Teaching at the University level

[cookderosa]

Sanantone,
I'm happy to address questions to clarify what I said to Cheese, but I have no interest in playing games with you.

This is your tactic when you don't want to admit that you were wrong.

For anyone else who is interested in accurate info rather than feel good info, try searching for doctoral programs in culinary arts and see how many you find. You cannot compare vocational programs to academic programs. The accreditation guidelines for instructor qualifications are different.

To Cheese: everything I've said to you for your wife is 100% true.

[hsfamfun]

I am currently working to obtain 18+ credits in English in order to be qualified to teach at the CC level. I have a Master's degree, but it is in a subject not taught at the CC level. I live in a college town and there is a large research university, a small liberal arts college, and 3 campuses of our local community college. There are also branches of universities that are located other places and at least 3 small colleges within a 20 minute drive.

When I began to think about teaching at the CC level, I got on the website of each college in our area to see if there were any openings and I found 4 openings for English teachers. However, there were also openings for Communications. I noticed specifically because my son has a degree in Communications and I wondered if I should focus on that instead of English. Yes, these are CC and small colleges and I was only looking for adjunct positions, because that is what I am wanting. I checked today, just out of curiosity and there are 2 adjunct positions for Communications in my area. Do you live in a college town? I think the area that you live in has a lot to do with the possibility of breaking into teaching at the college level without any experience. However, there are many more options for online teaching.

[sanantone]

I don't think one will find a more relevant article to your wife's situation.

The author of this article does not have a doctorate, and he's teaching mass communications. His article mirrors my previous posts in this thread very closely.

1. Becoming a professor at a 4-year college without a doctorate is nearly impossible. He even talked about accreditation standards.
2. With a master's degree, you have the options of becoming an adjunct, lecturer, or visiting professor.
3. These jobs are typically low-paying. The author graduated from Boston University, which is a pretty good school, and he has taught at other good schools. Still, his pay was not high. He's also bounced from job to job and has had to move states. At the time that he wrote the article, he was unemployed and couldn't find another job.

One of the most important points he made is that teaching experience is important. Doctoral students often come out with teaching experience because they were graduate teaching assistants. You can find a mentor with teaching experience and/or you can look at some online courses in higher education instruction.

What he didn't talk about are full-time professor positions at community colleges. One can become an assistant professor at a community college with a master's degree, but once again, there is a lot of competition and not a lot of openings. CCs are relying on adjuncts more and more.

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/490

Online adjunct teaching positions can be harder to land than ground adjunct positions because online teaching jobs prefer candidates who have online teaching experience. You also have more competition with online jobs because they're remote. You will be competing with people from, not only around the country, but from around the world.

University of the People has volunteer instructor positions. You'll only be paid $350-500 per 9-week course, but it's experience.

Edit: It turns out that even University of the People wants online teaching experience.

[cookderosa]

Cheese, is there a certain specialization within communications that your wife has industry experience? (eg. film, broadcast, journalism, etc.)