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Teaching/adjuncting at “low-ranked” colleges?

In most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I know hiring committees do not look favorably upon publications in low quality journals, but is the same true for teaching/adjuncting experience at low ranking colleges? I currently have no teaching experience and my department lost my TA teaching evaluations. My postdoc in an interdisciplinary center has been purely research based, so I'm inclined to think some outside evidence of teaching abilities in philosophy would be better than having none at all but I'm not sure.

One quick note: the idea that hiring committees in general don't look favorably upon publications in "low quality" journals appears to be false. I suspect there may be some truth to that for jobs at top-ranked R1s, but my own experience has been that at other types of universities, people can care relatively little about journal rankings. But in any case, with respect to teaching experience, my sense is that the important thing is that you have it. If you've only been a TA and haven't taught courses independently, chances are you'll be at a serious disadvantage on the market for many (and perhaps most) jobs. Moreover, the broader variety of courses you've taught, the greater the chances that you'll have experience teaching subjects that a committee needs taught at their school. But these are just my thoughts.

What do readers think?

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13 responses to “Teaching/adjuncting at “low-ranked” colleges?”

  1. I dunno

    I do think where you adjunct will affect what jobs you are viable for – what jobs you are likely to be shortlisted for. If you adjunct at really “low ranking” schools (your words), then higher ranking schools may say this candidate is not for us. And there is a handy rationale if one wants to justify such behavior. They can say: he has taught, but he has no experience teaching students like our students. It is very hard for people who have been out on the market for 5 years who have been teaching at a community college to move to a job at a four year college. And it is hard for those people to move to a job with a graduate program … etc. The choices you make (whether forced on you or not), go a long way to determining your future career in philosophy.

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  2. Young SLAC Prof

    I don’t think the quality of the institution one’s teaching experience is at matters much. Well, sort of. If you’ve taught only at unexceptional institutions, this is of no import. Most schools want to know that you can teach their (for the most part) unexceptional students. That means that they want to see experience teaching at unexceptional institutions. Fancy schools looking to hire you will not care about where your teaching experience is. For, it is easy to ‘scale up’ the rigor of your teaching; it is the scaling down that is difficult.
    If you’ve only taught at fancy schools, fancy schools looking to hire you will not care. You have a PhD and can work well with exceptional students. It is only the unexceptional schools looking to hire you that will wonder if you can handle their students, given you’re used to teaching exceptional students.
    So, no, there is no prestige associated with teaching at good schools. There is only a worry if you’ve only taught at fancy schools, as most schools looking to hire you will not be fancy.

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  3. Tim O’Keefe

    Getting experience teaching your own classes absolutely will be better than having none at all, no matter how prestigious the school you’re teaching at is or is not.
    But the idea that teaching at “low ranking” colleges counts for less than teaching at “high ranking” ones is also really far off. It’s not at all like publications. What matters is that you have the experience doing it all yourself, from preparing the lectures and exams, to leading discussions, to grading, to interacting with students, etc.
    In fact, your many schools, they’ll prefer to see that you have experience teaching at “low ranking” schools. That’s because most schools themselves are not prestigious, and that’s where most of the jobs are. And the people who hire at these places will be happy to see that you have experience teaching students like theirs. Many will be first gen college students, will need more help with their writing, may have to hold down a job and care for family members while fitting in your class, etc. If you’ve only taught privileged students at your private R1 school, they might worry about how you’ll handle the transition to their students.
    But even for fancier places, having some lead experience at any sort of college will be better than having none at all.

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  4. anon

    I occasionally hear that if you’ve only been a TA and haven’t taught courses independently, you’ll be at a significant disadvantage in the job market, particularly for teaching positions. From my own experience, though, I can tell you that this isn’t necessarily the case. I was surprised to find that, despite having solo-taught only one course, I received several interview offers—most for teaching jobs at large public universities and liberal arts colleges. I just wanted to share my experience and point out that, in my case, solo teaching didn’t seem to be a major factor in getting hired, even for teaching-focused roles. As for the idea that you need to TA a variety of courses, that does seem to hold some truth. Anyway, just wanted to share my own experience!

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  5. masterofpuppets

    this seems so true: “ So, no, there is no prestige associated with teaching at good schools. There is only a worry if you’ve only taught at fancy schools, as most schools looking to hire you will not be fancy.”

