This Committee advises the Council and Executive Committee on all matters of particular importance to faculty in the Teaching Stream, including workload, time for research and scholarship, and related equity issues.
This Committee advises the Council on all matters of particular importance to faculty in the Teaching Stream, including workload, time for research and scholarship, and related equity issues.
by Kim MacKinnon
Introduction
This Committee provides advice on all matters of particular concern to faculty in the Teaching Stream, including workload, time for research and scholarship, and related equity issues.
by Sherri Helwig
This year, a primary goal of the Committee was the development of a better, shared understanding of issues of concern to Teaching Stream members across the University. To this end, the regular Committee meetings were opened to all Teaching Stream faculty. Meetings were well attended, and discussions were active and productive.
Many of the challenges that faculty in the Teaching Stream have been experiencing are described in detail above. The stream has been greatly impacted by the pivot to online teaching and by recent proposed requirements for synchronous and asynchronous learning. These pandemic-related challenges have exacerbated prior problems related to uneven and inequitable working conditions within the Teaching Stream.
This year the Teaching Stream Committee worked to build on the important work of previous committees, in documenting the needs and concerns of teaching stream faculty while advocating for improved working conditions and support for the stream. In recent years, UTFA has made great strides in areas important to teaching stream faculty, such as the professorial title, but our work is not finished.
Prior to the pandemic, the main issues that were the focus of the Committee’s work were:
Presentations from UTFA's annual workshop to assist faculty members in the Teaching Stream in preparing for promotion consideration.
Members of the teaching stream faculty convened at a social on February 2, 2017, to mark the newly created rank of full professor in the teaching stream and to celebrate the successful SJAC negotiations. While the gathering served to build community amongst the teaching stream, it also afforded members the opportunity to share their experiences and to help plan future advances.
Momentous changes have happened this year for full-time members of the Teaching Stream: Senior Lecturers and Lecturers have had the opportunity to elect to change their titles to Associate Professor, Teaching Stream and Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream. Negotiations are ongoing regarding policy language prescribing the process for promotion to Professor, Teaching Stream.