Recognizing and appreciating teachers is still a long way off
Academic staff are judged on their research results, not on their teaching performance. The new recognition and appreciation should change that, but it will be years before teachers can climb the career ladder.
picture: Type tank
"They were talking about teaching load here," says assistant professor Marij Swinkels. "A strange word for the core task of a university with 30.000 students." When she started the Public Administration and Organization Science program in Utrecht in 2015, teaching was not the best basis for gaining appreciation, but Swinkels, who comes from a teaching family, threw herself into it anyway. research,” she says.
The internationally acclaimed professor with many publications to his name is proudly at the top of the monkey rock at most universities. Even though such a top researcher first gained knowledge and learned to think critically – that is from lecturers. The fact that successful academics do not only stand on the shoulders of researching giants is a starting point of the Recognition & Appreciation programme.
In November 2019, the Association of Universities, knowledge institutions and research financiers announced a change of course in the assessment of scientists that should lead to a better balance between education, research, societal impact and academic leadership. At the top of their joint position paper Room for everyone's talent there was a desire to explore more diverse career paths. Making a career should not only be reserved for top researchers, but also for excellent teachers.
Geert ten Dam, president of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), said at the presentation of the program in the university magazine Folia: “We must no longer endlessly hold each other hostage and hinder different types of careers.” Three years later, she still does not want to talk about progress. “Now is not a good time for an interview. We are in the middle of the Recognition & Appreciation process.” This now falls under the new Rector Magnificus, who is getting acquainted.
Implementation at the UvA is not easy, according to the discussion raging in Folia. Professor of Psychology Han van der Maas, for example, criticizes the idea behind Recognition & Appreciation. Counting publications and citations is thrown overboard, while well-developed qualitative assessment criteria are missing. As with the international example Dora, the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment. “It has been in existence for twelve years now, but it still lacks any practical elaboration. All I can find about it are platitudes.” Van der Maas therefore advocates retaining the proven quantitative measuring instruments.
No researchers without education
Professor of Digital Humanities Rens Bod believes that recognizing educational achievements is not enough. “Despite all the lip service paid to the New Recognition & Appreciation System, the Day of the Teacher passed silently by the UvA”, he concluded in October last year. “While everything starts with education. No researchers without education. And that is why we should celebrate International Teacher's Day as a grand holiday for all university employees – teachers, researchers and support staff.”
Leader
You should also look for good examples of better appreciating the work of lecturers outside of Amsterdam. The Faculty of Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology belongs to a small group of frontrunners. Assistant Professor Reinoud Lavrijsen sees relevant improvements in his faculty. “In the matrix with which our work is valued, the education column was virtually empty, now development paths have been defined. You can also become a professor by researching educational innovations.”
Well-educated students who can conduct research are an important product of any university
Lavrijsen, distinguished by the Intercity Student Consultation as Lecturer of the Year 2022, believes teaching and research are equal tasks. “Well-educated students who can conduct research are an important product of any university, so education is a main task. And I just like teaching, that helps.”
His faculty is all about education, research and the creation of social value (valorisation). “You can still focus on research, but you also have to meet certain minimums for education and valorisation. Every employee must contribute to those areas.”
Eindhoven is not there yet with that agreement, he acknowledges. “If you talk to older colleagues, it's still about excelling in research. The committees that hire new people also pay less attention to educational qualifications. It will really take another ten to fifteen years before this becomes commonplace. But our matrix is an example for the entire university, it has been seen and appreciated, and there is discussion about it.”
Popularity Contest
The interim assessment of Recognition & Appreciation, which was drawn up in February last year, does not answer the question of how to determine whether an employee is performing as a teacher. The anonymous student surveys that universities use to evaluate education can turn into a popularity contest, says Edwin van Meerkerk, associate professor of art and cultural education at Radboud University. “You see a nasty imbalance in gender in the assessment and that hurts teachers.” That is why the Faculty of Arts has taken a radical measure. If there are nasty things about the person in an evaluation form, the entire assessment is out. “If the student plays the man and not the ball, the grades don't count either.”
There are more criteria for educational performance, says Van Meerkerk. “We put a lot of effort into an annual teacher award here. We appreciate it when someone is committed to the organisation, for me personally the period as director of education was the push my career needed. We value the Senior Teaching Qualification, not to tick off the certificate, but as part of your experience and development. The obligation of such a qualification for senior lecturers can make a commitment to education a normal part of the career path.”
We have had professors who spent 60 percent of their appointment on teaching
Education has always been important at the Faculty of Arts, says Van Meerkerk. “We have had professors who spent 60 percent of their appointment on education.” It's half with him now. “That is a pleasant relationship, but I do notice that it is becoming more difficult to follow students properly from the first year to their master's degree. It's a paradox: you get more space for research, the workload goes down, but I don't think there should be even less education.”
Can the approach in literature trickle down to other faculties and universities? “There is genuine involvement at the central level, but it is too early to say that it is spreading everywhere. Hopefully, in five years' time, we will see people investing in educational innovation because it is good for their careers.”
The elephant in the room that is rarely mentioned is the large number of lecturers without research time that keep education at universities afloat. Nationally, it has 60 percent of these teaching-onlyteachers a temporary appointment. Unlike university lecturers in temporary employment, they are not entitled to a permanent appointment at the end of an annual contract. Teaching careers therefore often end after three temporary contracts.
“Education suffers from the large share of temporary appointments,” says Christoph Rausch, associate professor at Maastricht University and sector council member WO&O at the AOb. Under the leadership of Rianne Letschert, chairman of the board, who is also the national initiator of the programme, Recognition & Appreciation was introduced in Maastricht energetically. Rausch, who was head of human resources in his previous position, contributed to the development of new job profiles that should ensure a better balance between education and research. “The national collective agreements remain leading for salary and job titles, but we have taken a big step forward. Based on these new profiles, it has been decided that Maastricht will employ teachers on a permanent basis, because without a permanent appointment young people will be blocked in their careers. They can develop more difficult. It is appalling that other universities think they are taking a step forward by offering teachers a four-year temporary appointment. We want to get rid of that uncertainty. As unions, we fought for that and our Executive Board dares to take that step.”
Those who do structural work must have a permanent appointment
“For years, my own institute employed 25 people on a temporary basis,” continues Rausch. “Now that they have a permanent appointment, we no longer have to familiarize ourselves with it and we can work together in a challenging way. Financially it was not such a big change.” Today's university cannot do without lecturers who devote most of their time to education, says Rausch. “They are part of the system, they do structural work and so they must have a permanent appointment. Perhaps we should put education-driven research at the forefront more often so that they can progress to university (associate) lecturer. In about five years you should see that professors have been appointed via this route, because of course we already have people who are well advanced on this path.”
Talk
Lecturers at Utrecht University united ten years ago in the Teaching Academy UU (TAUU). Femke van de Glind, student of Public Administration and Organizational Science, did her graduation research at TAUU. She researched the experiences of young scientists with Recognition & Appreciation. “The documents are there, but the practice lags behind,” she summarizes her findings. “Everyone is happy that something is happening and that there is talk, but for some, a new assessment form is all they see.”
Her thesis supervisor Marij Swinkels, assistant professor with a permanent appointment, personally noticed how difficult it is to take career steps without major research projects. “Appointments based on educational performance are much more difficult to substantiate. I have very nice managers, but they too struggle with the question of what it takes to be promoted in a new system of recognition and appreciation. The generic idea is still: research performance. I bet that I can also get there via alternative paths, but an NWO grant would make it much easier.”
The temporary contracts are for the AOb a hot topic, read also: 'Unions demand more permanent jobs at universities'
