Higher Education Pathway:

ITDE (Instructional technology and distance education) student to her dissertation chair: “I’m sort of interested in becoming a professor. What is the average salary of a beginning professor?”

Dissertation chair: (states the going rate at the time)

ITDE (Instructional technology and distance education) student: “Oh, I couldn’t take that big a pay cut.”

Would you like to be a professor? If so, in what field? Full-time or adjunct? To what degree do you feel you are prepared to be a professor? Have your feelings about being a professor evolved during your doctoral program?

Now, let’s consider one of this week’s readings, “Pathways to the Professorate: The Development of Faculty Identity in Education.” In this article, Reybold identifies “five dominant identity archetypes: anointed, pilgrim, visionary, philosopher, and drifter.” Reybold’s descriptions of these archetypes are interesting; which of the five sounds most like you? Or, do you think you fit in multiple categories or, perhaps, “none of the above”

?