Teaching-stream positions risk entrenching problems created by precarious employment: Riddell

“It is time we exposed one of the worst-kept secrets that threatens high-quality higher education: our increasingly precarious workforce,” writes Jessica Riddell. The author argues that the worsening job opportunities for recent PhD graduates are leading universities to create teaching-focused tenure-track positions. Riddell argues that doing so implicitly treats research and teaching as concerns that can be separated, which can end up framing the classroom as “a static space for knowledge transmission rather than a rich, engaging space for the creation of new modes of thinking and learning.” Katja Thieme of the University of British Columbia, however, contends that while the risk Riddell highlights might exist, “there are also good models that demonstrate how this dichotomy can be avoided.” University Affairs | Medium (Thieme)