Bridging Practice and Pedagogy: The Role of Practitioners as Professors in Higher Education

Bridging Practice and Pedagogy: The Role of Practitioners as Professors in Higher Education

Abstract

Many smaller institutions are seeing an uptick in students interested in obtaining degrees in the more applied fields.  For the applied fields, there is a distinct benefit to having practitioners move into the role of professor as a “second career.”  The value of this approach has been recognized in fields such as public policy, education, and nursing for quite some time (He, et. al 2022; LaRocco & Bruns, 2006; Ritter, 2007).  These practitioners bring not only the content expertise, but also the depth and credibility to draw the connection between theory and practice for the students. The concept of practitioners as professors has yet to be studied in business and sport management programs.  The use of practitioners in the field of accounting and finance has been examined as a means to combat the shortage of doctorates in the field, but not to a great extent (Boyle, et. Al, 2013).  The research on “second career academics” (LaRocco & Bruns, 2006) has predominately been centered on the challenges the individuals face when moving from the corporate to academic environment.  This study is aimed at understanding the trends in business and sport management programs with respect to hiring practitioners into full time professorship positions. 

Keywords: Second career academics, practitioner professors, business, sport management, professional experience, faculty hiring trends, accreditation impact, student learning outcomes, networking opportunities, faculty recruitment

Introduction

The study will examine the number of professors with professional experience as practitioners in their fields prior to entering the academic world.  While textbooks are great tools, they cannot replace the experiences that professional practitioners encounter. The research will use survey methodologies to get an understanding of the status of practitioners in sport management and business programs in the United States.  As a second phase to the research, we hope to uncover the motivations for moving into academic and to better understand the challenges and rewards for making such a transition.  Future research will also be centered on potential tensions that might exist between the first career academics and the second career academics (practitioners) (Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008). We hypothesize that there is an increasing number of business and sport management programs employing practitioners into professorship positions. 

Literature Review

While there is some previous research that focuses on aspects of this study, there is a lack of focus in previous studies on institution size and accreditation status in relation to second career academics. However, there were many studies that focused on the move towards hiring second career academics, doctoral shortages in certain business fields, and overall collaboration in the business world.  It seems that the pendulum in business schools is moving towards hiring more professors that have been practitioners previously (Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008).

In our careers as professors, we have seen many changes in students, and in what the business world expects of them.  Interpersonal and intrapersonal skills which are components of Emotional Intelligence (EI) are something that many employers now want (Manna, et. Al, 2017).   This may largely be because business in our world today is incredibly complex and constantly in flux.  Communication skills are a key to reaching high levels of career success (Manna, et. Al, 2017).   For example, preparing reports and various financial statements may have been enough for an individual to be successful in the past in the accounting field, but that is not necessarily the case today (Manna, et. Al, 2017).   Due to the overall nature of business, it is increasingly important that the hybrid and clinical aspects of business be incorporated into business education (Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008). 

Another issue facing sport management and business schools is a shortage of faculty that have their doctoral degree (Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008).  With that being said, for institutions to survive and thrive in the educational environment important steps need to be made. Effective and impactful learning requires collaboration between professors and students.  Even further collaboration such as between managers, educators, and researchers could be beneficial as well (Sohrabi & Zarghi, 2015).   Networking with the local community and creating employee culture that fosters collaboration between first and second career academics are both important (Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008).  In collaborating with the community good relationships can also be built with various business entities.  According to a study conducted by Henningsson and Geschwind (2017), both local and top management agree that adjunct professors who are industry practitioners can help increase collaboration as well as quality of education.

Accreditation is a peer-to-peer arrangement relying on volunteerism by higher education professionals to pledge to students that the education offered by universities is of great excellence and value.  The accreditation process leans on the openness of universities to assess themselves against a set of policies, procedures, and standards to recognize strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats while using the accreditation process for improvement in these areas (Brittingham, 2009).  For sport management programs the Commission of Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA) uses myriad of criteria, such as outcome assessments, strategic planning, curriculum, faculty qualifications, scholarly and professional activities, educational resources, and internal and external relationships (stakeholders such as alumni) to gauge the rigor of quality (COSMA, 2024). Accreditation has evolved over time to link federal financial aid to accreditation status and monitor both qualitative and quantitative outcomes.  The achievement of accredited status is frequently used to assess the quality of an academic program (Hobbs, McMahan, Stawski, 2018).  The utilization of second career academics can be of great value during the accreditation process as these individuals are versed in the professional needs of the industry.  In addition, second career academics may have the external relationships needed to facilitate a successful accreditation review.

