The joy of the teaching track: Learning and Teaching in Politics and International Studies

In recent years, the number of academic jobs in research-intensive universities that are described as ‘academic education route’, ‘teaching and scholarship’, or ‘teaching track’ has grown. While some of these jobs emerged out of the regularisation of formerly casual posts, we have also witnessed the creation of specialised education-focused roles and academic promotion frameworks that offer education-focused career paths. In this article, a group of education-focused academics write about our joyful experiences of taking up the opportunities created by the ‘teaching track’ and celebrate the way that education-focused jobs have opened up careers for scholars who have a passion and vocation for education and who wish to put their time and effort (in a world of limited resources) into the work of education and educational leadership. We note some downsides, but here we focus on the joys and opportunities created by working on the teaching track, including meaningful and impactful work, career progression, productive relationships, creative and scholarly research, and routes into university leadership that it produces. We also discuss how we might support each other to create worthwhile education-focused careers, make good on the opportunities offered by the teaching track, and work together to mitigate any disadvantages.