美国暂停终身教职时钟政策的发展历程、内容表征与行动逻辑

The Development Process,Content Characterization and Action Logic of Stopping Tenure Clock Polices in the United States

学术锦标赛制是对学术生产效率的考察,要求学者在有限时间内产出更多数量的高质量科研成果。为避免研究者的工具化,保障学术自由,美国多数大学采取了暂停终身教职时钟政策,作为终身教职制度的补充和完善。“停表政策”在联邦政府和美国教授联合会的双重推动、各高校的有序落实和新冠肺炎疫情的“加码”下,已成为美国高等教育学界的普遍共识。该政策设计之初旨在通过帮扶青年女性学者以推动学术界的性别友好,而后政策内容导向家庭友好。停表政策的行动逻辑在于促进学术自由与学术卓越,是学术锦标赛制的隐喻延伸,以时间指标为工具,放松时间限制,但不降低科研产出的要求,体现了保障底线与追求卓越的政策目标。

The academic championship system examines academic productivity and requires scholars to obtain a larger number of research outputs in a limited time.To avoid the instrumentalization of researchers and protect academic freedom,most universities in the United States have adopted stopping tenure clock policy.This policy is a powerful attempt to improve tenure-track system,which has proposed by the federal government and the American Association of University Professors,and orderly implementation by various universities and then reached a consensus under the covid-19 epidemic.This policy was designed to promote gender friendliness in academia by supporting young women scholars;Later,the policy content has experienced a transition to family-friendly orientation.The analysis shows that the policy logic lies in promoting academic freedom and excellence,which is a metaphorical extension of academic championship system.It takes time index as a tool to relax time limit but does not reduce the requirement of scientific research output,which embodies the essence of ensuring bottom line and pursuing excellence.