When Administrators Want to Teach: Reflections on Pathways to Teaching Beyond the Ph.D.

My mom famously tells a story of a six-year-old Lonnie crying when school was canceled because of a snowstorm. That’s how much I loved school. But for whatever reason, I never sought to become a classroom teacher. As I progressed through primary and secondary school and college, I landed on photography for undergraduate study and higher education administration for graduate school.

Through various student affairs admin roles(RA, Orientation Leader, Resident Director, Academic and Career Advising), I found my way back to education, but not in the capacity of a teacher. A few years into working at pwi’s, I felt something was missing. That something was a lack of cultural connection and a desire to teach young people directly. It felt like it was too late because I had missed the window and had never planned to become a teacher.

Then a college friend who had become an elementary school teacher invited me to participate in her school’s career day. Being back in the classroom brought me back to all of the fulfilling feelings I had been missing in my work on college campuses. The wheels started turning: there might be other ways to engage in teaching with my unique set of experiences and perspective.

That desire to teach rose to the surface early in my post-graduate student affairs career. Administrators and faculty rarely crossed over, but a hybrid academic advisor/teaching role and becoming a teaching artist at an afterschool program at nyc arts non profit  illuminated the fact that I was worthy and uniquely qualified to teach and facilitate workshops.

Then I started looking at college teaching roles at four-year colleges and universities, and my teaching résumé was missing something: a Ph.D. At most four-year universities, a Ph.D. is required for full-time faculty. In higher education, the general path for administrators is to move through administrative roles and perhaps advance to vice president or other senior leadership positions. But there is no clear, widely practiced path for administrators who want to teach, especially without studying education of a major linked to traditional disciplines.

Many two-year schools require instructors to have a master’s degree for teaching introductory courses, while some four-year institutions accept these types of instructors on a part-time basis. Yet most four-year institutions require a research or professional doctorate in the field an instructor intends to teach.

Meanwhile, higher education administrators with significant experience in student development and engagement are often viewed primarily as support staff rather than potential educators. This is particularly interesting when many graduate students are given opportunities to teach while pursuing their degrees.

I am a teacher with a nontraditional path. Across my more than 10-year career in higher education, I have worked in various capacities within student affairs at more than 10 private colleges and universities and have taught four college courses at three universities as a master’s-level student affairs administrator.

This experience has led me to question whether the doctorate should be the only credible pathway for experienced higher education administrators who want to teach.

The issue is not whether a Ph.D. has value. It does. The question is whether there are other ways to prepare and credential experienced practitioners to teach.

So what would another pathway look like?

One possibility is a structured program similar in concept to how California allows people to qualify for the bar through an alternative pathway involving supervised legal study rather than the traditional law school route. Higher education could explore a similar model for certain fields, allowing experienced administrators to earn teaching credits through supervised classroom experience, professional development and demonstrated teaching ability without requiring a Ph.D.

Another possibility is creating more hybrid teaching-administration roles. Colleges could intentionally design positions that combine student affairs administration with teaching responsibilities, giving experienced administrators a formal opportunity to build classroom experience while continuing their administrative work.

These pathways would not eliminate the Ph.D. or replace traditional faculty preparation. They would create additional ways for higher education to recognize the expertise of experienced practitioners who have developed both subject knowledge and teaching experience.

Faculty in the academy may push back and say that not having a Ph.D. means someone is not adequately prepared to teach. But I question whether educational level alone should determine who can be an effective teacher. Having a high level of education does not necessarily make someone a good teacher.

My love and passion for teaching supersede my level of education. If it were not for a previous college administrator role that included teaching, I most likely would never have broken into teaching at the college level. That nontraditional path allowed me to discover a love of teaching through a passion for serving.

It is unfair that master’s-level college administrators who are interested in teaching at four-year colleges and universities do not have a clear professional path toward the classroom.

Qualified administrators with an interest in teaching, content knowledge and relevant professional experience should have a pathway to teaching at the college level. Higher education should be willing to rethink not whether there is value in the Ph.D., but whether it is the only path into the classroom.