an ascent

And Rohr is eager to tell us how

A retired proessor now in his eighties offered me Paul ournierrsquosgood book Learn to Grow Old (983089983097983095983090) I assumed it would have little

relevance to anyone under eightymdashuntil ournier explained that the

patterns o our lives that we set now in early years determine how we

either celebrate or detest the later years o our lives1048626

Ten another riend a psychologist this time handed me George

Vaillantrsquos remarkable book Aging Well (983090983088983088983090) Tis is the outcome o the

longest study on aging ever completed entitled the ldquoStudy o Adult De-

velopment at Harvard Universityrdquo Based on three cohorts making up

2Tis reminds me o something that St Ignatius o Loyola was once to have said ldquoGive me

a child till he is seven and Irsquoll show you the manrdquo

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 921

983089983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

983096983090983092 people participants were selected careully as teenagers in the 983089983097983090983088s

and 983089983097983091983088s Tey represented three very different social strata in

American society and they have been studied careully throughout their

lives (they are now in their 983095983088s and 983096983088s) And in this book we have Vail-

lantrsquos careul interpretation o these cohorts (chiefly using Freud and

Erikson) We can learn that it is possible to age well and it is possible to

age poorly as their many subjects demonstrate I each o us are aging

(and o course we are) then I or one want to discover the keys the se-

crets that acilitate not only a live well lived but a lie that ages wellIn each case these writers have identified ormative influences that

bring each o us to maturity (sexual resolution individuation social-

ization attachment personal loss etc) And rom here we consolidate

our identities we test them we either flourish or ail and we ready

ourselves or decline and mortality Numerous actors weigh into these

results our genetic history our gender how we were parented birth

order relational crises amily systems our motherrsquos mental outlook etc

Not surprisingly there is ofen a correlation between personality traits

seen early in childhood and traits exhibited in adult lie I sometimes

imagine some o the college presidents Irsquove known when they were five

years old I can see them now taking charge o the kindergarten and

giving orders on the playground

I am narrowly interested in adult development stages as they areexperienced within the traditional academic career in a college or uni-

versity We can find manuals that will tell us the specifics o career

success such as Faculty in New Jobs (983089983097983097983097) How to Succeed in Academics

(983090983088983088983088) Managing Your Academic Career (983090983088983088983088) or Te Joy of eaching

A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (983090983088983088983093)1048627 But these do not

3R J Menges Faculty in New Jobs A Guide to Settling In Becoming Established and Buildingraditional Support (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048633) L L McCabe and E R B McCabe

How to Succeed in Academics (San Diego Academic 1048626104862410486241048624) D Royce Sadler Managing Your

Academic Career Strategies for Success (St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin 1048626104862410486241048624) P Filene

Te Joy of eaching A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill University o

North Carolina Press 1048626104862410486241048629)

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 621

Introduction

MAPPING OUR L IVES

My interest in the developmental stages o the academic career

was born in the summer o 983090983088983088983095 I ound mysel in the office o an

orthopedic surgeon who was looking at an x-ray pinned to a wall-

mounted light table Ten he used a word oreign to my vocabulary

arthritis Arthritis I canrsquot have arthritismdashmy parents have arthritis

My grandparents had arthritis He went on ldquoActually you have

patello femoral chondromalacia But i you preer we also call it lsquorun-

nerrsquos kneersquo rdquo I preerred My psyche seemed to relax

Later that same month I received an envelope rom the AARP

(American Association o Retired Persons) encouraging me to join up

Join up A ree copy o AARP Te Magazine (beore 983090983088983088983090 Modern

Maturity ) had Clint Eastwood on the cover He was born in 983089983097983091983088

And then a very kind young woman who was about nineteen o-

ered me a ldquosenior discountrdquo at a local gol course All o a sudden my

consciousness was raised (perhaps alarmed is a better word) and it

orced me to consider the developmental passages I had moved

through and whether I was entering a new oneFrankly up till this point I wasnrsquot aware that there were passages

at all It seemed that once you entered adulthood well the road

was airly level till you retired And in a culture that worships

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 721

983089983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

youth in your ities you do your best to perorm like you are an

energetic thirty

Psychology has had a long history o mapping the development o

the personality From Freudrsquos (983089983096983096983094ndash983089983097983091983097) psychosexual theory to Jean

Piagetrsquos (983089983096983097983094ndash983089983097983096983088) cognitive development theory to Erik Eriksonrsquos

(983089983097983088983090ndash983089983097983097983092) eight-step psychosocial development model psychologists

have attempted to parse the ormative influences that make us what we

are and map the stages we travel through in our lives1048625

Te real question posed by Piaget and Erikson that seems to controlthe discussion is this are there milestones or competencies that we

must achieve in order or us to reach maturity Piaget suggested our

competencies and in his view i we do not achieve them we become

stuck and our development becomes handicapped For example a

Piaget model suggests that sel-interest and a simplistic worldview

must give way to generosity and complexity However many remain

stuck and stay in their adulthood with eatures they should have aban-

doned years earlier Wersquove each seen aculty members like this

Erikson disagreed In his model (with its eight milestones) we carry

orward in lie each o our developmental ailures and this shapes how

we address new questions that lie demands we answer as we grow

oday Eriksonrsquos view is popular Subsequent writers however have

added numerous caveats In Eriksonrsquos later adult stages it is crises and the stresses they impose as well as our adaptive responses to them that

will determine our progress Crises orce us to reevaluate our priorities

reorder our lives and prepare or age-related changes that are on the

horizon Most therapists I know think that this aptly describes most

o their clients

Te most well-known researcher who examined these critical crisis-

driven shifs was Daniel Levinson (983089983097983090983088ndash983089983097983097983092) Levinson wrote highly

