By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi In the past few weeks, I have received hundreds of questions from readers of thi...
By Farooq A. Kperogi,
Ph.D.
Twitter:
@farooqkperogi
In the past few weeks, I have received hundreds of questions
from readers of this column about the meanings of common university
terminologies. Why do Americans call every university teacher a
“professor”? What do the terms “adjunct
professor,” “assistant professor,” “associate professor,” “full professor,”
“Reader,” etc. mean, and how can a Nigerian make sense of them?
To answer these questions, I have decided to rework an
article I wrote more than 5 years ago titled “Comparing the Vernaculars of American and British Universities.” So here goes.
1. Professor:
When someone addresses herself as a “professor of geography” at a university,
what should we understand her as saying? Should we understand her as saying
that she has reached the highest possible point attainable in the hierarchy of
university teaching and research? Or is she an entry-level assistant professor,
“lecturer,” or even a graduate teaching assistant who just wants to say that
she teaches geography at a university?
The first sense is
chiefly British while the second is decidedly American. But, increasingly, the
American usage is being adopted in British universities. In what follows, I
have identified the vernaculars of the academe in the two dominant dialects of
the English language while laying bare the ways in which these vernaculars
sometimes interweave in fascinating ways. I use the term vernacular NOT in the
way it’s generally understood in Nigeria, that is, native Nigerian languages in
contradistinction to the English language; I use it to mean the everyday speech
codes of particular groups of people.
In American English,
“professor” is a generic term for anybody who teaches in a university (Brits
prefer the preposition “at” in reference to universities and other kinds of
schools). That is why the term “professoriate”
refers to the university teaching profession collectively. In British English,
however, “professor” is a title used exclusively for people who have reached
the pinnacle of university teaching and research, what Americans call “full professor.”
But the American usage of “professor” is more faithful to
the Latin etymology of the term which, according to the Online Etymology
Dictionary, literally means a “person who professes to be an expert in some art
or science….” In the Romance languages (that is, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Romanian, Italian, etc.), which are the surviving linguistic children of Latin,
professor is used to denote teacher at any level of education.
2. Lecturer:
While the generic term for a university teacher in the British and Nigerian
system is “lecturer,” in the American system lecturer means something slightly
different. There are two dominant senses of the term in America. The first is a
public speaker at certain universities. The second sense is an inferior-rank
university teacher who either does not possess a Ph.D. or who has a Ph.D. but
doesn’t have a tenure-track job. (I will explain what “tenure-track” means
shortly).
Lecturers are
overworked and underpaid, only teach undergraduates, are not expected to be
researchers, and are often abandoned to vegetate on the fringes of academic
departments in American universities. A colleague of mine last week wondered
aloud why a recent news report in a Nigerian newspaper referred to me as a
“lecturer”; she thought it was insulting. I explained to her that “lecturer” is
a generic term for university teacher in Nigeria and Britain, and has no
semantic connection with the meaning of lecturer in America.
3. Tenure-Track:
A tenure-track appointment is basically an appointment that promises life-time employment
to an aspiring academic, usually within five to seven years from the start of
employment. In research-intensive schools, the conditions for tenure is at
least a peer-reviewed book published by a reputable academic publishing house,
a couple of refereed articles in reputable journals or books, evidence of
teaching excellence, and service to the university and the community. In some
disciplines, a book is not a requirement for tenure.
In teaching-heavy schools where the focus is undergraduate
education, to earn tenure you only have to demonstrate evidence of teaching
excellence. Having one or two publications, academic conference presentations,
and service to the university will redound the case for tenure.
Lecturers are never on the tenure track; they are employed
usually on a two-year contract that is subject to periodic review and renewal.
The most important condition for the renewal of the contract is evidence of
teaching effectiveness. There is no expectation of research productivity. The
highest rank you can attain in the lecturer track is "senior
lecturer," which is completely different from the British/Nigerian English
understanding of the term, as I will show shortly. In other words, lecturers
never get to become "full professors."
As I said earlier, in the American system, lecturers are
paid less, teach more courses, and have far less privileges and benefits than
tenure-track or tenured professors. They have no guarantee of life-time
employment; they can be fired from their jobs at any time, usually because
their teaching has been evaluated as unsatisfactory by their students. It’s a
precarious position to be in. I know of no one who willingly chooses the
lecturer track in American universities. You can now understand why my American
colleague was shocked that I was referred to as a “lecturer.”
4. Assistant/Associate/Full
Professors. In the American system, fresh Ph.D.’s start their careers as
“Assistant Professors.” Then they get promoted to “Associate Professors,” and
finally to “Full Professors” if they meet the requirements for promotion. These
positions may be tenure-track or non-tenure-track, which I will explain
shortly.
In the past, only people who had the rank of “assistant
professor,” “associate professor,” or “full professor” were called “professor”
in America. In fact, in their Guide to
English Usage, British grammarians Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut
insist that the term professor “should be applied only to those (assistant,
associate, or full professors) who have the title professor” (p. 567). But this is no longer the convention. Even
lecturers and teaching assistants are called “professors” in American
universities—at least informally.
5. Adjunct/Visiting
Professors. An adjunct professor is a type of university teacher we would
call a “part-time lecturer” in the Nigerian system. Some people are “adjuncts”
by choice, perhaps because they have full-time jobs elsewhere and can’t take a
full-time employment in the university; many, however, take the position
because they can’t find tenure-track jobs.
“Adjunct professors”
are similar in some respects to “visiting” professors (i.e., visiting assistant
professor, visiting associate professor and visiting professor), except that a
visiting professorship is usually a terminal, non-renewable appointment that
lasts no longer than two years.
Lecturers, adjuncts, and visiting professors are the intellectual slave
laborers of the American academe.
So don’t call an American academic a “lecturer” if you’re
not sure that’s really their designation. Use the more generic “professor” if
unsure.
6. Senior Lecturer.
As I said earlier, a “senior lecturer” in American universities is completely
different from a senior lecturer in British and Nigerian universities. I admit
that comparing academic titles in the British and American systems is tricky. But
it is customary to state that “senior lecturer” in the British and Nigerian
systems is equivalent to “assistant professor” in the American system, “reader”
(which is rarely used these days) in the British and Nigerian systems is the
equivalent of the American “associate professor,” and “professor” in the
British and Nigerian systems is the equivalent of “full professor” in the
American system.
In reality, however,
this is a false equivalence, as I will show next week. But it’s interesting
that most people who attain the rank of “reader”
in the British and Nigerian systems prefer to be addressed as “associate
professor”; however, “senior lecturers” in the British system don’t call
themselves “assistant professors.” My sense is that the term “associate professor”
is popular in non-American contexts because it indicates that the person
associated with the title is only a step away from being a professor in the
British sense of the term, while the term “assistant professor” may give the
impression that the bearer of the title is merely an assistant to a professor,
which he is not.
To be continued
No comments
Share your thoughts and opinions here. I read and appreciate all comments posted here. But I implore you to be respectful and professional. Trolls will be removed and toxic comments will be deleted.