Equitable-Inclusive Tenure and Promotion for Diverse Korean American and Other Asian Faculty

Overview: Due to the intersectional effects of race/ethnicity, immigration/acculturation, and culture, racial/ethnic minority faculty experiences barriers to tenure, promotion, and career advancement. This panel provides multifaceted insights into institutional barriers and challenges, and offers practical strategies to Korean American and other Asian social work educators pursuing tenure and promotion.Proposal text: Rationale &

Background:
The commitment to racial/ethnic diversity and social justice has been a longstanding general principle in social work education. While student diversity has been intensely debated for years in higher education, relatively little attention has been given to the racial/ethnic and gender identity of the person at the front of the classroom (American Federation of Teachers, 2010; CSWE, 2007; Deo, 2018). Faculty diversity plays a key role in achieving the principle as they can offer multifarious perspectives and experiences (American Civil Liberties Union, 2014; Edwards et al., 2015).

Thus, increasing retention, tenure, and promotion of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in academic faculty appointments was a critical issue even before the current pandemic (CSWE, n.d.; Luca & Escoto, 2012; Turner, 2002).

Among minority faculty groups, Asians account 6.5% of all full-time faculty (CSWE, 2020). Before COVID-19, a paucity of public discourse related to faculty careers and development for Asian social work faculty was a serious issue to achieve diverse, equitable, and inclusive institutional environments (Freeman & Forthun, 2019). Although COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on faculty across all racial/ethnic backgrounds, Korean and other Asian faculty often face anti-Asian aggression and become advocates for victims of hate crimes in their communities. Therefore, mobilizing collective intelligence to cope with the pandemic and enhance their career development is urgently needed.

To address this time-sensitive and critical need, this panel presentation is structured as follows:
• Introduction of panelists representing different gender, roles, institutional foci, and locations
• Overview and presentation of panelists including relevant empirical evidence, institutional barriers, and practical tips
• Q&A and discussion with attendees to begin a group dialogue centered on common experiences including the impact of the current pandemic on their careers and coping strategies for Korean Americans and other Asian scholars

Contents & Implications:
First, Panelist 1, at a comprehensive teaching-oriented public university in a large city, will begin with a discussion of the nature of tenure and promotion and the current racial/ethnic data of current occupants of tenured and promoted professorships. The panel will also share the challenges of the current pandemic that Korean American and other Asian faculty face.

Second, Panelist 2 will address individual, organizational, and institutional barriers to tenure and promotion for Korean and other Asian Americans at research-intensive institutions and share practical strategies and tips, followed by recommendations for policy and practice.

Finally, Panelist 3 will provide a general commentary on two presentations from a perspective of a faculty at a mid-size private college. The faculty will discuss how this panel presentation helps advance leadership skills and empowerment of Korean and other Asian American social work educators, and how social work professional organizations, such as CSWE, can contribute to the advocacy for the promotion of faculty diversity in tenure and promotion for racial/ethnic minority groups.

All panelists will further explore and address questions from the audience to help alleviate barriers and challenges that Korean and other minority social work educators often have faced in higher education institutions