1For a thorough summary o social and psychological research into adult development in the

twentieth century see George Vaillant Aging Well Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from

the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development (New York LittleBrown 1048626104862410486241048626) pp 10486271048633-10486321048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 821

Mapping Our Lives 983089983093

influential adult development theories called Te Seasons of a Manrsquos Life

(983089983097983095983096) and Te Seasons of a Womanrsquos Life (983089983097983096983094) Here he introduced the

notion o ldquomidlie crisisrdquomdashan idea incidentally that has not done well in

subsequent study Nevertheless the wider notion seems correct crises can

be ormative stimuli or change Levinson believed that we each expe-

rience these ldquocrisesrdquo in discrete periods o lie in our late twenties or

thirties sometime between orty and fify and later as we enter our sixties

Tese are three stages when certain things begin to slip away rom us and

other opportunities present themselves In this spirit in 983089983097983096983095 Judith Viorstwrote Necessary Losses Te Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible

Expectations Tat All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow and she

suggested that it is lossmdashembracing lossmdashthat is a catalyst to our growth

Richard Rohr (the inspirational Catholic speaker and writer) likes

to talk about ascent and descent to typiy the grand cycle o our lives

According to Rohr unless we understand the limits o ascent and how

to embrace descent our lives will end in tragedy But this is a difficult

assignment particularly since our society thinks we should be as-

cending like a rocket every year A quick look at his most recent book

Falling Upward A Spirituality for the wo Halves of Life (983090983088983089983089) tells it

all We all all Aging can be a crisis But this all can also be an ascent

And Rohr is eager to tell us how

A retired proessor now in his eighties offered me Paul ournierrsquosgood book Learn to Grow Old (983089983097983095983090) I assumed it would have little

relevance to anyone under eightymdashuntil ournier explained that the

patterns o our lives that we set now in early years determine how we

either celebrate or detest the later years o our lives1048626

Ten another riend a psychologist this time handed me George

Vaillantrsquos remarkable book Aging Well (983090983088983088983090) Tis is the outcome o the

longest study on aging ever completed entitled the ldquoStudy o Adult De-

velopment at Harvard Universityrdquo Based on three cohorts making up

2Tis reminds me o something that St Ignatius o Loyola was once to have said ldquoGive me

a child till he is seven and Irsquoll show you the manrdquo

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 921

983089983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

983096983090983092 people participants were selected careully as teenagers in the 983089983097983090983088s

and 983089983097983091983088s Tey represented three very different social strata in

American society and they have been studied careully throughout their

lives (they are now in their 983095983088s and 983096983088s) And in this book we have Vail-

lantrsquos careul interpretation o these cohorts (chiefly using Freud and

Erikson) We can learn that it is possible to age well and it is possible to

age poorly as their many subjects demonstrate I each o us are aging

(and o course we are) then I or one want to discover the keys the se-

crets that acilitate not only a live well lived but a lie that ages wellIn each case these writers have identified ormative influences that

bring each o us to maturity (sexual resolution individuation social-

ization attachment personal loss etc) And rom here we consolidate

our identities we test them we either flourish or ail and we ready

ourselves or decline and mortality Numerous actors weigh into these

results our genetic history our gender how we were parented birth

order relational crises amily systems our motherrsquos mental outlook etc

Not surprisingly there is ofen a correlation between personality traits

seen early in childhood and traits exhibited in adult lie I sometimes

imagine some o the college presidents Irsquove known when they were five

years old I can see them now taking charge o the kindergarten and

giving orders on the playground

I am narrowly interested in adult development stages as they areexperienced within the traditional academic career in a college or uni-

versity We can find manuals that will tell us the specifics o career

success such as Faculty in New Jobs (983089983097983097983097) How to Succeed in Academics

(983090983088983088983088) Managing Your Academic Career (983090983088983088983088) or Te Joy of eaching

A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (983090983088983088983093)1048627 But these do not

3R J Menges Faculty in New Jobs A Guide to Settling In Becoming Established and Buildingraditional Support (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048633) L L McCabe and E R B McCabe

How to Succeed in Academics (San Diego Academic 1048626104862410486241048624) D Royce Sadler Managing Your

Academic Career Strategies for Success (St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin 1048626104862410486241048624) P Filene

Te Joy of eaching A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill University o

North Carolina Press 1048626104862410486241048629)

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 721

983089983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

youth in your ities you do your best to perorm like you are an

energetic thirty

Psychology has had a long history o mapping the development o

the personality From Freudrsquos (983089983096983096983094ndash983089983097983091983097) psychosexual theory to Jean

Piagetrsquos (983089983096983097983094ndash983089983097983096983088) cognitive development theory to Erik Eriksonrsquos

