This survey project conducted in winter 2023 presents sociology teaching advice given by former students enrolled in a graduate teaching sociology seminar. The sample frame consists of 112 students who participated in 13 class cohorts between 2004 and 2022. The final sample consists of 40 respondents, for a response rate of 42 percent. Among those who remained teachers, their careers ran the gamut from adjunct and lecturer lines through tenured and tenure-track positions. Although their careers in snapshot were diverse, their advice was coherent and simple. They advised new teachers to know their professional goals and set clear work-life boundaries. They emphasized the benefits of joining a teaching community and developing supportive professional relationships. As a practical matter, they routinely stressed accessing teaching resources and being flexible as successful pedagogical strategies. Most important, they discussed in rich detail the need to be open to students and their diverse needs.
AddyTracie MarcellaDubeDerekMitchellKhadijah A.SoRelleMallory. 2021. What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching. London, UK: Taylor and Francis Group.
2.
AljawarnehShadi A.2020. “Reviewing and Exploring Innovative Ubiquitous Learning Tools in Higher Education.” Journal of Computing in Higher Education32:57–73.
3.
AkourMohammadAleneziMamdough. 2022. “Higher Education Future in the Era of Digital Transformation.” Education Sciences12(11):1–13.
4.
ArarKhalidÖrṻcṻDenizWilkinsonJane. 2021. Neoliberalism and Education Systems in Conflict: Exploring Challenges across the Globe. New York, NY: Routledge.
5.
BenbowRoss J.LeeChangheeHoraMatthew T.2021. “Exploring College Faculty Development in 21st Century Skill Instruction: An Analysis of Teaching-Focused Personal Networks.” Journal of Further and Higher Education45(6):818–35.
6.
BharadwajRiaShawCatherineHenrieAmyMartinSterlingJansonNatashaBryantGates. 2024. Time for Class – 2024: Unlocking Access to Effective Digital Teaching & Learning. Boston, MA: Tyton Partners.
7.
BlouinDavid D.MossAlison R.2015. “Graduate Student Teacher Training: Still Relevant (and Missing?) 20 Years Later.” Teaching Sociology43(2):126–36.
8.
BockingPaul. 2020. Public Education, Neoliberalism, and Teachers: New York, Mexico City, Toronto. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
9.
BoncoriIlaria. 2020. “The Never-Ending Shift: A Feminist Reflection on Living and Organizing Academic Lives during the Coronavirus Pandemic.” Gender, Work & Organization27(5):677–82.
10.
BurtonJames P.BamberryNola-JeanHarris-BoundyJason. 2005. “Developing Personal Teaching Efficacy in New Teachers in University Settings.” Academy of Management Learning and Education4(2):160–73.
11.
BurtonSarah. 2021. “Soldarity, Now! Care, Collegiality, and Comprehending the Power Relations of ‘Academic Kindness’ in the Neoliberal Academy.” Performance Paradigm16:20–39.
12.
BurtonSarahBowmanBenjamin. 2022. “The Academic Precariat: Understanding Life and Labour in the Neoliberal Academy.” British Journal of Sociology of Education43(4):497–512.
13.
ChildressHerb. 2019. The Adjunct Underclass: How America’s Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
14.
ChinEu GeneClubbsBrooke Hildebrand. 2022. “Pandemic Issues: Faculty Value Alignment and Burnout.” Journal of Educational Research and Practice12(1):51–62.
15.
ColemanMax E.2022. “Mental Health in the College Classroom: Best Practices for Instructors.” Teaching Sociology50(2):168–82.
16.
CorberaEsteveAnguelovskiIsabelleHoney-RosésJordiRuiz-MallénIsabel. 2020. “Academia in the Time of Covid-19: Towards an Ethics of Care.” Planning Theory and Practice21(2):191–99.
17.
CorbinJuliet M.StraussAnselm L.2008. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. 3rd ed.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
18.
De LissovoyNoah. 2015. Education and Emancipation in the Neoliberal Era: Being, Teaching, and Power. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
19.
KristineDe WeldeStepnickAndi, eds. 2015. Disrupting the Culture of Silence: Confronting Gender Inequality and Making Change in Higher Education. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
FinchJessie K.FernándezCelestino. 2014. “Mentoring Graduate Students in Teaching: The FCCIC Model.” Teaching Sociology42(1):69–75.
