Research and Scholarship in the Two-Year College

At two-year colleges, good teaching matters most, and scholarship is a prerequisite and co-requisite for good teaching – because teacher’s scholarship legitimizes expertise, informs classroom practice, and provides students with models for intellectual inquiry.

As a professor at a community college, you will be evaluated primarily in terms of your effectiveness as a teacher, your commitment to student learning, and your service to the institution and the community.  While research and publication are generally encouraged and supported, they do not serve as the main institutional goals and therefore may be given limited recognition and reward in terms of rank, promotion, and salary.  Most institutional honors and awards are based on exemplary teaching. (“Considering Community Colleges: Advice to Graduate Students and Job Seekers.” Profession 2003, 167)

Recommendations

1. While recognizing the range and different missions of two-year colleges, this committee defines the teacher-scholar as that faculty member for whom teaching is informed both by reflective practice and the application of the best theoretical approaches.
2.  We invite two-year college faculty to develop the skills and knowledge base that will enable them to become capable researchers. We believe that scholarship is essential to effective teaching and recommend that all two-year college faculty members engage in scholarly projects that sustain and renew their intellectual lives, inform their teaching, and serve as models of inquiry for their students.
3. We encourage two-year college faculty to share their work through publication and presentation, receiving feedback from interested colleagues through critical inquiry and critical exchange.
4. Given the mission of the two-year college, the broad-based needs of its students, and the broad-based skills of its professors, we recommend that the areas of legitimate research and scholarship at the two-year college include, but not be limited to, traditional research, creative writing, writing research, pedagogy in its many forms, and the history of the field.
5. Given the mission of the two-year college and the relationship of scholarship to effective teaching, we urge college administrators and personnel committees to recognize and to reward explicitly the practice of scholarship (as defined above) by its faculty members.
6. Given that virtually half of the students entering post-secondary education in this country do so through two-year colleges, we recommend that state and national committees, national studies, and collaborative efforts for the funding of state and national projects for the teaching of post-secondary English seek and require representation by two-year college faculty

Prepared by an ad hoc committee of the Two-Year College English Association of the
National Council of Teachers of English

Frank Madden, Westchester Community College, New York, Chair.
John Lovas, De Anza College, California
Susan Miller, Mesa Community College, Arizona
Mark Reynolds, Jefferson Davis Community College, Alabama
Peter Sotiriou, Los Angeles City College, California
Howard Tinberg, Bristol Community College, Massachusetts
Marilyn Valentino, Lorain County Community College, Ohio   

Approved by the Two-Year College English Association, November 20, 2004

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