(983089983097983088983090ndash983089983097983097983092) eight-step psychosocial development model psychologists

have attempted to parse the ormative influences that make us what we

are and map the stages we travel through in our lives1048625

Te real question posed by Piaget and Erikson that seems to controlthe discussion is this are there milestones or competencies that we

must achieve in order or us to reach maturity Piaget suggested our

competencies and in his view i we do not achieve them we become

stuck and our development becomes handicapped For example a

Piaget model suggests that sel-interest and a simplistic worldview

must give way to generosity and complexity However many remain

stuck and stay in their adulthood with eatures they should have aban-

doned years earlier Wersquove each seen aculty members like this

Erikson disagreed In his model (with its eight milestones) we carry

orward in lie each o our developmental ailures and this shapes how

we address new questions that lie demands we answer as we grow

oday Eriksonrsquos view is popular Subsequent writers however have

added numerous caveats In Eriksonrsquos later adult stages it is crises and the stresses they impose as well as our adaptive responses to them that

will determine our progress Crises orce us to reevaluate our priorities

reorder our lives and prepare or age-related changes that are on the

horizon Most therapists I know think that this aptly describes most

o their clients

Te most well-known researcher who examined these critical crisis-

driven shifs was Daniel Levinson (983089983097983090983088ndash983089983097983097983092) Levinson wrote highly

1For a thorough summary o social and psychological research into adult development in the

twentieth century see George Vaillant Aging Well Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from

the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development (New York LittleBrown 1048626104862410486241048626) pp 10486271048633-10486321048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 821

Mapping Our Lives 983089983093

influential adult development theories called Te Seasons of a Manrsquos Life

(983089983097983095983096) and Te Seasons of a Womanrsquos Life (983089983097983096983094) Here he introduced the

notion o ldquomidlie crisisrdquomdashan idea incidentally that has not done well in

subsequent study Nevertheless the wider notion seems correct crises can

be ormative stimuli or change Levinson believed that we each expe-

rience these ldquocrisesrdquo in discrete periods o lie in our late twenties or

thirties sometime between orty and fify and later as we enter our sixties

Tese are three stages when certain things begin to slip away rom us and

other opportunities present themselves In this spirit in 983089983097983096983095 Judith Viorstwrote Necessary Losses Te Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible

Expectations Tat All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow and she

suggested that it is lossmdashembracing lossmdashthat is a catalyst to our growth

Richard Rohr (the inspirational Catholic speaker and writer) likes

to talk about ascent and descent to typiy the grand cycle o our lives

According to Rohr unless we understand the limits o ascent and how

to embrace descent our lives will end in tragedy But this is a difficult

assignment particularly since our society thinks we should be as-

cending like a rocket every year A quick look at his most recent book

Falling Upward A Spirituality for the wo Halves of Life (983090983088983089983089) tells it

all We all all Aging can be a crisis But this all can also be an ascent

And Rohr is eager to tell us how

A retired proessor now in his eighties offered me Paul ournierrsquosgood book Learn to Grow Old (983089983097983095983090) I assumed it would have little

relevance to anyone under eightymdashuntil ournier explained that the

patterns o our lives that we set now in early years determine how we

either celebrate or detest the later years o our lives1048626

Ten another riend a psychologist this time handed me George

Vaillantrsquos remarkable book Aging Well (983090983088983088983090) Tis is the outcome o the

longest study on aging ever completed entitled the ldquoStudy o Adult De-

velopment at Harvard Universityrdquo Based on three cohorts making up

2Tis reminds me o something that St Ignatius o Loyola was once to have said ldquoGive me

a child till he is seven and Irsquoll show you the manrdquo

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 921

983089983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

983096983090983092 people participants were selected careully as teenagers in the 983089983097983090983088s

and 983089983097983091983088s Tey represented three very different social strata in

American society and they have been studied careully throughout their

lives (they are now in their 983095983088s and 983096983088s) And in this book we have Vail-

lantrsquos careul interpretation o these cohorts (chiefly using Freud and

Erikson) We can learn that it is possible to age well and it is possible to

age poorly as their many subjects demonstrate I each o us are aging

(and o course we are) then I or one want to discover the keys the se-

crets that acilitate not only a live well lived but a lie that ages wellIn each case these writers have identified ormative influences that

bring each o us to maturity (sexual resolution individuation social-

ization attachment personal loss etc) And rom here we consolidate

our identities we test them we either flourish or ail and we ready

ourselves or decline and mortality Numerous actors weigh into these

results our genetic history our gender how we were parented birth

order relational crises amily systems our motherrsquos mental outlook etc

Not surprisingly there is ofen a correlation between personality traits

seen early in childhood and traits exhibited in adult lie I sometimes

imagine some o the college presidents Irsquove known when they were five

years old I can see them now taking charge o the kindergarten and

giving orders on the playground

I am narrowly interested in adult development stages as they areexperienced within the traditional academic career in a college or uni-

versity We can find manuals that will tell us the specifics o career

success such as Faculty in New Jobs (983089983097983097983097) How to Succeed in Academics

(983090983088983088983088) Managing Your Academic Career (983090983088983088983088) or Te Joy of eaching

A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (983090983088983088983093)1048627 But these do not

3R J Menges Faculty in New Jobs A Guide to Settling In Becoming Established and Buildingraditional Support (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048633) L L McCabe and E R B McCabe

