The relative importance of supportive data for promotion and tenure reviews.

Tenured and tenure-track faculty in 21 schools of allied health in the Midwest were surveyed by a questionnaire to identify (1) the relative importance of the variety of documents allied health faculty may submit for promotion and tenure reviews and (2) the congruence between the real and ideal value of the major areas of faculty responsibility. The responses indicated that of 48 examples of documents faculty may submit, only ten were considered to be essential or to have a desirable effect on pursuits, but none to teaching, public service, or patient care. The most important activity contributing toward advancement was reported to be research/publication, even though faculty believed it should be teaching. The results of the study will be valuable to candidates preparing dossiers for promotion and tenure and to administrators and other educators involved in advising faculty.

The liberal arts connection.

Occupational therapists need to be critical of who teaches, what is taught, how it is taught, how it is applied, and to whom it is taught in the entire education program of prospective occupational therapists. Further, I recommend that occupational therapy educators on campus take the lead in initiating meetings and discussions that facilitate a functional conjoining of occupational therapy practice, occupational therapy theory, and liberal arts studies. An initial effort in this regard might be for the three mutually interdependent and equal partners in the education of occupational therapy students to read and discuss Ernest L. Boyer's work entitled, A Quest for Common Learning--The Aims of General Education. I believe that all occupational therapists would benefit from reading this text, individually and collectively, and the profession and our community would benefit. The question is not whether or not this subject should be incorporated into an occupational therapy student's curriculum. The question for discussion should be at what point in the student's education--the student's intellectual growth and development and professionalization--would this topic and this treatment be best applied? Perhaps from this beginning the three partners--practice, theory, and liberal arts--would recognize and respond to their mutually interdependent and equally important role and responsibility in the design and implementation of the entire occupational therapy educational program, which is future responsive and ensures the highest probability that graduates will be professionally competent.