Women’s Midlife Career Transition to Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty in Adult Education

Abstract

Faculty characteristics are changing, and traditional theories may not account for the intersection of increasing numbers of women faculty and career changers to higher education in examining faculty development. Using a conceptual framework composed of adult transition and career development models, this phenomenological study investigated the career transition and strategies of women midlife career changers to the professoriate. Findings included a midlife career transition process and related challenges, supports, and strategies to navigate the process with implications for theory and practice.

Untold stories of African American women entrepreneurs: research-based strategies for becoming one's own boss

“…Finally, strategies include the intentional efforts used by the individual to alter the situation and enable a variety of mechanisms to cope with the change inherent in transitions (Schlossberg, 2011). The 4S framework has been successfully used to analyze various types of career transitions, such as women's mid-career transitions to higher education (Cherrstrom and Alfred, 2020) and women veterans' career transitions to civilian work life (Greer, 2017).…”

The Senior Military Officer as a Veteran in Transition: Opportunities for Adult Learning and Bridging the Military–Civilian Divide

“…Mid‐life career transition is challenging (Haasler & Barabasch, 2015; Rose, Herd, & Palacio, 2017) and adult education has widely explored adult identity development related to changing roles (Clark & Caffarella, 1999; Grabinski, 2005; Cherrstrom & Alfred, 2020; Daley, 1999). Although the literature often discusses retirement as individuals who are in their 60s (Clark & Caffarella, 1999), the SMO in transition is typically retiring from the military between 42 and 52 years of age and transitioning into another profession (Command Brief, 2019).…”

Information Technology, Inequality and Adult Literacy in Developing Countries

“…Third, the extant literature on adult literacy has focused on various areas of research, inter alia: the relevance of adult learning in problem-solving skills (Kim, 2020); female gender in faculty appointments (Cherrstorm & Alfred, 2020); the rewards of adult literacy for women that are less educated (Iniguez-Berrozpe, Elboj-Saso, Flecha & Marcaletti, 2020) and the participation of migrants in adult literacy (Bagci, 2019). Concerning the nexus between information technologies and adult literacy, the underlying associations can be grouped into six main strands according to Jin, Kim and Buamgatner (2019), notably: (i) ambivalent approaches towards usage of technology; (ii) the practical importance for users; (iii) intergenerational and interpersonal communication; (iv) experience from collaborative learning; (v) self-learning in the health sector and (vi) the emotional and affective motives.…”