Educators: Where are You?
Just what is happening with RT faculty? I observed a lack of participation of RT educators in the ATRA name change issue. We are down to a handful of universities with Ph.D. programs in RT. Very little seems to have resulted from the summer educators’ conference. ATRA has indicated it won’t be sending anyone to the Allied Health Educators Summit this summer in Chicago. What has happened to the ATRA educators’ list serve that permitted regular communications among faculty?
Where is the leadership from university faculty that was so prominent in the 1970s when RT was attempting to establish itself as a profession? Faculty then were willing to “go the extra mile” for their profession. For example, I can recall that when our national organization didn’t have the financial resources to send a representative to a meeting that a faculty member would get his or her university to pay the expenses or would personally assume the expenses.
Faculty involvement seemed to have begun to decline soon after the Post-Doctorate Institutes for faculty held in the mid-1980s. In fact, it is my view that faculty have not taken any substantial leadership within our profession for a number of years.
The most evident example is that faculty have not stepped forward to improve curriculum. Instead, they have let NCTRC call the shots. I’m glad NCTRC exerted itself or we might not have had any advancement in terms of curriculum. The point is that faculty should have been out front in the area of curriculum reform and they have not been.
Where are you RT faculty? Do you lack an organized means to join together for the betterment of the profession? Do you not understand your roles as leaders within our profession? Do you lack the leadership skills to help lead the profession? Or do you simply not care what happens to our profession?
I must confess that I am perplexed and disturbed by the lack of involvement by faculty. Do others feel the same?
Where is the leadership from university faculty that was so prominent in the 1970s when RT was attempting to establish itself as a profession? Faculty then were willing to “go the extra mile” for their profession. For example, I can recall that when our national organization didn’t have the financial resources to send a representative to a meeting that a faculty member would get his or her university to pay the expenses or would personally assume the expenses.
Faculty involvement seemed to have begun to decline soon after the Post-Doctorate Institutes for faculty held in the mid-1980s. In fact, it is my view that faculty have not taken any substantial leadership within our profession for a number of years.
The most evident example is that faculty have not stepped forward to improve curriculum. Instead, they have let NCTRC call the shots. I’m glad NCTRC exerted itself or we might not have had any advancement in terms of curriculum. The point is that faculty should have been out front in the area of curriculum reform and they have not been.
Where are you RT faculty? Do you lack an organized means to join together for the betterment of the profession? Do you not understand your roles as leaders within our profession? Do you lack the leadership skills to help lead the profession? Or do you simply not care what happens to our profession?
I must confess that I am perplexed and disturbed by the lack of involvement by faculty. Do others feel the same?
posted by Hoosier RT | 7:18 PM
1 Comments:
I received my undergraduate degree from Marshall University (Huntington, West Virginia).
Marshall dropped the Therapeutic Recreation emphasis courses due to several reasons, including lack of students entering the degree program. I hated to see this decision made. But, do believe the program could be re-started someday. They didn’t completely drop it from the school.
One argument that I heard was lack of jobs and employment in the area. I’m aware there is high competition for jobs in the field. However, my facility has a hard-time finding people who have certification or a degree in the field in the area.
I’ve heard that many people work in fields that are different from their degrees. I feel fortunate that I was able to find employment in the field.
I do believe that many employers would highly value the skills that are taught to students in therapeutic recreation degree programs. The basic skills include the TR process: assessments, planning, intervention, and evaluation. A person with a degree in TR could quite easily use these skills in other jobs, too. I’d imagine if a graduate got a job as a manager for a business, she’d be able to assess the situation, write a written plan of operation with measurable goals, implement the process, evaluate the effectiveness, and start the process over. These are just my thoughts.
I wish we would have had someone in the field at the educator’s conference in Chicago.
Post a Comment
<< Home