Faculty Advertisements: A Road Map for Future Faculty

Abstract

As schools are being restructured, there is increasing support for special and general educators developing expertise in both fields and in collaborative teaming. School restructuring also has contributed to the re-creation of teacher education programs, including the development of partnerships between universities and public schools and the unification of preservice programs in special and general education. If preservice programs of the future intend to prepare teachers who have expertise related to trends in educational services for all students, then preservice faculty must have expertise in the same trends. One indicator as to whether preservice programs reflect trends is the characteristics they seek in new faculty members. The purpose of this study was to determine whether specific trends in educational services and teacher education were evident in advertisements for assistant professors in special education in the Chronicle of Higher Education for the 1994-95 and 1995-96 academic years. Specifically, the study was designed to answer the following question: Do advertisements for assistant professors in special education reflect requirements for new faculty to have expertise related to (a) general education curriculum and instruction; (b) inclusion; (c) extensive collaboration among university faculty and school personnel; (d) collaboration among special and general education preservice faculty; andlor (e) a unified teacher education program in special and general education? Results indicated a lack of congruence between contents of advertisements and the identified trends in educational services and teacher education.