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Can one remain competitive while teaching K-12?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I have a question about "staleness" and the job market.

I just defended my dissertation. Last year I got a position as the Logic/Philosophy (and Latin) teacher at a middle/high school. My PhD was a major factor in my being hired, outweighing my lack of an Ed degree or significant K-12 experience. So I'm employed as a philosopher in a FT academic position, but not in a traditional way.

I love my job and at this point I feel like I could stay here forever. But I don't want to assume that's what's going to happen, and I could see myself wanting more time for research someday, so I continue to watch the market.

So suppose for the next several years I teach middle/high school philosophy, publish 1-2 articles a year (given I'm teaching 6-8 classes at a time and have a family), adjunct here and there, and then apply for TT positions. Would I be seen by committees as an early/mid-career philosopher making a lateral or upward move, or a "stale" PhD grad who never "made it"? Or how do I prepare and present myself so as to appear (as I actually would be) the former rather than the latter?

(FWIW The program here is pretty rigorous. Students take a year of informal logic and two years of formal logic in middle school, so once they reach high school they're better prepared for a philosophy class than the vast majority of college students I've taught.)

Great questions! I'm curious to hear what readers think. I'm inclined to think that if a person in this situation really does publish one or two articles per year while teaching K-12 and adjuncting at a university, then sure, they could remain competitive–at least for jobs at teaching focused universities and community colleges. Further, I can't help but wonder whether, if they found a way to publish in top-ranked journals, they might remain competitive for postdocs or research jobs. But I'm inclined to think that (A) a lot turns on whether they do in fact continue to publish (which might be difficult while teaching K-12), and (B) whether they keep adjuncting (as I expect universities will favor candidates who have more university-level teaching experience over candidates with less). 

But these are just my reactions. What are yours?

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5 responses to “Can one remain competitive while teaching K-12?”

  1. Marian Finch

    If anecdote is any evidence, I have a friend who finished her PhD in summer 2020, took a job teaching high school for 2020-21, and just landed a great research post-doc for 2022. So it happens. With what frequency I can’t say.

    Reply
  2. Sam Duncan

    I would honestly think that this sort of experience would make one more competitive for community college jobs. Community colleges do a lot of dual enrollment classes with high school and even middle school students and experience teaching those students would be looked on very favorably by them. In fact, I think any experience teaching “non-traditional” students helps with CCs. For what it’s worth, I’ve known people who went from stints teaching math and English at the K-12 level to faculty positions at CCs. Their impression was the experience helped in getting the job. I wouldn’t think that philosophy hiring would be too different. Though these people did have experience teaching at the college level as well. I’d think that college level adjuncting (especially CC adjuncting) plus high school teaching would be a very powerful combination for applying to CC jobs. I’m less sure about high school teaching experience in and of itself. I wonder if there isn’t a way to sell this sort of experience as a plus at a lot teaching focused 4 years as well, though I’m less confident saying anything definite there.

    Reply
  3. aphilosopher

    Publishing 1-2 articles a year isn’t a minor feat. I think most people splitting their time 50/50 between research and a (light) university teaching load hope to hit that number. I just can’t envision any situation in which someone has the time to work a full-time job at a secondary school, adjunct at a university on the side, and publish 1-2 paper a year, all while having a family. That sounds like a path to quick burn out, or will lead to doing none of those things particularly well.

    Reply
  4. David

    I might be wrong about this, but I believe
    Wittgenstein taught at a primary school for a short
    while. Not sure about how much scholarship he
    completed during this time, but I believe he got
    into trouble because (out of frustration) he hit
    and injured one of his young students.
    As long as you don’t go that route, you will
    probably be OK!

    Reply
  5. Sam Duncan

    Wittgenstein did teach primary school. And he horribly abused a lot of the children under his care. What got him into trouble finally was beating one student, Josef Haidbauer so badly that the boy fell unconscious (likely due to a concussion that Wittgenstein gave him). He actually faced criminal charges for assaulting Haidbauer, but nothing came of the charges. Haidbauer died shortly after the incident from unrelated medical issues, which no doubt played a role in the criminal proceedings disappearing, but in his biography of the Wittgenstein family Alexander Waugh presents decent evidence that the family used their wealth and connections to make the problem go away. At any rate this wasn’t an isolated incident. Wittgenstein routinely pulled the hair of his students, smacked, and even punched them when he felt frustrated. I don’t want to threadjack here, but it is important I think to be clear on what a completely horrid human being Ludwig Wittgenstein was and not to minimize his many misdeeds as mere charming eccentricities. I get rather tired of the genius trope with Wittgenstein and trotting the man out as some sort of romantic ideal for our profession. So yeah don’t emulate Wittgenstein as a teacher, but more importantly don’t emulate him as a person at all!

    Reply

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