Job Discussion Forums

[Glenski]

Part-time teachers at high school or universities usually leave when they are finished with classes. They have other...part-time work to do.

PTers at my school who finish at noon sometimes stay and eat and chat with the FTers. If they finish at other times and have some time on their hands, they often choose between chatting with the FTers (if we're not in class) or updating their paperwork. They choose where to do that on campus (if it's on campus at all). We have a common room for any teacher, plus several relaxation rooms for students and teaches, plus a common area outside the FTers' offices. The PTers use them all depending on their own reasons.

I tell students not to call me [first name] + sensei. They don't do it with their Japanese teachers, so why foreigners? If they want to call me just my first name, ok. Last name + sensei, ok. Mister + last name, ok. I get all responses.

Most J teachers here go by last name + sensei.

[Nabby Adams]

Actually, one part of the debate as to what Miyazaki's position will be (if he gets the job) is what the actual students will see him as.

At the end of the day will they see him as a professor or a teacher?

[BobbyBan]

Just ask for your students to call you "professor Miyazaki" at all times and refer to yourself this way, in the third person; Sir Bobbyban does this all the time. Also, make sure you wear a batman cape to "lectures" as this will be very becoming of your made-up campus persona.

[ripslyme]

[Chris21]

I don't know if it has been mentioned yet, but "professor" is a title that isn't simply given to anyone that works within a university. There are university-employed lecturers with advanced graduate degrees, decades of experience, and extensive research that can't even call themselves "professor", "associate professor" or "assistant professor". Not to rain on anyone's parade, but a dispatch-company-employed staffer, who is being outsourced to a uni, does not conduct research, is not present at faculty meetings, doesn't decide on curriculum matters, or have any advanced qualification, is not a "professor".

[Miyazaki]

[Miyazaki]

[Chris21]

Are you going by what is listed in Webster's dictionary? Or by the employment hierarchy system used in most unis, where "Lecturer", "Assistant Prof", "Assoc. Prof", are sought-after titles used to designate a pay grade and academic rank?

If it's by the four word definition in the dictionary, then you're correct. But try introducing yourself as a "Professor" to the office staff or your esteemed coleagues on the first day of work, and count how many strange looks you get.

[Nabby Adams]

How about the old guy in "Back To The Future"? Marty always called him professor and he wasn't a direct hire at a uni.

[markle]

[ripslyme]

[humancartography]

So, I guess the people that teach here can be considered professors? http://www.wsu.edu/creamery/index.html

Sounds like an ideal job for some people on this forum.

[Miyazaki]

In my community college most of the professors I took classes with only had Master degrees and didn't really publish. They were hired in the 1970s and were tenured. I called them "Profs."

Chris21, if you were a teacher back in Brisbane at UQ or Griffith, would I hear students addressing you as "Professor Chris21" regardless of your academic rank, or would Australian students address you as according to your exact academic rank (i.e., "Excuse me Junior Lecturer Chris21, but could I have a word with you?", " Hi! Assistant Professor Chris21?" or, "Senior Adjunct Lecturer Chris21, could I talk to you about my final grade?" - Not likely!

I'm from North America. In N.A., the term "Professor" is used as a generic word to refer to a teacher or instructor teaching at a university or college. Students would likely never address a teacher by their academic rank - I didn't - but would just refer to them, for example, as "Professor Smith." My students at my Japanese university will probably do the same. But like I said earlier, I go by my first name in class.

[Chris21]

[Miyazaki]