Turnstile Careers Between Academia and Practice

Abstract

This reflection on the academic and practice careers—my own and some notable health promotion professors’—supports my suggestions about what makes good teaching and research faculty members in professional schools seeking to prepare next generations of practitioners for health education and health promotion careers. From the perspective of pedagogy in health promotion, the preparation of students for their roles in practice—in whatever blend of policy, planning, management, delivery, or evaluation of programs—should emanate, where possible, from field experience and reality-tested theoretical and evidence-based precepts. Just as usable evidence-based practices need to include practice-based evidence, so too must usable pedagogy for practitioners be built on periodic exposure and experience of instructors in contemporary practice. The concept of “turnstile careers” is introduced to address this need for periodic immersion of faculty in practice positions with responsibility for programs.