Is it possible to be a teaching fellow (around 10 hrs teaching per week + associated admin) without one's research taking a hit? I'd hate to come to the end of the fellowship with no lectureship in sight and have a CV with only extensive teaching experience on it. Anyone managed to teach and still get the publications you need?

Hi Dave,

Depends very heavily on the type of teaching. If much of that ten hours is repeat undergrad seminars then yes you can carve out time to publish (it's what the lecturing staff all do after all). If you are being asked to write ten new lectures from scratch each week then no. It's also a bit dependent on how much the teaching is in your comfort zone and how much is going to take quite a lot of work not to make a fool of yourself.

Yes, its very possible. I did teaching and I also did conferences and some publications and finished the PhD on time. I think in this market any teaching experience you can have is valuable.

Not only is it possible, but I would say its necessary if you want to be competitive in an academic job market upon the completion of our PhD.

Granted you might not be able to do this all if you approach all of the work (teaching, PhD work, writing for publication) as a Monday-Friday 9-5 job. On the other hand, to be market competitive, you need to have as much going for you on your CV as possible within the 3 years or so that you do the PhD. And depending on your field, you may really NEED to show both teaching experience and some publications to even merit attention by employers...in addition to the PhD.

======= Date Modified 17 Jul 2011 20:34:34 =======
Hmmm, I'd ask for advice from teaching fellows in your subject to be honest. I've only taught alongside my PhD, so can't really comment, but I have spoken to several teaching fellows in different departments who are so bogged down with teaching that they only have a few hours a week left over to spend on research- and they are still expected to meet certain requirements that pure research staff struggle to meet. I think it's worse in some subjects (and no doubt some universities) than others, but I'd definitely make contact with people in that situation to get a good perspective on things. I'm sure it can be done in some cases, but I hear a lot of negativity from people trying to balance the two. Best, KB

Edit: Just read Olivia's post- I had assumed that you were referring to a post-doc teaching fellowship rather than teaching alongside your PhD? My comments were based on that assumption anyway- if you're talking about teaching alongside your PhD then I think that's prefectly possible (and quite normal!).

Thanks for your replies guys.

I've finished the PhD (linguistics) and after a short stint as a PostDoc RA, I'm now considering this Teaching Fellowship. I actually have 12 years experience teaching in Universities, so that's one thing my CV isn't lacking, hence the anxiety about finishing this 2 yr teaching contract with my CV looking pretty much the same. I love teaching so would be fulfilled in the role, but am all too aware that it's research that counts and what needs to be beefed up on my CV. I'm thinking it should be manageable with ~10hrs teaching a week - I should be able to get 1 or 2 papers out per year.

A job's a job,the location's right, and a lot can change in 2 years..