Conference: CRA-E Workshop: Supporting career building, student research experiences, and advancement of teaching track faculty

The Computing Research Association (CRA) proposes a series of workshops providing professional development (PD) and discussion of departmental policies for individuals pursuing teaching-focused Computer Science (CS) faculty positions. CS departments nationwide continue to experience significant increases in demand for undergraduate courses, resulting in an on-going need to expand the number of teaching-focused faculty members. For many PhD producing departments, teaching track faculty positions with academic rank and expectations for scholarship are relatively new, and departments are still establishing these roles and best practices related to the hiring and career progression for these positions. To meet the need for teaching-focused faculty members, it is imperative to educate PhD students, post-doctoral scholars, teaching-focused faculty members, and individuals considering a career change about the opportunities and responsibilities associated with these positions. The series of workshops will include two 1-day, in-person, PD Workshops for current teaching track faculty members and two Virtual Academic Workshop Series for PhD students, post-doctoral scholars, and industry professionals seeking an academic career change. The PD Workshops will be held in conjunction with the ACM’s Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education’s (SIGCSE) conferences in 2024 and 2025 and will offer opportunities for teaching faculty to network and share information for their career development, including career paths, scholarship options, and promotion opportunities. They will also address the role teaching track faculty can play in expanding undergraduate research opportunities and create guidance on a standardization of the teaching faculty interview practices. The Virtual Academic Landscape Workshop Series will expose individuals interested in teaching-focused faculty positions to the types of teaching-focused faculty careers, the preparation needed for these careers, and the job application process. To broaden participation in these workshops, series, and careers by individuals who identify with groups underrepresented in computing, CRA will undertake coordinated marketing with Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances to achieve a broad representation of speakers and participants, with particular focus on teaching track faculty at HBCUs/MSIs/TCs. An evaluation will be conducted to learn about the impacts on workshop participants’ beliefs and intentions and to help improve future workshops. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.