DOI: 10.1097/01.ACM.0000337630.35049.03

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Issn Print: 1040-2446

Publication Date: 2008/10/01


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Commentary

Denice Cora-Bramble

+ Author Information

Author Information: is executive director, Diana L. and Stephen A. Goldberg Center for Community Pediatric Health at Children’s National Medical Center, and professor of pediatrics, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.

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Excerpt

The capstone and marker of a successful academic career is the attainment of the coveted full professor rank, preferably with tenure. Active and productive participation in the scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and/or education is the raison d’être of faculty in academia. While much has been published regarding promotion and tenure, few have written about the human side of the experience. McCabe and McCabe opine that “many of the barriers encountered [in academia] concern highly sensitive areas. These are often not discussed openly.”1
The poem “Fitful Tango” sheds light on some of these areas, exposing the author’s questions and uncertainties as well as her response to opposition and ambiguity. The introspection of the Afro-Hispanic author and her eventual dismissal of the roles of race in her promotion process unearth the added burden and silent, often unanswerable questions faced by minority faculty. While data strongly suggest that both race and gender affect faculty members’ career satisfaction, advancement, and experience in academia, the author chooses to redirect her attention from discerning and understanding the origin of the barrier to simply overcoming it. The reader witnesses the author’s self-transformation from acquiescence to empowerment. Her internal, iterative, and pointed questions are a preamble to her self-affirmation, proud defiance, and convincing academic dossier presentation to the promotions committee. The author’s renewal highlights attitudinal factors such as persistence, determination, and self-reliance and their potential role in her academic success. This sentiment is mirrored by a minority focus-group participant in a study by Carr et al2 who, in describing the characteristics of successful minority faculty, states that “you have to find yourself; you have to have enough confidence in who you are and what you are about. You have to be able to stand alone.” The research study concludes that one of the factors that enable minority faculty members to thrive in academia is a “positive sense of self-reliance,” emphasizing that “the ability to manage a medical career must come from an individual’s own inner resources.”
The author’s experience with the promotion process ultimately has a positive outcome, not only for herself but for her colleagues and students. After the author was promoted to full professor, she was appointed to her institution’s promotions committee. The lessons learned by standing at the promotion crossroads, embracing ambiguity and questions, serve as the catalyst for the author to take on the mentor’s mantle, in order to clarify blurry lines, sharpen the focus, culturally contextualize the experience, and teach others how to thrive in academia. The promotion-related challenges affirmed and viscerally embedded her commitment to mentoring, advising, and coaching other faculty members. Again, the importance of experienced mentoring is mirrored in the literature. Bickel,3 for instance, in commenting about career development in academic medicine, encourages faculty members to “seek critical thinking partners who can ask great questions, see many sides of complex issues, identify hidden assumptions, offer new lines of sight, and challenge and expand your mental models.”
The poem “Fitful Tango” exemplifies the author’s experience with academic promotion, providing a visual image of two individuals taking forceful, abrupt, and dominating tango dance steps, which are eventually replaced by the author’s solo dance to her own “serene music.
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