Reforming Academic Tenure: Can Tenure Process Be Improved?

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According to Randi and Rhee (16), professors should focus more research and publish more academic articles to increase student’s knowledge. These two authors support tenure and also are against tenure; they argue that tenure must be maintained or reformed as it protects professors from suffering from inferiority and at least get the job security they deserve from attacks and being bullied by parents. If there was no tenure unnecessary and every day firing of teachers would have been the song this is why people support tenure as professors will be losing their job daily and to some minor reasons. The tenure assure of a safe, sound and stable job attracts teachers to the schooling profession; eliminating the tenure would obstruct teacher recruitment, and this will lead to small numbers of those interested in the business thus tenure acts as a motivating agent for professors.

Those that are opposed to tenure argue that tenure should be removed as it does not promote or add value to student’s education but is only in favor and benefits the professors. Tenure does not guarantee that the teacher will offer high-quality education and at some point, we see that some teachers are rated unsatisfactory. It is costly to remove an underperforming teacher, or one who is found guilty of wrongdoing as the process of removing such teacher is expensive thus there is no need to have tenure. Some researchers argue that tenure is not needed to recruit teachers as in some cases we see many teachers applying for the same job, thus no need to have tenure. Tenure should be removed as it makes it hard to eliminate underperforming teachers because the procedure includes lawful processes which take months to be completed.

Academic tenure is important to professors as it acts as a job security and this motivates them on their duties; tenure protects teachers from false accusations both from parents and students. Tenure prohibits the random firing of teachers as if there was no tenure there would be random firing due to insignificant or even political reasons; although tenure is relevant to educators, some researchers argue that tenure method is only helping the professors and not the students as it emphasizes on securing professors their jobs. Though some are against tenure, some are for it as they argue that teachers should be protected and their rights ensured. Reforms need to be made to make sure that tenure methods are improved, for example, traditional methods of teaching should be replaced with the modern method as this will help in facilitating both students and professors.

References

Helfand, David J. "Why Tenure Still Matters." Washington Post, the, Mar. 0005. Feb. 24, 2017

Hurtado, Sylvia, and Jessica Sharkness. “Scholarship Is Changing, and so Must Tenure Review.” Academe, vol. 94, no. 5, 2008, pp. 37–39. March 3, 2017

Weingarten, Randi and Michelle Rhee. "Should Public School Teachers Get Tenure?." U.S. News Digital Weekly, vol. 6, no. 30, 25 July 2014, p. 16. Feb. 24, 2017