His older brother, Todd, was also a religious educator, and he had taught at BYU-Idaho for over 15 years. Roger decided to call up Todd to get some advice. "Can you explain to me the application process?" he asked his older brother. "Sure," Todd replied. "First you send in your application and a hiring committee [1. Authoritative Organization] comprised of faculty members will meet [3. Influential Event] and review the applications. For every one open spot, they will select three applicants to come to the university and interview for the position."
"Where can I find the application requirements?" Roger inquired. "Well," said Todd, "if I'm not mistaken you can find everything you need to know on the university website byui.edu [4. Authoritative Publication]. If your application is selected, you will come spend a few days interviewing with various department heads, deans, and the university president. You will also get to teach a class of students and faculty who will also evaluate your teaching performance. Ultimately it comes down to the university president who will pray about the applicants and make a decision of who will be hired."
Roger thought for a moment and then asked, "So what do you think are my biggest hurdles in making the jump to teach at the university level?" "To be quite honest," Todd replied, "the fact that you only have a master's degree and not a doctorate degree is almost an automatic disqualification of your resume. It is expected that aspiring professors acquire the highest level of education they can, or in other words, get a doctorate degree [2. Regulating Standard]. On top of that, if you ever wanted to teach at BYU-I you'd have to wait until I retire or leave because the religious education department has a nepotism policy where family members can't be hired to the same faculty."
"I'd sure love to teach with you someday," Roger sighed. "Is there any chance if I complete my doctorate and can prove I am an excellent teacher that they'd consider letting me on [5. Challenging Authority / Changing Standards]?" "I'd love to see it happen," Todd shrugged, "but I doubt it."
Roger was left to evaluate if it was worth it to make the attempt or to just be content with teaching seminary.
Wow-- I don't think I ever fully appreciated how difficult it is to get a job as a religion professor! It's an intense process. BYU takes education very seriously, and I'm grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteWhat draws my attention most about your post is that your references are relatively small in comparison to many of the organizations I've seen in other posts because they are a subset of the church. You have selected a field that really only extends to the far ends of our religious organization. As I read, I though about how you have to challenge the authority and standards of the church in order to challenge your field. A lot of people are doing that currently, but not many career seminary teachers.
ReplyDeleteWhat was pretty interesting to me is that even despite having the on-paper qualifications, it is still difficult to change standards/challenge authority. I'd be interested to know more about the specific details of becoming a religion professor at BYU.
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