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  6. Tenured now

    Just agreeing with judgements of others that having no solo-instructor courses can seriously harm you, and that teaching at “low ranked” schools will be a strong point in your favor for the large majority of jobs out there.
    (Also worth mentioning WRT anon’s comment above – the difference between solo-teaching 1 and 0 courses is the world. I would strongly caution against using their experience to make any judgements about going on the market with zero solo-taught courses.)

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  7. CW

    I work at a state university. We’re on 3/3s so we have to teach well and do research. In my 20 years here, we’ve not interviewed a single candidate for a tenure-stream spot who didn’t have solo teaching experience. TA experience counts for next to nothing.
    As for teaching at low-ranked schools, yes, we value it quite a bit, as there is great variation here from top-to-bottom in terms of student interest and preparation. We know you can ramp things up (as someone up-thread says) but we want to know if you can bring everyone else along.
    At the middling R1 where I got my PhD, they didn’t care about teaching experience when it came to tenure-stream hires. At that time, they wanted to move up in the rankings and so thought of teaching as a necessary evil. They said (literally) that whoever they hired could learn on the job. In any event, we grad students taught approximately 50% of the philosophy courses. The program did make an effort to give us some instruction in teaching–a little, anyway–as they assumed most of us were bound for teaching schools like mine, at least right out of the gate.

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  8. CW

    I work at a state university. We’re on 3/3s so we have to teach well and do research. In my 20 years here, we’ve not interviewed a single candidate for a tenure-stream spot who didn’t have solo teaching experience. TA experience counts for next to nothing.
    As for teaching at low-ranked schools, yes, we value it quite a bit, as there is great variation here from top-to-bottom in terms of student interest and preparation. We know you can ramp things up (as someone up-thread says) but we want to know if you can bring everyone else along.
    At the middling R1 where I got my PhD, they didn’t care about teaching experience when it came to tenure-stream hires. At that time, they wanted to move up in the rankings and so thought of teaching as a necessary evil. They said (literally) that whoever they hired could learn on the job. In any event, we grad students taught approximately 50% of the philosophy courses. The program did make an effort to give us some instruction in teaching–a little, anyway–as they assumed most of us were bound for teaching schools like mine, at least right out of the gate.

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  9. abdessamed gtumsila

    Teaching experience matters regardless of college ranking, while publication evaluation varies more than teaching assessment.

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  10. chuck

    @CW I’m curious why search committees tend to overlook candidates who have extensive TA experience but limited solo teaching experience.
    As a TA, it’s frustrating when people underestimate the amount of work involved. In addition to preparing for lectures, I’ve been responsible for grading, assisting with syllabus development, and designing my own assignments for my sections. I also had more opportunities to interact with students during office hours than I did as a solo instructor…

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  11. re: chuck

    TA work can involve a lot of hours of work – indeed, far too many hours – and I don’t think anyone would dispute that.
    The question some people will be worried about is how many of those hours are being spent on all the different things the instructor of record does, vs. how many hours are spent grading the same short essay about Euthyphro over and over. (Yes, that’s not the only thing a TA does, I’m just painting things in the broad strokes that some people will be inclined to.)
    As you point out, there’s individual variation in how some TAs spend their hours. Some TAs are more like instructors in terms of how these hours are allocated. With this in mind, one way you try can make your TA experience count for more is to describe the salient variations in your cover letter, and/or have your teaching letter writer do this too. But absent something like this, I think people will tend to think of TA work along the lines CW describes.

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  12. Daniel Weltman

    @chuck: as someone who maybe did more TA work than you during grad school (it’s at least quite possible – I had a lot of TA work!) and who also often prefers candidates with solo teaching experience, the answer is that I don’t need evidence that someone can put in work (I am assuming that is true of all applicants) but that they can sensibly design and run a course on their own. TA experience is not good evidence of that.
    However, I would not characterize myself as “overlooking” candidates with extensive TA experience. If your experience in syllabus development, assignment design, and so on shows up in your teaching portfolio in ways that suggest you’re able to design a whole course, then I won’t overlook you,despite your lack of solo teaching experience.

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  13. c

    I find it difficult to imagine an institution looking down on applicants for taking teaching opportunities at low-prestige institutions; it shows that you’re serious enough about working in the discipline to take the opportunities that are given to you.
    On the other hand, I think doing so could be helpful if you eventually end up applying for jobs at similarly low-ranked institutions. Hiring committees there want to see that you can teach students who may not be at the same level as the one where you completed your PhD.

    Reply

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