"Connecting the Dots" to the Professoriate: Midlife Women's Career Transitions and Strategies

Changing faculty characteristics in higher education include increasing numbers of new faculty with prior careers and women faculty. However, traditional adult development and career development theories may not account for the intersection of these two dimensions in examining faculty careers. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to investigate the career transitions and strategies of women midlife career changers to the professoriate. An adult transition model in conjunction with a contemporary career development model formed the conceptual framework and guided the study. Participants comprised eight tenured or tenure-track women faculty, in adult education or related fields at four-year institutions, who self-identified as career changers to the professoriate while age 35 to 60 years. To prepare for data collection, I used phenomenology’s Epoché process to investigate and bracket the essence of my experience as a woman midlife career changer aspiring to the professoriate. Data collection comprised two semi-structured interviews with each participant using a protocol of open-ended questions. Data analysis consisted of phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis. Using terms like “connecting the dots,” participants described their midlife career transitions to the professoriate as the culmination of prior life, education, and work experiences. They generally identified a career transition process influenced by midlife age with differing beginnings and endings and the following shared steps: prior experience, a doctoral program, an interim higher education position for some, and ultimately, tenure-track professor. Furthermore, participants described career transition challenges, supports, and strategies to manage the process. Specifically, participants experienced process-related challenges such as finding a first tenure-track position, required relocation, and tenure and promotion. In addition, they experienced relationship- and role-related challenges such as impacted relationships, endless explaining of the professoriate to non-academics, and expert to novice transition. Overall, prevalent politics remained challenging throughout the career transition process. Career transition supports were relational; advisors and mentors provided professional support, while God and church provided personal support. Last, as strategies to manage midlife career transition to the professoriate, participants created community, applied prior career experience and skills, and practiced productivity. These findings have implications for theory, higher education policy and practice, and transition-related practice