Winter Semester 2007. No snow. I'm okay with that. There are enough other things to have to worry about on a daily basis that not having to deal with icy, slippery roads is quite the bonus. Still, I am holding out hope for a snow day this year...
Back in the classroom, focusing on teaching and my students. I'm in my second year here, and I realize now, my fifteenth year of teaching. Yow. I was really excited to think that now I could finally just bury myself in the pedagogy (uh, I guess that would be the theory of how I actually teach and why) and caring nothing more about how to make myself a better teacher so my students can all have better learning experiences. But, nooooo.... I find out it's time for me to start putting together a committee for my promotion.
Promotion. Yes. Committe. Yes. I have to go around and ask people - my colleagues, who are already overburdened with their own work and pedagogy, to sit on a committee to review all my materials and make a recommendation for me (or not) for promotion.
Okay, so step one shouldn't be so bad. Just ask people, right?
No.
Come to find out, I have to be careful about who I ask, what kind of credibility they will have in the department, and whether or not they would even consider doing it at all. Because this is my first promotion, to Assistant Professor, I'm told not to pick people who are full professors. What? Why? Too heavy-handed for my first promotion. Huh? Okay, well, too late. I already asked two people who are full professors, and I didn't even care that that's what they were. I asked them because I thought they would be the best people to evaluate me and give me feedback that would help in certain areas of my continued professional development.
Excuse my practicality. It's been trumped by politics.
Then there's the "third." This has to be a person outside of the department. Well, good luck knowing a whole lot of people outside of your department after only being here a year and a half! Lucky for me, I guess, I do, but then as I mention their names, I hear, "Not much credibility in our dept." "Nobody knows that person." "He won't do it; he never sits on these things." Etc.
So, as per usual, I didn't listen. I have gone ahead and done what I wanted to do for my own reasons, the politics be screwed. If what I have done isn't good enough, what difference does it make if it's presented by a full professor or an associate, by someone known in our department or not known. Cripes, it's maddening. And at the same time, I want to do it. I want to participate in the process.
Everyone says it's for the money. There's a pay raise for every promotion. But that's not why I would do it.
Money is nice, sure. But what matters more to me is just simple recognition. I feel like I do a lot both at the school for my students and outside of the school for my community. I don't do it thinking it's going to help me get promoted or help me get tenure. I do it because it's just what I do. I came from a school with no system of recognition - no promotion, no tenure. No matter how much I did, or how much someone else didn't do, it didn't matter to the school. They never recognized us for it. No pay raise. No titles. All I'm asking for is recognition. A pat on the back. Something that says, we appreciate what you're doing and recognize it's integral for your continued growth as an educator, and as such, here's a title that recognizes that growth.
I will do this thing. I will ask people. I will put together a portfolio of my work. I will half listen to the political advice. But in the end, it should really come down to whether or not they will recognize me for what I have done, since I have no doubts I have done all they would require of a person to advance, and more. The recognition here, while it seems like it is them looking at me, is just as much me looking at them and saying, "What kind of school are you? Are you earnest in what you will recognize, or is this a game of politics?" I would like to think this school is worth all that, and more. I guess we'll both find out.
