Few Positions for Ed. Law Professors
Justin Bathon on Monday, November 17, 2008 at 10:43AM On a normal Monday in November the past few years I would say there would be at least 10-15 postings if not more. But, this is not a normal year. The academic job market is down substantially across the entire ed. leadership field -- a field which has been one of the hottest in all of education for a long time. I think it is a combination of the economic circumstances + the weakening of the leadership field in general (things like this) that account for the drastic decrease. This has of course translated into a low number of positions available for ed. law faculty across the country. I am sure I missed some, but I think I have the majority at my job board and while it may look like a lot, when you consider the different specialties and the different ranks, any given potential ed. law professor is probably looking at around 2-3 jobs that mentioned law as a desired expertise to choose from in total across the country. Now, of course, there are more positions that don't specifically articulate law as the expertise area that still hire law-type people, but nevertheless, there are still many fewer jobs this year for education law specialists.
I don't have historical data to determine whether this is an anamoly or a trend. My feeling is that it is a little of both. This is a particularly bad year, but also in general the number of research positions in colleges of education and in particular departments of education leadership is declining. I will try to keep an eye on it the next few years to get more of a sense of the trends.
But, anyway, tough year to be on the market. Looks like everything that is going to be posted, is posted, and what's there is just not very enticing. Good luck to anyone on the market this year.
*UPDATE: Some positions have posted now. The Chronicle is apparently behind as their positions usually post at 1 am. Nevertheless, the point of the post remains the same.
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