How to Succeed in Academics (San Diego Academic 1048626104862410486241048624) D Royce Sadler Managing Your

Academic Career Strategies for Success (St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin 1048626104862410486241048624) P Filene

Te Joy of eaching A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill University o

North Carolina Press 1048626104862410486241048629)

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 821

Mapping Our Lives 983089983093

influential adult development theories called Te Seasons of a Manrsquos Life

(983089983097983095983096) and Te Seasons of a Womanrsquos Life (983089983097983096983094) Here he introduced the

notion o ldquomidlie crisisrdquomdashan idea incidentally that has not done well in

subsequent study Nevertheless the wider notion seems correct crises can

be ormative stimuli or change Levinson believed that we each expe-

rience these ldquocrisesrdquo in discrete periods o lie in our late twenties or

thirties sometime between orty and fify and later as we enter our sixties

Tese are three stages when certain things begin to slip away rom us and

other opportunities present themselves In this spirit in 983089983097983096983095 Judith Viorstwrote Necessary Losses Te Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible

Expectations Tat All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow and she

suggested that it is lossmdashembracing lossmdashthat is a catalyst to our growth

Richard Rohr (the inspirational Catholic speaker and writer) likes

to talk about ascent and descent to typiy the grand cycle o our lives

According to Rohr unless we understand the limits o ascent and how

to embrace descent our lives will end in tragedy But this is a difficult

assignment particularly since our society thinks we should be as-

cending like a rocket every year A quick look at his most recent book

Falling Upward A Spirituality for the wo Halves of Life (983090983088983089983089) tells it

all We all all Aging can be a crisis But this all can also be an ascent

And Rohr is eager to tell us how

A retired proessor now in his eighties offered me Paul ournierrsquosgood book Learn to Grow Old (983089983097983095983090) I assumed it would have little

relevance to anyone under eightymdashuntil ournier explained that the

patterns o our lives that we set now in early years determine how we

either celebrate or detest the later years o our lives1048626

Ten another riend a psychologist this time handed me George

Vaillantrsquos remarkable book Aging Well (983090983088983088983090) Tis is the outcome o the

longest study on aging ever completed entitled the ldquoStudy o Adult De-

velopment at Harvard Universityrdquo Based on three cohorts making up

2Tis reminds me o something that St Ignatius o Loyola was once to have said ldquoGive me

a child till he is seven and Irsquoll show you the manrdquo

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 921

983089983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

983096983090983092 people participants were selected careully as teenagers in the 983089983097983090983088s

and 983089983097983091983088s Tey represented three very different social strata in

American society and they have been studied careully throughout their

lives (they are now in their 983095983088s and 983096983088s) And in this book we have Vail-

lantrsquos careul interpretation o these cohorts (chiefly using Freud and

Erikson) We can learn that it is possible to age well and it is possible to

age poorly as their many subjects demonstrate I each o us are aging

(and o course we are) then I or one want to discover the keys the se-

crets that acilitate not only a live well lived but a lie that ages wellIn each case these writers have identified ormative influences that

bring each o us to maturity (sexual resolution individuation social-

ization attachment personal loss etc) And rom here we consolidate

our identities we test them we either flourish or ail and we ready

ourselves or decline and mortality Numerous actors weigh into these

results our genetic history our gender how we were parented birth

order relational crises amily systems our motherrsquos mental outlook etc

Not surprisingly there is ofen a correlation between personality traits

seen early in childhood and traits exhibited in adult lie I sometimes

imagine some o the college presidents Irsquove known when they were five

years old I can see them now taking charge o the kindergarten and

giving orders on the playground

I am narrowly interested in adult development stages as they areexperienced within the traditional academic career in a college or uni-

versity We can find manuals that will tell us the specifics o career

success such as Faculty in New Jobs (983089983097983097983097) How to Succeed in Academics

(983090983088983088983088) Managing Your Academic Career (983090983088983088983088) or Te Joy of eaching

A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (983090983088983088983093)1048627 But these do not

3R J Menges Faculty in New Jobs A Guide to Settling In Becoming Established and Buildingraditional Support (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048633) L L McCabe and E R B McCabe

How to Succeed in Academics (San Diego Academic 1048626104862410486241048624) D Royce Sadler Managing Your

Academic Career Strategies for Success (St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin 1048626104862410486241048624) P Filene

Te Joy of eaching A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill University o

North Carolina Press 1048626104862410486241048629)

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 921

983089983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

983096983090983092 people participants were selected careully as teenagers in the 983089983097983090983088s

and 983089983097983091983088s Tey represented three very different social strata in

