Tenure troubles and equity matters in Canadian academe |
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| Authors: | Sandra Acker Michelle Webber Elizabeth Smyth |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Social Justice Education , University of Toronto , Toronto , Ontario , Canada;2. Department of Sociology , Brock University , St Catharines , Ontario , Canada;3. Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning and School of Graduate Studies , University of Toronto , Toronto , Ontario , Canada |
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| Abstract: | The focus of this article is the tenure review process in Canadian universities, a rigorous and high-stakes evaluation of junior academics that serves as a prime exemplar of ‘disciplining academics', our project's title. In-depth interviews in seven Ontario universities with 30 knowledgeable informants such as senior managers and faculty association personnel provide the data. Literature on tenure and the persistence of equity issues suggests that we might expect some concern on those grounds to be raised by participants, especially as the faculty complement slowly grows more ethnically diverse and more gender balanced. Although not usually raised without direct questions, some discourses around equity did appear in the interviews. We argue that apparently equal outcomes in the tenure review process may be obscuring differential experiences of evaluation that need further examination. |
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| Keywords: | academics academic tenure universities equity gender race |
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