Beyond the Academic Gateway - (Education) by Timothy Sibbald & Victoria Handford (Paperback)

About the Book

What are the experiences of academics around the time they earn tenure? Beyond the Academic Gateway explores the experiences of scholars from universities across Canada. Their experiences are, doubtlessly, representative of the academy, and bring a wealth of insight for graduate students (and prospective students), professors, and administrators.

Book Synopsis

Tenure is a pivotal decision for the academy. If it is earned, it provides security and permanence, creating further academic freedom to pursue research and interests important to the institution and to society. If it is not earned, then the peer review process provides clarification for why it has not been earned. This book brings together lived experiences of academics around the time of the tenure decision. While the book is stand-alone, it has the same collection of authors who wrote about their tenure-track experiences in The Academic Gateway, making the pair of books a remarkable longitudinal collection.

The authors explore the complex relationship between academics, the academy as an ideal, and universities as an enactment of that ideal. Personal growth is evident and shows diversity of experience, as the maturing relationships with the role and workplace unfurl. Where tenure track is a very personal journey, the period around tenure is necessarily a form of engagement with peers. Yet it has challenges, particularly in a milieu where academic freedom is being nurtured. Individual authors negotiate their choices between their personal objectives and institutional mandates and policies. Simultaneously, after years in the tenure-track, they continue to be evolving as academics, whether through personal growth or by seeking changes in the academy itself.

Review Quotes

Beyond the Academic Gateway: Looking Back on the Tenure-Track Journey is a follow-up to Sibbald and Hanford's 2017 edited volume: The Academic Gateway: Understanding the Journey to Tenure. Beyond the Academic Gateway, as a sequel, stands as a follow-up to the original book and shares updates from the original authors on their successful or ongoing work towards gaining tenure.

As I have found the primary strength of this book to be how it shares personal and individual perspectives of academics, I have divided the chapters into groups based on the types of experiences they show: (...) stress, tension, and mental health, (...) growing comfort, and (...) community.

Those finding the trek towards tenure to be difficult may feel a sense of camaraderie when reading about the authors' difficulties.

- Summer Cowley, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 196, 128-130.
https: //journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/71464

--Summer Cowley "Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 196, 128-130"

About the Author

Cecile Badenhorst (Contributor)
Cecile Badenhorst is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education in the Adult/Post-Secondary programs at Memorial University. She teaches courses on academic literacies and adult teaching. She has published three books in this area: Research Writing (2007), Dissertation Writing (2008), and Productive Writing (2010).

Lee Anne Block (Contributor)
Lee Anne Block is a teacher educator at the University of Winnipeg. Her research and teaching are focused on how we name and engage with difference in educational locations and on cultural sustainability. She recently completed Gandhi, Globalization and Earth Democracy, a course on sustainability with Vandana Shiva, in residence at Navdanya, India. For twenty years, she was a classroom teacher in Winnipeg.

Joan Chambers (Contributor)
Joan Chambers is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University.

Cam Cobb (Contributor)
Cam Cobb teaches in the Faculty of Education and Academic Development at the University of Windsor. His research focuses on such topics as social-justice issues in special education, co-teaching in adult-learning contexts, and narrative pedagogy in the arts.

Frank Deer (Contributor)
Frank Deer is an Assistant Professor and current Director of Indigenous Initiatives in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. Frank holds an earned PhD in Educational Administration from the University of Saskatchewan and is published in the area of Indigenous education. Frank has been awarded funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for his work in ancestral languages. He is the current President of the Canadian Association for the Study of Indigenous Education.

Timothy Sibbald (Editor)
Timothy Sibbald is Associate Professor in the Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University. His primary focus is on mathematics education. He is also Editor of The Gazette, a publication for teachers produced by the Ontario Association of Mathematics Educators.

Victoria Handford (Editor)
Victoria (Tory) Handford is a professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at Thompson Rivers University and is currently the chair of the School of Education. Prior to moving to TRU, Tory held multiple posi-tions in JK-12 education as a teacher, vice-principal, and principal. She has been an education officer (Leadership) for the Ontario Ministry of Education and program officer (Standards of Practice and Accreditation) for the Ontario College of Teachers. Her recent publications include a three-book series that addresses experiences of faculty in Canadian uni-versities. Tory has also published multiple articles and chapters addressing components of school and district leadership.