American society and they have been studied careully throughout their

lives (they are now in their 983095983088s and 983096983088s) And in this book we have Vail-

lantrsquos careul interpretation o these cohorts (chiefly using Freud and

Erikson) We can learn that it is possible to age well and it is possible to

age poorly as their many subjects demonstrate I each o us are aging

(and o course we are) then I or one want to discover the keys the se-

crets that acilitate not only a live well lived but a lie that ages wellIn each case these writers have identified ormative influences that

bring each o us to maturity (sexual resolution individuation social-

ization attachment personal loss etc) And rom here we consolidate

our identities we test them we either flourish or ail and we ready

ourselves or decline and mortality Numerous actors weigh into these

results our genetic history our gender how we were parented birth

order relational crises amily systems our motherrsquos mental outlook etc

Not surprisingly there is ofen a correlation between personality traits

seen early in childhood and traits exhibited in adult lie I sometimes

imagine some o the college presidents Irsquove known when they were five

years old I can see them now taking charge o the kindergarten and

giving orders on the playground

I am narrowly interested in adult development stages as they areexperienced within the traditional academic career in a college or uni-

versity We can find manuals that will tell us the specifics o career

success such as Faculty in New Jobs (983089983097983097983097) How to Succeed in Academics

(983090983088983088983088) Managing Your Academic Career (983090983088983088983088) or Te Joy of eaching

A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (983090983088983088983093)1048627 But these do not

3R J Menges Faculty in New Jobs A Guide to Settling In Becoming Established and Buildingraditional Support (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048633) L L McCabe and E R B McCabe

How to Succeed in Academics (San Diego Academic 1048626104862410486241048624) D Royce Sadler Managing Your

Academic Career Strategies for Success (St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin 1048626104862410486241048624) P Filene

Te Joy of eaching A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (Chapel Hill University o

North Carolina Press 1048626104862410486241048629)

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1021

Mapping Our Lives 983089983095

engage how aculty members evolve over their careers

Tis developmental approach has witnessed limited attention1048628 One

o the first to attempt this was Harold L Hodgkinson whose Levinson-

inspired 983089983097983095983092 essay ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and

Administratorsrdquo began a conversation that continues today1048629 Although

age was a key actor in how he sorted aculty ldquostagesrdquo he warned o its

limitations because developmental cycles can vary ar outside age pa-

rameters among aculty

In 983089983097983096983090 orty-eight aculty at research universities were careullystudied to see i developmental patterns could be charted in their ca-

reers Tey could be1048630 Something orms within us at about age thirty

Something else takes place midcareer And still new developments are

shaping us as we reach older senior status Tese and other more

recent studies share the same interests What are the ormative adult

developmental processes that make us who we become Can they be

predicted Measured And how do they show up in our proessorial

careers I college leaders knew this they would be well on their way

to understanding how to build successul aculty development pro-

grams rather than the one-size-fits-all programs we see today Still as

good as these studies may be they each share a similar lack Tey

invest little in the developmental experiences o aculty over fify

o address this in 983089983097983096983089 Roger Baldwin and Robert Blackburn studiedselect aculty at twelve liberal arts colleges and tried to synthesize ob-

servations rom studies up till that time1048631 In 983089983097983097983091 a developmental study

4In what ollows see the summaries in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist Te Vital-

ity of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Washington DC

George Washington University Graduate School o Education and Human Development

1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486271048633-104862910486265Harold L Hodgkinson ldquoAdult Development Implications or Faculty and AdministratorsrdquoEducational Record 10486291048629 no 1048628 (1048625104863310486311048628) 104862610486301048627-10486311048628

6L A Braskamp et al ldquoFaculty Development and Achievement A Faculty Viewrdquo paper pre-

sented at the 1048625104863310486321048626 meeting o the American Educational Research Association New York 10486251048633104863210486267Roger G Baldwin and Robert Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Career as a Developmental

Processrdquo Journal of Higher Education 10486291048626 no 1048630 (1048625104863310486321048625) 104862910486321048632-104863010486251048628

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1121

983089983096 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

was made but it was limited to the careers o senior aculty1048632 Perhaps

the most interesting and certainly only well-known longitudinal study

was made by Joseph Axelrod who published the orty-year history o

a disguised though genuine aculty member (named Stephen Abbot)

In one volume Abbot is a young proessor in his thirties1048633 In the next

we find Abbott in midlie10486251048624 Later we meet him in his midfifies and

sixties10486251048625 In each study we see the evolution o his career

Perhaps the newest collaborative effort to study aculty development

and success was launched in 983090983088983088983090 at Harvardrsquos Graduate School oEducation Called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher

Education (ofen called ldquoCOACHErdquo)10486251048626 this is a consortium o over two

hundred colleges and universities that is attempting to quantiy aculty

success in order to learn ldquobest practicesrdquo or aculty development Tey

publish papers hold conerences and can generate college-specific re-

ports based on surveys (which are then compared with national data)

COACHE can even provide on-site visits to give guidance to aculty

and administrative leaders in member institutions

Tere is a literature devoted to the career preparation o deans and

provosts that seeks to chart the relationships they might have with

aculty at various stages But here tenure is the main watershed and

questions o promotion discipline and career development o aculty

are oremost Tere is also a literature exploring the mission anduture o higher educationmdashboth secular and conessionalmdashin

American society Religious writers have taken this up directly Robert

Bennersquos Quality with Soul (983090983088983088983089) and Duane Litfinrsquos Conceiving the

8Martin J Finkelstein and Mark W LaCelle-Peterson eds Developing Senior Faculty as

eachers (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486331048627)9Joseph Axelrod Te University eacher as Artist (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486311048627)

10Joseph Axelrod ldquoFrom Counterculture to Counterrevolution A eaching Careerrdquo in EbleK ed Improving eaching Styles (San Francisco Jossey-Bass 1048625104863310486321048624)

