95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1578568
This article is part of the Research Topic University Education for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities View all articles
A Career Path Framework for Teaching Focused Faculty in Graduate Health Professions and Human Services Education
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, United States
- 2 University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, United States
- 3 University of Maryland School of Graduate Studies, Baltimore, United States
Over the past few decades, the composition of university faculty has shifted from full-time tenure to contingent positions. Despite this change, the Appointments, Promotion and Tenure (APT) process has not evolved with this shift. Contingent faculty may lack university-supported mentoring and professional development, leading to growing dissatisfaction and higher turnover. This turnover affects education quality and campus stability. To retain contingent faculty, with a focus on teaching-focused faculty (TFF), and to foster strong communities, universities should consider new development and promotion pathways for TFF.We describe an updated promotion pathway as a potential solution.
Keywords: Tenure & Promotion, Teaching, Education, Health science education, Health Science Educator, Promotion (occupational)
Received: 17 Feb 2025; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Canares, Riley and Gordes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Scott Jamieson Riley, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.