Who Ought to Constitute the Target Group for Foundation Programs?

This website's particular focus is foundation programs that prepare new academics for their teaching role.

Entry to the profession of teaching in a university is not a clear cut and unambiguous process. New academics cannot be constituted as the hallmark of a new higher education teacher as this ignores the prevalence of other categories of new teachers and the extent of the responsibilities they assume.

Categories of the target group currently include:

• sessionally employed higher degree students who take on increasing levels of responsibility from a basic role of tutoring, demonstrating, and grading papers, to designing laboratory classes, tutorials, and programs of studies and inducting other sessional staff into teaching,
• staff offered a series of fixed contracts for some years with varying degrees of responsibility before gaining an established position,
• research higher degree students who apply for and gain a post that from the first instance begins on a tenure track and may be part of a formal program of mentoring and supported development,
• professional practitioners who have assumed a teaching role

Therefore, a definition of what constitutes a new university teacher is needed to determine the target group for Foundations of University Teaching programs.

Defining a New Teacher

Main (1993) defined new teachers as

New entrants to teaching at university where they have some degree of responsibility for a program, including interactive teaching and the assessment and grading of learning.

The critical factor is the degree of new responsibilities they must assume, regardless of their employment status. This may be sessional, short fixed-term contracts, tenure track appointments or those in adjunct positions who provide their field-related expertise in exchange for academic status and benefits.