11Joseph Axelrod ldquoTe Case o Stephen Abbotrdquo in Carole J Bland and William H Bergquist

eds Te Vitality of Senior Faculty Members Snow on the RoofmdashFire in the Furnace (Wash-

ington DC George Washington University 1048625104863310486331048631) pp 10486251048627-1048627104863212httpisitesharvardeduicbicbdokeyword=coacheamppageid=icbpage104862710486241048631104862510486281048626

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1221

Mapping Our Lives 983089983097

Christian College (983090983088983088983092) come to mind Here the well-being and sur-

vival o the Christian academy is at stake Missional fidelity and loss

take center stage Many such books examine in remarkable detail the

institutional role o presidents boards and development officers in

that survival

However ew explore the developmental shifsmdashthe well-being

perhapsmdashthat ollow aculty members or the thirty or orty years they

work as proessors Richard Hughes attempts to chart the Vocation of

the Christian Scholar (983090983088983088983093) and asks what elements will keep acultycommitted to a richly integrated Christian commitment in their work

But he has limited interest in developmental shifs in our lives

Occasionally very specific advice lists are printed such as John Vine-

yardrsquos ldquoHow to Prosper in the 983091 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo10486251048627 I was

hoping this would be a goldmine o wisdom until I learned that he is a

financial manager giving advice to us on how to build an investment

portolio as nontenured tenured and retired proessors Tatrsquos hardly

my present interest But more practical tips can be ound in the splendid

practical journal Te eaching Professor (and its helpul website) Here

are archived tips or the teacher and ample room or blogging10486251048628

But to my knowledge ew have tried to map the developmental

stages that ollow the proessorial career and provide practical advice

on how to navigate those stages What would happen I wondered iwe examined how traditional developmental stages among adults

present themselves within this one proession

My own proessional experiences have also made me curious to

understand the lives o those with whom I have worked I began my

first aculty position as a young proessor in 983089983097983096983090 Since then I have

served in three very different colleges Each o these has been cones-

13John Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosper in the 1048627 Stages o a Campus Careerrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education February 10486261048631 104862610486241048624104862814See wwwteachingproessorcom oday online access to the archive is by subscription

Many colleges purchase a subscription or the entire aculty

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1321

983090983088 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

sionally Christian however each understood the integration o that

conession differently For one it was a casual commitment and in

some respect it was not always apparent that the college deemed its

religious identity as central At another college aculty openly criti-

cized the religious mission o the school much to the dismay o de-

nominational leaders who rankly were eager to reorient the aculty

as soon as possible For my present college it is a serious and inten-

tional commitment that sometimes creates anxiety among aculty who

hope they actually ldquofit inrdquo Chapel is required or students three timeseach week aculty are expected to mentor students spiritually and

doctrinal interests are very much a part o the aculty hiring process

Now almost thirty years have passed and while all o it has been

rewarding there were many times when I wished someone had tipped

me off regarding those things that would have helped me flourish and

what things might be lethal to a fledgling career I sometimes eel like

I possess an archive o memories and can call up countless stories o

people who have succeeded and I can think o many others who have

in some respects ailed

Every developmental theory is personal and this is as true o Levinson

as it is o me My own view certainly owes a lot to my own place in my

career and my society My age my gender my socioeconomic location

and my career experiences have each shaped my understanding o howwe grow and change And this leads to a air question Can these observa-

tions be generalized For instance being a man in the academy brings

certain realities quite different than what a woman may experience My

hope is that this paradigm is sufficiently wide and flexible that others

different rom who I am may find something here o use

T983144983141 T983144983154983141983141 C983151983144983151983154983156983155 983151983142 983156983144983141 P983154983151983142983141983155983155983151983154983145983137983148 C983137983154983141983141983154

Adult careers are ofen divided in threes Tis is the model that Levinson

suggested and it has much to commend it John Vineyard writes ldquoFor

an artisan the trinity might be apprenticeship competency and

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1421

Mapping Our Lives 983090983089

mastery For someone in business it might be junior executive senior

executive and CEO For an academic it might be tenure track post-

tenure and retirement Te permutations are endlessrdquo10486251048629 Te usual divi-

sions are (983089) career learning (983090) career mastery and (983091) career com-

pletion or retirement In my experience however this oversimplifies

what we experience as college proessors and neglects more subtle divi-

sions within the academy

I believe that we enter three discrete ldquocohortsrdquo before retirement as

we move through our careers10486251048630 Tese cohorts have no relationship tothe traditional three academic titles regularly used (assistant proessor

associate proessor ull proessor) Instead they reflect a personrsquos per-

ception o hisher relationship to onesel onersquos career and the college

heshe serves Tey may also measure the collegersquos perception o how

a aculty member is progressing and is valued as shown by recognition

task assignments grants and promotion Tere are cases where aculty

with fifeen years o experience still see themselves as junior and are

in some manner developmentally stuck And there are other aculty

who within a year or two exhibit a sense o largesse and entitlement

that you generally only see among tenured proessors in their sixties

I am not a psychotherapist But thanks to the coaching o many

therapists around me and my long participation in our collegersquos doc-

toral psychology program10486251048631

I have been able to listen in to their con- versations learn some o the vocabulary o this discipline and think

