A quick thread here on working as an academic in the military. I agree with @CarrieALee1's thread on the upside, in general: The money/benefits are insanely good, no methodological warfare, policy-relevant research, etc.
BUT:
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cc @dbyman @notabattlechick @JRHunTx
BUT:
/1
cc @dbyman @notabattlechick @JRHunTx
@CarrieALee1 @dbyman @notabattlechick @JRHunTx There are downsides. You are working for people who do not understand education and who are, in the main, suspicious of educators. It's a culture clash that is built-in to the institutions. Many of your superiors have no idea what you do all day and think you're not "working." /2
Although tenure is now spreading to PME (thank heavens), the contract system breeds short-term thinking and a timid faculty that is centered way too much on pushing the right buttons for student evaluations. PME students was *way* overempowed in this regard. /3
PME institutions in general are also heavily dependent on the personality of who is leading them at any given moment: What was okay a year ago is frowned up a year later. Grants? Go get 'em! Later: What, grants? Why would you do that?
/4
/4
My most important advice to PME faculty is to create a career *outside* of your institutions. The demand signal you get from inside the school is: Keep students happy and don't create problems for the person who will run the place for 3 years and then get a star and leave. /5
The institution does not have your career interest at heart; it does not have an interest in developing you as faculty the way a university department will. Thus, you need to be a self-starter in a *big* way to work in PME for the long-term.
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In sum, you will make a boatload of cash and have a lot of time, but you will lose a lot of autonomy over what you do at work (curriculum is a problem) and you will work in a place that can be an actually impediment to your overall career if you're not vigilant about it. /7
I have more to say about the pointlessness of things like giving an education in national security to a guy about to retire in a year, or about curricular fads, but that should cover most of it for now. /8x
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