Quitting a TA position for a Research postion

[Quantitative_Psychology]

Currently, I'm a graduate teaching assistant which for my school means I teach the lab for the statistics course. There are currently 5 graduate teaching assistants, and we teach two labs sections each. I applied for this position at the end of last semester, and I was selected out of a pool of 10 or so graduate students. Things seem to be running smoothly, although I don't particularly like to teach.

However, today I was speaking with a brand new professor for the department, and he said he wanted to take me on a research assistant for the Spring semester. If I took this position, he would have several papers he's working on and would be happy to make me first author for. He just needs some one to do the data analyses and writing. The catch is I would have to quit my teaching position and focus on working in his lab. This seems like a good idea because publications are really important.

The thing is the professor in charge of the graduate teaching assistants and the one who selected might be offended if I just quit at the end of the Fall. I get along with her really well, and I've submitted a paper with her (plus I'm working on another). I can't afford to have her not like me or think less of me. 

Should I quit the teaching position? Do you think she would be offended? Is there a way I can handle this in which she doesn't feel offended? I need advice on the best way to manage this situation.

[Sigaba]

3 hours ago, mav160 said:

I need advice on the best way to manage this situation.

Fulfill  your commitment to the professor who hired you. She said no to five other applicants so she could say yes to you. 

Tell the second professor that you'd be honored to work with him, but you have a prior commitment. Ask him if  you can begin the RA-ship in the summer after upon completion of your teaching assistantship.

 

[TakeruK]

I think it really depends on the situation / environment of your department. So, I would seek advice from someone familiar with how things go in the department, especially if you have a mentor or advisor you can go to. If you are seeking the advice from someone more junior (e.g. another grad student) be sure to try to sit down with at least one professor and get several opinions.

Sigaba's path is the best one if you have already signed a contract that locks you into this position for the entire school year (however, some places still sign term-by-term contracts even for year-long courses; an underperforming TA might not be renewed in January, for example). This path is probably also better if all assistantships were treated the same.

However, in some departments, research positions are always considered more valuable than teaching positions, especially if the student is not interested in teaching. So, the norm/expectation is that the department would prefer to have everyone in a research position, but since that's not possible due to a lack of availabilities, the students who don't get research positions get slotted into teaching positions instead. Ideally, everyone would at least have a teaching position, though, but not always. If this is the case, I think everyone you talk to, including the prof you're TAing for, would be happy for you that you found a research position and encourage you to join that lab next semester. They will be able to replace TAs easily, either from the student pool or hiring externally if they are in a rare situation where they have funding for more TA spots than students.

I have a feeling that you might not be in this type of situation since you said that you specifically competed for this position. However, I guess it's not clear whether there are a limited number of TA spots you competed for, or that everyone would be a TA, and you're just competing for that specific assignment. And given that 10 people wanted one of the 5 spots, it sounds like it would not be too hard for the prof to replace you. The prof that wants to hire you as a TA can also help convince the other prof to "release" you from your TA commitment (i.e. faculty members often trade favours, so the TA prof may be okay with this).

But all of this really depends on the culture and how your department runs. Ask around, with discretion, for advice. Normally, I would say if a prof is suggesting that you drop your TAship, it could mean that it's generally okay but you said this is someone new to the department who might also not know about the norms. If there's a culture that encourages/accepts students to move on to new opportunities as they arise then you should be okay to switch over from TA to RA. One may say that doing so might give the impression that you flake on commitments, but if such a "move on" culture exists, then by sticking to a commitment you don't benefit from, it would give the impression that you aren't serious about pursuing research opportunities as they come up. So, it's worth taking a bit of time to seek guidance from faculty in your department.

[Sigaba]

2 hours ago, TakeruK said:

But all of this really depends on the culture and how your department runs. . . .One may say that doing so might give the impression that you flake on commitments, but if such a "move on" culture exists, then by sticking to a commitment you don't benefit from, it would give the impression that you aren't serious about pursuing research opportunities as they come up. So, it's worth taking a bit of time to seek guidance from faculty in your department.

@mav160 if you pursue this line of inquiry, and your location is in Texas, I recommend that you turn your situational awareness up past maximum.

Think about it. Do you really want to make the focus you and your wants with a professor who has family and friends in a state of peril because of Harvey or Irma?

(At the very least, ask. And then listen very carefully to the answer before asking about "moving on.")

[Quantitative_Psychology]

Thank you both for your thoughtful advice. I really appreciated your fresh perspective. No one else is spoken to presented suggestions quite so well. If anyone is curious about how it turned out, I am pleased to share. 

I did ask my advisor about the situation, and she too voiced a concern that the coordinating professor for the teaching position might be offended if I asked to quit in the Spring for a research position. My advisor especially noted that as a coauthor I needed to be extra careful in handling this. However, she instructed me to speak with the coordinating professor immediately and be upfront in assuring said professor that if it inconvenienced or upset her that I would absolutely turn down the research position with no questions asked. 

I was extremely nervous walking into that conversation, but turned out my worries were not warranted. The coordinating professor did find the request odd and told me that typically this is a year commitment and she would hold me to it. However, the circumstances just so happen to be that the 5 positions teaching positions that we currently have for the fall are not all needed for the Spring. In fact, the department only need 4. Despite only needing 4, the department was trying to make 5 positions for the Spring just to ensure no one loses funding. Therefore, the coordinating professor was happy to release from the teaching position into the research position. It actually worked better for everyone involved.

I am aware that I lucked out in this case  this situation could have gone badly. However, I also wish I'd been more secure and less worried about having the conversation with her. The coordinating professor and I are very close, and I honestly don't think she would have held it over my head for simply asking had it not been possible.