The changes in student demographics also raise questions about equitable access to high-quality education, which presents more challenges for university professors and accrediting agencies. Utilizing practitioners in higher education classrooms can be instrumental in mitigating some of these challenges.  By providing students with more direct and consistent access to those that have been in the field can prove beneficial in preparing students for careers in those industries.  Second career academics again are likely to have access to networks that can assist students as they prepare to enter the workforce in that field.

The lack of previous research and the need to address current challenges facing sport management and business programs have provided the foundation for the research questions examined in this exploratory study.  The research questions were devised to better understand the current state of utilizing second career academics in sport management and business programs.

RQ1: To what extent does the size of the institution impact the hiring of second career academics?

• H1: Smaller institutions will hire second career academics more frequently.
• H2: Smaller institutions will actively recruit second career faculty.

RQ2: To what extent does program accreditation impact the recruitment of second career academics?

• H1: Programs that are not accredited will actively recruit second career faculty to a higher degree

RQ3: To what extent does accreditation status impact the hiring of second career academics?

• H1: Institutions that are accredited will have fewer second career academics.

RQ4: To what extent does the institution have barriers to second career academics for career advancement

• H1: Institutions that are accredited will not have advancement opportunities for faculty without a terminal degree.
• H2: Smaller institutions will have advancement opportunities for faculty without a terminal degree.

Method

The study was designed as an exploratory study to a larger research effort centered on uncovering the benefits to students of having second career academics as faculty in their programs. Currently, little research exists on the hiring practices of second career academics in the sport management and business fields. A survey was developed to investigate the prevalence (or lack of) of faculty in programs that are considered second career academics. The 12 questions on the survey were used to gather information on the size of the institution and their practices around recruiting and hiring second career academics. The survey also included questions about advancement opportunities for second career academics in higher education institutions. Initially, a convenience sample was selected of 62 institutions. As the initial response rate was low, the survey was then distributed through the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA) membership list. A total of 22 responses were collected. Although a high response rate was not achieved, this data does provide insight into current hiring trends and provides a solid foundation for future research.

Results and Discussion

The data from the survey were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. As the dataset was small, hypotheses were evaluated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The institutions that responded were from a variety of locations in the United States and were of varying size and type (private, public). For the purposes of this study, it was assumed that the Sport Management and Business programs were in the same department, which was a limitation that is discussed later in the paper.

RQ1 examined the impact of size of the institution on the hiring of second career academics. Many smaller institutions are seeing an uptick in students interested in obtaining degrees in the more applied fields. For the applied fields, there is a distinct benefit to having practitioners move into the role of professor as a “second career.”  The value of this approach has been recognized in fields such as public policy, education, and nursing for quite some time (He, et. Al 2022; LaRocco & Bruns, 2006; Ritter, 2007). The use of practitioners in the field of accounting and finance has been examined as a means to combat the shortage of doctorates in the field, but not (Boyle, et. Al, 2013). A general size of the institution can be inferred from the number of faculty and students in the programs. Table 1 summarizes the data related to the relative size of the program based on the number of faculty and number of students.

Table 1: Size of programs in terms of faculty and number of students
	M	SD
1. Total number of FT faculty in business and sport management	7.64	9.08
2. Total number of PT faculty in business and sport management	6.50	0.71
3. Total number of students in business and sport management – undergrad	185.00	87.61
4. Total number of students in business and sport management – graduate	56.55	40.81
5. Total number of faculty (FT and PT) that are “second career academics”	9.50	12.03

The number of FT faculty varied considerably. The median was 4, but the responses ranged from a high of 42 to a low of 1. There was more consistency with PT faculty. 23% of the institutions reported having more PT faculty than FT time faculty. These programs were the smaller programs in the data set in terms of the number of students. The size of the programs in terms of students was quite varied as well. The median number of undergraduate students was 180 with the highest being 750 and the lowest being 55. The median number of graduate students was 40, with the highest at 130 students and the lowest at 7 students. Eleven (50%) of the institutions did not have graduate programs. Finally, the average number of second career academics (FT and PT) across the sample was 9.5 with a high of 30 and a low of 1. Of particular note was that none of the institutions reported having no faculty that were second career academics.

H1 postulated that smaller institutions would hire second career faculty members more frequently. To assess this, a correlation between the number of students in the program (combined undergraduate and graduate) and the number of second career academics reported in the department was determined. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.739 (p <.0001) and thus supported H1.

H2 predicted that smaller institutions would also specifically recruit second career academics for their programs. The correlation between the total number of students and whether the institution actively seeks out second career academics was 0.522 (p = 0.013). H2 was supported showing that smaller institutions actively recruit second career academics to a higher degree than larger institutions.

