Landing a Tenure Track position after the PhD

[bayesian_network]

Hey there,

As an incoming master's student this fall (not in the US) I'm interested in getting to know about the things required to be a tenure track professor in education in the United States. I know that publications matter, but how many papers does a PhD student in education typically publish during the program? Do a lot of PhDs go on to do postdoc? If so, approximately how many years of postdoc does someone who go on to becoming a tenure track professor do? How do you know your papers are good enough to be considered for such position (publishing dozens in shitty journals vs publishing 2 or 3 in top journals) in education specifically? How do these standards differ by the tiers of the universities that you're hoping to become a professor in?

I come from a natural science discipline for my bachelor's degree and it feels like these things are completely different for education, and I thought it'd be a good idea to get used to how things work in this area. Thanks!

[EvolvedGradBlog]

On 6/1/2020 at 4:48 PM, bayesian_network said:

Hey there,

As an incoming master's student this fall (not in the US) I'm interested in getting to know about the things required to be a tenure track professor in education in the United States. I know that publications matter, but how many papers does a PhD student in education typically publish during the program? Do a lot of PhDs go on to do postdoc? If so, approximately how many years of postdoc does someone who go on to becoming a tenure track professor do? How do you know your papers are good enough to be considered for such position (publishing dozens in shitty journals vs publishing 2 or 3 in top journals) in education specifically? How do these standards differ by the tiers of the universities that you're hoping to become a professor in?

I come from a natural science discipline for my bachelor's degree and it feels like these things are completely different for education, and I thought it'd be a good idea to get used to how things work in this area. Thanks!

Hello!

Good on you for thinking about this early. Here are my answers to your questions: 

How many papers published? 1-5, depending on your field and the focus of your school. Some universities push this harder than others.

Do lots of PhDs do postdoc? It's a calculated decision, and I wouldn't say it's super common. Students/Faculty that I know who've done it did so for reasons like " There was a phenomenal lab that I wanted to work in, and this was the best way to get that experience", " The economy and job market were sh*t", or " I wanted to see how another university was approaching my topics of interest before going out into the world for professor jobs"

Best of luck, shoot me a message if you have any questions.

Jeremy

[t_ruth]

This is a great thing to think about early!

Unfortunately, the answer is "it depends." It depends heavily on your specific sub-field of education. In Ed Psych, for example, it is become very common for PhD grads to take one-four year postdocs, but in Ed Policy or Curriculum and Instruction, this is less common. Comparing the latter two, in Ed Policy, competitive new PhDs will need five or six good pubs, whereas in C&I, one or two (or even none) might work. A lot of this is about the time it takes to complete the kind of research and the other competition for positions. For example, Ed Psych PhDs also compete with Dev and Cog Psych PhDs for the same positions in Ed Schools (and postdocs are very common in those fields). Ed Policy PhDs can do quick work on secondary datasets, whereas C&I PhDs often do in-classroom work in partnership with schools, which takes a LONG time.

Also, it is increasingly important to show that your work is fundable and you have good potential of earning funding, so aside from publications,  strong applicants have fellowships, small grants, involvement in PIs grants, etc.

And of course, one cannot underestimate the power of connections. Working with famous advisors (or their less famous academic offspring--still in their lineage) can open doors. So too can doing your own networking at conferences and in other ways. These things aren't necessarily right, but they are the reality of the situation.

Happy to provide a more targeted answer if you provide your sub-field.