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[15.02] An Old Astronomer's Reflections on a New Faculty Workshop

M. Zeilik (University of New Mexico)

I received my Ph. D. in astronomy more than 25 years ago. At that time, everyone knew the meaning of ``future faculty": a person prepared for a tenure-track position at a university with at least a modest research effort and a modest (you hoped!) teaching ``load". But few such jobs were open. With some luck, I was able to ``sell" myself as a teacher because of my unusual career path. I even had a track record of teaching innovations, as well as a published textbook!

Now such an eclectic path to a faculty position is pretty typical. The attendees at the New Faculty Workshop show that diversity (in the best sense of the word). I will reflect upon my experience as a workshop instructor, and how it locked in my professional transformation to a new type of faculty role---one defined by the scholarship of teaching and learning, as exemplified by astronomy education research.

This work was supported in part by NSF grant DUE 99-81155.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.