RQ2 centered on the impact of accreditation and the relationship to actively recruiting second career academics in sport management and business programs. Of the responses, there was a near equal split between institutions that were not accredited by an outside accrediting body such as AASCB or COSMA (9) and those that were currently accredited (10). Three institutions were in the accreditation process at the time of the survey.

H1 stated programs that are not accredited are more likely to actively recruit second career academics. The correlation coefficient between accreditation status (n=19 because 3 were in process) and whether or not the institution reported that they actively recruited second career academics was 0.056 and therefore H1 was not supported. From this data set, there is no evidence that accreditation status impacts the recruiting of second career academics.

RQ3 examined the impact of accreditation status on the hiring of second career academics. Institutions that do not actively recruit second career academics may still find that through their search process they tend to hire more frequently second career academics.

H1 stated that institutions that area accredited will have fewer second career faculty in their programs. This contention was not supported by the data collected (r = 0.253; p = 0.298).

Although not the focus of this paper, size of the institution does appear to have an impact on accreditation status although not statistically significant (r = 0.441; p = 0.06). Larger institutions are more likely to be accredited than smaller programs.

RQ4 investigated the barriers to career advancement that second career academics sometimes face. The research on “second career academics” has been centered on the challenges the individuals face when moving from the corporate to academic environment (Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008; LaRocco & Bruns, 2006).

H1 postulates that institutions that are accredited will not have career advancement opportunities for faculty without terminal degrees. In this study, it was assumed that second career academics do not have terminal degrees. This presents a distinct limitation that will be discuss later it the paper. Of the total sample, 41% of the institutions did not offer promotion opportunities for faculty without terminal degrees. When comparing accreditation status to promotion opportunities for those without terminal degrees, there was no relationship between the two (r = 0.045; p = 0.855). H1 was not supported. Of the sample only 2 of the institutions (9%) offered tenure opportunities for faculty without terminal degrees. Finally, participants were asked if their institution allowed faculty on term contracts to move to tenure track if a terminal degree was obtained. When comparing accreditation status to the offering of moving to a tenure track position, there was some evidence that those that were accredited offered this option, although not statistically significant (r = 0.367; p = 0.123).

H2 examined the impact of the size of the institution on the promotion opportunities for faculty without terminal degrees. Smaller programs might be less likely to be accredited and therefore better able to hire faculty without terminal degrees. Offering career advancement opportunities could be easier to implement in smaller institutions. The correlation between size of the institutions as measured by the total number of students and promotion opportunities for faculty without terminal degrees was 0.140 (p = 0.535). No statistically significant relationships were found between the size of the institution and tenure opportunity or the ability to switch to tenure track. Therefore, H2 was not supported. This small sample did not offer any evidence that the size of the institution impacted the career advancement opportunities for faculty without terminal degrees.

Study Limitations

Although some interesting findings were obtained, the study had several limitations. The most obvious limitation was the sample size. With only 22 responses, in-depth analysis was limited. However, as an exploratory study, this research does offer some key insights to build a more robust research agenda on the subject of second career academics. Next, the size of the institution was estimated using the number of students and the number of FT and PT faculty in the programs. This does not necessarily offer a good measure of the size of the institution as a whole. A better measure might be size of the institutional endowment, total student population across campus(es), or total number of faculty at the institution. Another measure to add for additional analysis would be the type of institution (private versus public). In this study, it was assumed that the business and sport management programs were in the same department or school. This is not always the case and many anecdotal comments on the survey mentioned that the departments are completely separate. Finally, this research assumed that second career academics did not have terminal degrees. This may not be the case and therefore provides an additional avenue for future research to explore.

Future Research

This topic presents many areas for additional study. Firstly, a more comprehensive study with a larger sample size could be conducted to provide more in-depth analysis of the trends in higher education with respect to second career academics. This could extend beyond the sport management and business fields into additional applied fields. Future research could be centered on determining whether second career academics have terminal degrees or plan to obtain terminal degrees and their motivation for doing so (i.e., can switch to tenure track). As a second phase to this research, we hope to uncover the motivations for moving into academia and to better understand the challenges and rewards for making such a transition. Additionally, we will research potential tensions that might exist between the first career academics and the second career academics (practitioners) (Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008). Finally, future research could be centered on the benefits to students and the value these practitioners bring into the classroom.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in order for practical application purposes, institutions could influence and tailor curriculum to the practitioners’ level of expertise and/or vice versa.  Institutions can link second career academics with students, to promote professional networking and experiential learning.  Universities could collaborate with practitioners to create internship/project opportunities, networking or informational interviews that would add more hands-on experiences and opportunities.  Senior faculty could implement student feedback loops to evaluate the effectiveness of practitioner led courses thus refining teaching strategies and enriching student learning outcomes.  These approaches could uplift educational quality, opportunities and better prepare students for their careers.

References