about it as I look back on almost thirty years as a college proessor I

have watched many many colleagues do wellmdashand others do poorly

I have seen many manage career thresholds with courage and resolve

15Vineyard ldquoHow to Prosperrdquo16Baldwin and Blackburn ldquoTe Academic Careerrdquo suggest five stages (1048625) assistant proessors

in their first three years (1048626) assistant proessors with three years experience (1048627) associate

proessors (1048628) ull proessors with more than five years beore retirement (1048629) ull proessors

within five years o retirement17I team-teach the PsyD capstone seminar with a psychologist each year in Wheaton Col-

legersquos Graduate School o Psychology

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1521

983090983090 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

others were filled with dismay and conusion Some have ended their

careers with great satisaction still others ended with proound de-

spair and in a ew cases relie that ldquoit all is overrdquo wo riends I know

retired about fifeen years ago One riend valued his teaching career

and yet looked orward to the new horizon with healthy anticipation

He had splendid plans Te other riendrsquos recent words to me were ldquoI

am so glad I lef that __ placerdquo And today he seems well rustrated

My first riend gave me some sage advice that Irsquove always valued

always listen to people ten years older than you so you know whatrsquoscoming Tat was helpul to memdashand it also gave me an insight into

how he perceptively viewed his own lie

So what made the difference between these two men My quest has

been to understand the stages o our careers and the transitions that

divide them and thereby map how we move across the landscape o

the academy

By now I have discussed these cohorts with dozens o colleagues

And in each case they have come away rom the discussion describing

how this accurately represents their experiences Tis is particularly

true or midcareer and senior aculty who have at least twenty years

o experience Tey are able to look back over their lives and with

discernment think about the turns they made and the beneficial

choices that helped them alongIn figure 983088983089 three cohorts represent three ldquostagesrdquo o development

in a scholarrsquos career Significant ldquomarkersrdquo divide them Note careully

that these cohorts do not represent aculty rank Tese are fluid devel-

opmental stages keyed to experience Note as well that age ranges

cannot be fixed Te usual careermdashwhen a person completes his or her

terminal degree rom ages twenty-eight to thirty-twomdashis my working

assumption However a person might easily be in Cohort 983090 at thirty-

five or just entering the proession (Cohort 983089) at orty And when a

person moves rom one college to another new variables may shif the

cohort location I also suspect that these configurations will shif de-

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1621

Mapping Our Lives 983090983091

pending on gender because many men and women will report very

different proessional experiences And the same may be true or eth-

nicity or culture

Figure 983088983089 Developmental stages among faculty

It is not difficult to observe that aculty change over the years With

understandable rustration deans have noted something as simple as

aculty meeting attendance Younger aculty attend loyally and thisinterest decreases as aculty enter Cohort 983091 (see below on what will keep

them coming) O course there are exceptions but I have yet to find

someone who will question the general rule Interest in committee

work also declines as ewer and ewer Cohort 983091 aculty will run or

elected officemdashand then they ofen decline minor committee appoint-

ments or service (again there are always exceptions) Everyone knows

the lament It seems like junior faculty do all the committee work Is this

simply indifference or laziness Or is something important happening

within the souls o our senior colleagues As Kate Sandberg at the Uni-

versity o Alaska has written perhaps what we need is mentoring pro-

grams for senior faculty who need to understand themselves better10486251048632

Others observe a decline in competitiveness Cohort 983089 aculty have

emerged resh rom a graduate program and are ofen eager to ldquomake

a namerdquo or themselves and rise above their peer group Cohort 983091

18Kate Sandberg ldquoSenior Proessors oo Sometimes Need a Helping Handrdquo Te Chronicle of

Higher Education March 10486251048630 1048626104862410486241048625 httpchroniclecomarticleSenior-Proessors-oo1048628104863210486301048625

Beginning

range 28-38

Cohort 1

Developmental Stages Among FacultyHow faculty perceive their place within their careers

Cohort 2 Cohort 3

range 34-55 range 50-70

Ending

Security Success Significance

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1721

983090983092 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

aculty have a complex set o reactions to competition (as we will see)

Some continue to strive others have given up altogether Cohort 983089

aculty work hard to burnish their reputations among students Cohort

983091 do so less Tere is thus a developmental history at work here aculty

move through measurable stages o development and evolve But as

they evolve we will see how they make choices and what the conse-

quences o those choices are

Perhaps the most persistent observation I discovered is how aculty

in these three cohorts view their relationship to the institution theyserve Beore I explore this at greater length let me outline the broad

contours Cohort 983089 aculty can view the college as hovering over them

Tis is easily explained through the rigorous assessment that they ex-

perience beore tenure Anxiety and atigue is ofen their lot Cohort

983090 expresses this relationship as formative Tis points to the investment

and regard they perceive rom the collegersquos leadership Tey ofen eel

genuinely empowered Cohort 983091 may reer to invisibility Tis group

will ofen wonder i their role is still noticed and i student evaluations

or post-tenure assessments really count or much As one respected

senior colleague put it ldquoMy phone simply stopped ringingrdquo

Figure 983088983090 Cohort 983089

In this sense each cohort has distinct developmental tasks that can

be charted Cohort 983089 must locate security and a proound sense o

vocational identity Here the vital developmental issues center on core

identity formation Te chie institutional goal is to identiy risk areaswhile aculty members establish their proessional identity orm suc-

cessul proessional habits and become valued contributing members

o the community Young aculty tell me how alert they are to these

Cohort 1

Finding SecurityWill I learn the skills of a teacher and scholarWill I define myself as a professional teacherscholar

