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Success in academia: Findings from an international research project with early career faculty

Principals Boardroom in Cumming Hall, Faculty of Agriculture

Wednesday, September 24th – 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm (being broadcast from B400, Killam Library)

Early career faculty are a diverse group in terms of age, nationality and prior experience. Their professional development needs are very similar, however, and vary only in terms of the importance they (and their institutions) place on the teaching, research and service aspects of their academic roles. This seminar will report on the findings of a research project on the experiences of early career faculty internationally. The project gathered survey data from 538 early career faculty (a response rate of nearly 50%) and over 100 managers at all eight New Zealand universities. It also included interviews with successful early career faculty in three countries (Canada, Sweden and New Zealand). Findings reveal that the prior experiences that early career faculty bring with them to their first academic appointment (including publication, teaching and tutoring experience, and service commitments), as well as the institutional support and resources they receive when they start their careers, have a significant bearing on subsequent confidence in all aspects of their academic roles and overall satisfaction with the academic career. As well as sharing data from the project that shows what predicts confidence and satisfaction among early career faculty, the presenter will share resources that have been developed from the project for early career faculty, and will ask participants to share their own thoughts and resources for placing importance on all aspects of the academic career.

Bio:

Dr Kathryn Sutherland is Associate Dean in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Prior to her appointment as Associate Dean in 2010, Kathryn worked for 11 years in faculty development in the university’s teaching development centre. She is an award-winning teacher and researcher whose primary area of interest is the experiences of early career academics. Kathryn won Victoria University’s Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007 and has three times been awarded the most creative presentation award at the HERDSA Conference (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia). She is co-editor of the International Journal for Academic Development, received the “Best Article Award” for the international journal Mentoring and Tutoring in 2009, and is the recipient of more than $500,000 of external grant funding. Kathryn has undergraduate degrees from Waikato University, an MA from UVic in Canada, a Postgraduate Diploma in Tertiary Teaching from Otago University, and a PhD from Massey University in New Zealand. 

Please rsvp to Kathleen Kevany at kkevany@dal.ca