24.
FitzpatrickKathleen. 2019. Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
25.
FivesHelenroseHammanDougOlivarezArturo. 2007. “Does Burnout Begin with Student-Teaching? Analyzing Efficacy, Burnout, and Support during the Student-Teaching Semester.” Teaching and Teacher Education23(6):916–34.
26.
FolseKimberly A.1991. “Ethics and the Profession: Graduate Student Training.” Teaching Sociology19(3):344–50.
27.
GewinVirginia. 2021. “Pandemic Burnout Is Rampant in Academia.” Nature591:489–91.
28.
GildersleeveRyan Evely. 2017. “The Neoliberal Academy of the Anthropocene and the Retaliation of the Lazy Academic.” Cultural Studies – Critical Methodologies17(3):286–93.
29.
GordonHava RachelWillinkKateHunterKeeley. 2024. “Invisible Labor and the Associate Professor: Identity and Workload Inequity.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education17(3):285–96.
30.
HillLilian H.2014. “Graduate Students’ Perspectives on Effective Teaching.” Adult Learning25(2):57–65.
hooksbell. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
33.
HortonJohn. 2020. “Failure Failure Failure Failure Failure Failure: Six Types of Failure within the Neoliberal Academy.” Emotion, Space and Society35:100672. doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2020.100672.
34.
HuntAndrea N.MairChristine A.AtkinsonMaxine P.2012. “Teaching Community Networks: A Case Study of Informal Social Support and Information Sharing among Sociology Graduate Students.” Teaching Sociology40(3):198–214.
35.
ImadMaysDewsburyBryanFooteStephanie. 2022. “(Re)Engaging Faculty in the Age of Burnout: A Wicked Problem.” The Journal of Faculty Development36(3):82–86.
36.
InnocenteNathanBakerJayne. 2018. “The Sociology Teaching Fellowship: A Mentorship Model for Graduate Student Teacher Training.” Teaching Sociology46(4):335–45.
37.
LilaJacobsCintronJoseCantonCecil E., eds. 2002. The Politics of Survival in Academia: Narratives of Inequity, Resilience, and Success. New York, NY: Roman & Littlefield Publishers.
38.
JiangLixinTrippThomas M.HongPhan Y.2017. “College Instruction Is Not So Stress Free After All: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study of Academic Entitlement, Uncivil Behaviors, and Instructor Strain and Burnout.” Stress and Health33(5):578–89.
39.
KelleyJacobArce-TrigattiAndreaHaynesAda. 2021. “Beyond the Individual: Deploying the Sociological Imagination as a Research Method in the Neoliberal University.” Pp. 284–302 in The Handbook of Critical Theoretical Research Methods in Education, edited by MatiasC. E.London, UK: Routledge.
40.
KorinekKimHowardJudith A.BridgesGeorge S.1999. “‘Train the Whole Scholar’: A Developmentally Based Program for Teaching Assistant Training in Sociology.” Teaching Sociology27(4):343–59.
41.
Michele LeeKozimor-KingChinJeffrey, eds. 2018. Learning from Each Other: Refining the Practice of Teaching in Higher Education. Oakland: University of California Press.
42.
LangJames M.2020. Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do about It. New York, NY: Basic Books.
LucalBetsy. 2014. “Neoliberalism and Higher Education: How a Misguided Philosophy Undermines Teaching Sociology.” Teaching Sociology43(1):3–14.
45.
MathesonRuth. 2020. “In Pursuit of Teaching Excellence: Outward and Visible Signs of Inward and Invisible Grace.” Teaching in Higher Education25(8):909–25.
46.
McCuneVelda. 2021. “Academic Identities in Contemporary Higher Education: Sustaining Identities That Value Teaching.” Teaching in Higher Education26(1):20–35.
47.
McGuireSaundra Yancy. 2015. Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
MeanwellEmilyKleinerSibyl. 2014. “The Emotional Experience of First-Time Teaching: Reflections from Graduate Instructors, 1997-2006.” Teaching Sociology42(1):17–27.
54.
MessineoMelinda. 2018. “Using the Science of Learning to Improve Student Learning in Sociology Classes.” Teaching Sociology46(1):1–11.
55.
MickeyEthel L.MisraJoyhaClarkDessie. 2022. “The Persistence of Neoliberal Logics in Faculty Evaluations admidst Covid-19: Recalibrating toward Equity.” Gender, Work & Organization30(2):638–56.
