14: Scholarship for Mathematics Educators: How Does This Count for Promotion and Tenure?

Tenure decisions are not taken lightly by departments or by candidates. At some institutions of higher education, and particularly within mathematics departments, there seems to be a chasm between mathematicians and mathematics educators regarding the definition of scholarship. As mathematics educators who are housed in a mathematics department, we and our mathematician colleagues have struggled with this definition. We suppose this struggle occurs in many, if not every, mathematics department that houses mathematics educators. Our purpose in the chapter is to initiate a dialogue regarding the weighting or counting of professional practice in promotion and tenure decisions in mathematics departments. Our intention is to provide a framework so the mathematics education community may define the idea of scholarship for their mathematician colleagues to begin a dialogue within the department.