Bob wrote:
> I know of no accredited colleges that are able to routinely hire folks
> without a masters degree except in the career preparation
> programs (e.g.,
> HVAC, electronics, construction, aviation, etc.). So far as I
> know, all of
> the accrediting agencies pretty much require a masters degree and 18
> graduate hours in the discipline to be taught. I don't think
> that this is
> a local or personal experience thing but it is pretty much across
> communitiy colleges nation wide. All of the advertisements that I have
> seen over the past 6-8 years state the above as required and,
> in fact, many
> community colleges (mine included) state a preference for higher
> qualifications. We have many PhDs who teach for us as adjuncts.
That may be true in your area, Bob. But it isn't the case here. Of the
adjuncts at my institution, less than 20% of us have graduate degrees, and
even those of us who do are often expected to teach in areas we do NOT
have adequate graduate credits in. For example, I occasionally teach
economics courses, yet have only six hours of graduate credit in the
area--and I teach at least one section of political science every term,
yet have only 12 graduate credits there. We have many instructors in our
English department with BAs (many are high school teachers--some with
degrees in fields other than English). Anthropology is taught by an
history instructor with only undergrad credits (non-major) in the field of
anthropology, statistics courses are often taught by instructors with no
graduate credits in stat at all, and I frequently teach criminal justice
courses, yet have _never_ taken a graduate course in the area (although I
have a number of grad credits in similar sociology courses). In the career
preparation areas, not only do many instructors lack a masters, many don't
even have a BA!
For the record, by the way, the school is a public institution, fully
accredited (we recently passed review), and a member of North Central. In
this area of Michigan this is not at all atypical--the same could be said
of a number of other two year institutions, and in fact some of the _four_
year colleges have adjuncts who lack graduate degrees as well. The same
holds true of some of the colleges I'm familiar with in Ohio, Indiana, and
Ill. as well.
Perhaps in your part of the country this is not the case, but here in the
midwest it very definitely is. I wish we _did_ have higher requirements,
but the sad fact is that we do not.
Rick
--
Rick Adams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Social Sciences
Jackson Community College
2111 Emmons Road
Jackson, MI 49201