56.
NelsonGesemiaMonsonMelissa J.AdibifarKaram. 2020. “The Gig Economy Comes to Academia: Job Satisfaction among Adjunct Faculty.” Cogent Education7(1):1–18.
57.
NgDavy Tsz KitLeeMinYi TanRoy JunHuXiaoDownieJ. StephenWah ChuSamual Kai. 2023. “A Review of AI Teaching and Learning from 2000 to 2020.” Education and Information Technologies28:8445–501.
58.
KennethOldfieldJohnsonRichard GreggoryIII, eds. 2008. Resilience: Queer Professors from the Working Class. Albany: State University of New York Press.
59.
PeltonJulie A.2014. “Assessing Graduate Teacher Training Programs: Can a Teaching Seminar Reduce Anxiety and Increase Confidence?”Teaching Sociology42(1):40–49.
PorterChrista J.BossGinny JonesDavisTiffany J.2022. “Just Because It Don’t Look Heavy, Don’t Mean It Ain’t: An Intersectional Analysis of Black Women’s Labor as Faculty during COVID.” Gender, Work, & Organization30(2):657–72.
62.
The Res-Sisters. 2017. “‘I’m an Early Career Feminist Academic: Get Me Out of Here?’ Encountering and Resisting the Neoliberal Academy.” Pp. 267–84 in Being an Early Career Feminist Academic: Global Perspectives, Experiences, and Challenges, edited by ThwaitesR.PresslandA.New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
63.
ReyesVictoriaBrueneSaraCohenTylerFarooqiShaafiLa ScalaShayna. 2023. “Theorizing the Teaching Triad.” Teaching Sociology51(3):310–19.
64.
RøeYngveWojniuszSlawomirBjerkeAnnette Hessen. 2022. “The Digital Transformation of Higher Education Teaching: Four Pedagogical Prescriptions to Move Active Learning Pedagogy forward.” Frontiers in Education6:784701. doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.784701.
65.
SamCecile H.2021. “How Academic Community and an Ethic of Care Can Shape Adjunct Work Environments: A Case Study of a Community College.” Journal of Academic Ethics19:323–41.
SchwartzAnna M.SaltzmanEthlyn S.WhitemanRonald C.BrooksPatricia J.2022. “Do Graduate Students’ Teaching Values Align with Their Approaches to Teaching and Teaching Practices?”Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology8(3):3026–224.
68.
SmollinLeandra M.ArlukeArnold. 2014. “Rites of Pedagogical Passage: How Graduate Student Instructors Negotiate the Challenges of First-Time Teaching.” Teaching Sociology42(1):28–39.
StommelJesse. 2020. “The Human Work of Higher Education Pedagogy.” Academe106(1):23–26.
71.
TangKeow Ngang. 2020. “The Importance of Soft Skills Acquisition by Teachers in Higher Education Institutions.” Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences41:22–27.
TülübaşTijenGöktürkŞöheyda. 2023. “A Meta-synthesis on Academic Identity in the Neoliberal Context of Academy.” Higher Education86:139–61.
74.
van DijkEster E.van TartwijkJanvan der SchaafMariete F.KluijtmansManon. 2020. “What Makes an Expert University Teacher? A Systematic Review and Synthesis of Frameworks for Teacher Expertise in Higher Education.” Educational Research Review31:100365. doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100365.
75.
WaltersKylaMisraMoya. 2013. “Bringing Collaborative Teaching into Doctoral Programs: Faculty and Graduate Student Co-teaching as Experiential Training.” Teaching Sociology44:292–301.
76.
Wright-MairRaquelMuseusSamuel D.2023. “Playing the Game Just Enough: How Racially Minoritized Faculty Who Advance Equity Conceptualize Success in the Neoliberal Academy.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education16(1):109–19.
77.
WurglerEmilyVanHuevelenJane S.RohrmanShawnaLoehrAnnaliseGraceMatthew K.2014. “The Perceived Benefits of a Preparing Future Faculty Program and Its Effects on Job Satisfaction, Confidence, and Competence.” Teaching Sociology42(1):50–60.
78.
Gabriella Gutierrezy MuhsNiemannYolanda FloresGonzalezCarmen G.HarrisAngela P., eds. 2012. Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