Will the college recognize and validate my effortsWill I gain tenure

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1821

Mapping Our Lives 983090983093

tensions o finding security Some will describe hidden competi-

tiveness with their recently hired peers Some will coness jealousy

when a colleague is offered a special opportunity and they wonder to

themselves ldquoHow did that person get invited to do that rdquo

But once security is ound Cohort 983090 launches an entirely different

set o developmental issues Te question is no longer whether or not

the college will retain or promote the issues now are internal to the

proessorrsquos own sense o presence within his proessional community

Now new questions ariseAs we will see this is a period o matured scholarship and teaching

And this is when institutional investment in the aculty member peaks

Colleges look to this cohort or an enormous contribution in things

such as aculty leadership and student mentoring And in addition

this is where colleges will look or their ldquoheroesrdquo who will contribute

to the legacy that the college preserves and protects

Figure 983088983091 Cohort 983090

Te margin between Cohort 983089 and 983090 is clear it is security generallyexpressed through tenure (or long-term contracts) Te margin be-

tween Cohort 983090 and 983091 is ar less obvious and aculty rarely know that

this threshold exists However when I have explained it to them it im-

mediately registers new questions are being asked about core identity

and they wonder i there is still time or growth and change Curiously

Cohort 983089 and 983091 aculty have more in common than they realize

Cohort 983091 can be a time o crisis and sel-doubt that generally re-

mains disguised among peers Or it can be a time o remarkable en-

richment and contributionmdashsome say the most rewarding time o

their lives One study o 983089983089983091983093 senior aculty in six institutions ound

Cohort 2

Finding SuccessWill I succeed as a teacher and scholar

Will I continue making scholarly contributions

Will I contribute to the corporate welfare of the college

Will I promote the success of others (Cohort1) or only my own

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 1921

983090983094 M983137983152983152983145983150983143 Y983151983157983154 A983139983137983140983141983149983145983139 C983137983154983141983141983154

levels o job satisaction that were higher than junior aculty (although

they also reported that they ound the transitions in their career to be

increasingly stressul)10486251048633

Figure 983088983092 Cohort 983091

Above all Cohort 983091 aculty are asking why they do what they do and

whether there is a new venue to practice in Many question their career

path some think about changing jobs or locales (but they generally

conclude that their age makes a major change impossible) I the

college leadership does not recognize this cohort and cultivate its pos-

sibilities these aculty may languish

Tereore each o these cohorts can be distinguished by their pos-

sibilities and their risks It is possible to flourish in any cohort But it

is also possible to fail in any cohort Tere is a turning point that char-

acterizes each developmental stage

But here is my most alarming observation For the most part

scholars in the field o clinical psychology are remarkably sel-aware

It is not uncommon to hear the best clinical psychology aculty reflecton their own developmental processes as they move through lie In

other words they see mapping themselves as a necessary component

to becoming a growing adult And yet most o us within the academy

do not think about our own adult maps We can analyze any subject

and make discerning critiques o writers in our fields (as some may

have already critiqued these paragraphs) And yet the one thing we

19R Armour et al ldquoSenior Faculty Careers and Personal Development A Surveyrdquo paper

presented at the 1048625104863310486321048633 Annual Meeting o the American Educational Research Association

March 10486261048631ndash10486271048625 San Francisco CA summarized in Bland and Bergquist Vitality of Senior

Faculty p 10486291048625

Cohort 3

Finding Significance

What do I want to be known for Can I redefine myself

Have my contributions been enough Is there more to do

Am I still valued ( by students colleagues the college)

Can I embrace healthy decline and still feel valued

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2021

Mapping Our Lives 983090983095

rarely do is reflect on ourselves what we are eeling about our age or

our accomplishments or our aims Simply put we ofen lack skilled

discernment when we think about lie What some therapists call

ldquomindulnessrdquo In the words o the popular magazine Psychology oday

Mindulness is a state o active open attention on the present

When yoursquore mindul you observe your thoughts and eelings

rom a distance without judging them good or bad Instead o

letting your lie pass you by mindulness means living in the

moment and awakening to experience10486261048624

Because o our lack o attentiveness to our inner processes we mis-

identiy ourselves with roles that belong to other cohorts and we miss

opportunitiesmdashrich opportunitiesmdashthat are sitting right beore us

Donrsquot think that a senior aculty member you know on your aculty

has this solved I certainly do not And donrsquot make the mistake o

thinking that deans or provosts are any different than the rest o us It

is the rare member o the academy in any role who reflects creatively

on what it means to evolve as an adult and permits his or her job to

evolve as well

20Psychology oday (January 1048626104862410486251048627) online wwwpsychologytodaycombasicsmindulness

Copyrighted Material wwwivpresscompermissions

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121

8202019 Mapping Your Academic Career By Gary M Burge - EXCERPT

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmapping-your-academic-career-by-gary-m-burge-excerpt 2121