[Professorsofteaching] REQUEST FOR INPUT: Wording about Professors of Teaching (PoT) for The CALL

Tue Feb 24 08:15:17 PST 2026

Please add my name to the list as well.

Miguel Zavala, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Teaching
School of Education | UC Riverside
Office: 2123 Sproul Hall
Cell: 562-333-5814

Editor, Ethnic Studies Pedagogies
Author, Raza Struggle and the Movement for Ethnic Studies (Peter Lang)
Co-Editor, Rethinking Ethnic Studies (Rethinking Schools)
Co-Author with C. Sleeter, Transformative Ethnic Studies in
Schools (Teachers College Press)

On Tue, Feb 24, 2026 at 7:45 AM Sarah Radi via Professorsofteaching <
professorsofteaching at lists.ucr.edu> wrote:

> Good Morning Annie and Todd,
>
> I agree with the clarifying wording. Please add my name to the list.
>
> Best,
> Sarah
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 7:33 AM Selene Bobadilla via Professorsofteaching <
> professorsofteaching at lists.ucr.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi Annie and Todd,
>>
>> I agree as well.  Please add my name to the list.
>>
>> Best, Selene
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 22, 2026 at 6:41 PM Annie Stanfield Ditta via
>> Professorsofteaching <professorsofteaching at lists.ucr.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Professor of Teaching Colleagues,
>>>
>>> *TLDR: *
>>> Below please see a proposed email to be sent to the VPAP’s office
>>> regarding proposed changes to The CALL. Todd Sorensen (PoT in Economics)
>>> and I would like to suggest some wording to strengthen the degree of choice
>>> for PoTs in terms of what type of Professional and/or Scholarly Achievement
>>> and Activity to engage in. The deadline for changes to be sent to their
>>> office is end of business, Wednesday Feb. 25th. If you have any suggested
>>> changes to our email and/or other any changes you want to make to The CALL
>>> that you haven't passed along yet, could you please send them to us by end
>>> of day Tuesday 2/24 (sorry for the short turnaround!)?
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> If you have a little more time and want to read more about this request:
>>>
>>> *Some background:*
>>> We were happy to see that the VPAP sent out some FAQs (attached) to
>>> better inform chairs about the roles of Professors of Teaching and of our
>>> review process. One concern we had was that some of the language could be
>>> interpreted as de-emphasizing the option of disciplinary research as a
>>> contribution to "Professional and/or Scholarly Achievement and Activity”.
>>>
>>> Specifically, the second page of the FAQ (FAQ1) has a bullet list of
>>> examples of "What types of scholarly or professional activities are
>>> valued?” Initially, disciplinary research was not included as an example.
>>> However, in an updated draft of this document (FAQ2), "Traditional
>>> disciplinary research or presentations” was added to this list.
>>>
>>> In addition, we feel that the last paragraph on the first page
>>> de-emphasized this path for PoTs:
>>>
>>> "Traditional disciplinary research is not required. However, Professors
>>> of Teaching are expected to engage in scholarly or professional activity
>>> related to teaching, such as pedagogical scholarship, curriculum
>>> development, or educational leadership."
>>>
>>> We felt that the spirit of valuing traditional disciplinary research
>>> would be better expressed by the paragraph below; we have gone forward with
>>> the spirit of “what we wish the FAQ had said” to make our suggested changes
>>> to The CALL. We are not trying to get the FAQ document edited, but wanted
>>> to note this for possible future use.
>>>
>>> "Professors of Teaching are expected to engage in *scholarly or
>>> professional activity*, which may take different forms. Traditional
>>> disciplinary research is *not required* but such work is valued in the
>>> merit and promotion process. Additionally, activities such as pedagogical
>>> scholarship, curriculum development, and/or educational  leadership are
>>> valued in this category."
>>>
>>>
>>> *Proposed Email Draft:*
>>>
>>> Dear Dan,
>>>
>>> Thank you for valuing the role of PoTs, and the broad set of potential
>>> contributions to Professional and/or Scholarly Achievement and Activity”
>>> that is valued in our roles. We especially appreciate the intentionality in
>>> sending around an FAQ document on this, and on adding "Traditional
>>> disciplinary research or presentations” as a bullet point item in the list
>>> of “What ˚types of scholarly or professional activities are valued.”
>>>
>>> We would like to suggest the following changes to The CALL to reflect
>>> the spirit of a broad interpretation of Professional and/or Scholarly
>>> Achievement and Activities (including traditional disciplinary research or
>>> presentation) that will be valued in our review process:
>>>
>>> Page 37; 4b: add in parentheses at end of line “(this includes both
>>> pedagogy-related and discipline-specific research)”.
>>> Similar wording being added to #2 on pages 1-2 of the "UCR Guidelines
>>> for Professor of Teaching Series” would also help emphasize this point.
>>>
>>> Best and thank you for your consideration,
>>> Annie Ditta & Todd Sorensen
>>> [and anyone else that wants to add their name!]
>>>
>>> --
>>> *Annie S. Ditta, Ph.D.*
>>> Pronouns: she/her/hers (what's this?
>>> <https://www.mypronouns.org/what-and-why>)
>>> Associate Professor of Teaching
>>> Distinguished Teaching Professor
>>> Department of Psychology
>>> University of California, Riverside
>>> LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anniesditta
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Professorsofteaching mailing list
>>> Professorsofteaching at lists.ucr.edu
>>> https://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/professorsofteaching
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Selene Bobadilla
>> *Assistant Professor of Teaching in Biochemistry*
>> Dept. of Biochemistry  |  College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
>> University of California, Riverside
>>
>>
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