Thanks for your insightful reflection about teaching at a Christian Liberal Arts as a calling.
When you hired me at Warner Pacific College, I didn't have the idea of "calling" clear in my mind. Coming from secular institutions (The Mexican Petroleum Institute and the National University in Mexico. Where I had "tenure" in both.) teaching was a "job". Something you did because it was the right thing to do. Even though in my faith statement when applying to Warner I mention that Jesus was my guide and model for teaching. Now I see all these years (more than 25) clearly within the framework of a "calling". In many ways now a see any kind of life should be framed as a calling.
Oh my. This way of framing it is far too tame; it is "NFL fierce". It is far worse than you can imagine. Recent stats say that only about 20% of those getting PhDs in the humanities end up in a TT job. If you're a Christian, it's almost impossible to get one at anything but a Christian college (unless you are super closeted about it during grad school and while you publish)... And it can definitely hurt you to be coming from a top university or PhD program in your discipline, even though you thought this might make it easier, not harder, to get a job. Expect to have to grind it out for 7-10 yrs in one's PhD (hardly anyone gets done by age 26 any more!); and expect that you'll have to be on the market for 2-5 yrs, where "success" looks like getting a postdoc or term-limited visiting asst. prof. job, then turning around and applying again and again. Expect that to get a TT job, you have to publish as much or more than most senior faculty had to publish to be tenured, just to stand out; and realize that even publishing in the top journals etc. doesn't always help you, and can definitely hurt you... again, at the small teaching-heavy jobs, esp. the Christian ones, who now worry you are (or you think you are) "too good"/ research-minded. Be prepared to move on to your backup career plans, where even having a PhD is often a down-side, because now you look overqualified and too specialized. And then even if you 'win' this lottery TT job search situation, it will probably be brutal on you if you tried to get married or have a family along the way, because the constant moving, and the scarcity and anxiety and proving yourself, might well ruin you. And if you get such a job at a Christian college, be prepared to navigate all the theological fault-lines/ culture wars (that is: hide from them or barely voice what you really think, even in classes, at least until you're tenured); and be ready for those in churches or side-ministries to look at you with suspicion because you are more well-read and surely more liberal than they are, and their anti-elitism will usually keep them from showing you any respect. And steel yourself to be so underpaid that you are paid less than 25-year-old new 1st grade teachers, some of whom may have recently been your undergraduate students. So you have to work a side job (or two), or still be eyeing that backup career idea, even after tenure and being mid-career. (It's becoming clear that the norm for those who make it and stay for their whole career any more, at least in more expensive regions, are people who are independently well-off financially, or whose spouse makes 2-3 times what they earn, or similar.) If you love your discipline or students so much to make this all worth the risk, then go for it (but be wary of most CCCU schools, many of which will close before long). Otherwise, find any other thing and do it, and read history/ sociology/ etc. on the side to scratch that intellectual itch
Thanks for your insightful reflection about teaching at a Christian Liberal Arts as a calling.
When you hired me at Warner Pacific College, I didn't have the idea of "calling" clear in my mind. Coming from secular institutions (The Mexican Petroleum Institute and the National University in Mexico. Where I had "tenure" in both.) teaching was a "job". Something you did because it was the right thing to do. Even though in my faith statement when applying to Warner I mention that Jesus was my guide and model for teaching. Now I see all these years (more than 25) clearly within the framework of a "calling". In many ways now a see any kind of life should be framed as a calling.
Oh my. This way of framing it is far too tame; it is "NFL fierce". It is far worse than you can imagine. Recent stats say that only about 20% of those getting PhDs in the humanities end up in a TT job. If you're a Christian, it's almost impossible to get one at anything but a Christian college (unless you are super closeted about it during grad school and while you publish)... And it can definitely hurt you to be coming from a top university or PhD program in your discipline, even though you thought this might make it easier, not harder, to get a job. Expect to have to grind it out for 7-10 yrs in one's PhD (hardly anyone gets done by age 26 any more!); and expect that you'll have to be on the market for 2-5 yrs, where "success" looks like getting a postdoc or term-limited visiting asst. prof. job, then turning around and applying again and again. Expect that to get a TT job, you have to publish as much or more than most senior faculty had to publish to be tenured, just to stand out; and realize that even publishing in the top journals etc. doesn't always help you, and can definitely hurt you... again, at the small teaching-heavy jobs, esp. the Christian ones, who now worry you are (or you think you are) "too good"/ research-minded. Be prepared to move on to your backup career plans, where even having a PhD is often a down-side, because now you look overqualified and too specialized. And then even if you 'win' this lottery TT job search situation, it will probably be brutal on you if you tried to get married or have a family along the way, because the constant moving, and the scarcity and anxiety and proving yourself, might well ruin you. And if you get such a job at a Christian college, be prepared to navigate all the theological fault-lines/ culture wars (that is: hide from them or barely voice what you really think, even in classes, at least until you're tenured); and be ready for those in churches or side-ministries to look at you with suspicion because you are more well-read and surely more liberal than they are, and their anti-elitism will usually keep them from showing you any respect. And steel yourself to be so underpaid that you are paid less than 25-year-old new 1st grade teachers, some of whom may have recently been your undergraduate students. So you have to work a side job (or two), or still be eyeing that backup career idea, even after tenure and being mid-career. (It's becoming clear that the norm for those who make it and stay for their whole career any more, at least in more expensive regions, are people who are independently well-off financially, or whose spouse makes 2-3 times what they earn, or similar.) If you love your discipline or students so much to make this all worth the risk, then go for it (but be wary of most CCCU schools, many of which will close before long). Otherwise, find any other thing and do it, and read history/ sociology/ etc. on the side to scratch that intellectual itch