Teaching, Promotion and Tenure: The Experiences of Sub-Saharan African Professors in a Predominantly White American University

This study investigates the experiences of sub-Saharan African professors teaching in a predominantly White American University in the Midwest of the United States with tenure, promotion, scholarship, and their level of satisfaction with their lectureship. The themes that emerged highlighted bittersweet experiences with tenure and promotion, job satisfaction, and loss of social status. This study is a phenomenological inquiry into the experiences of sub-Saharan African professors teaching in a predominantly White university in the Midwest of the U.S. The rationale for the study was to gain understanding of the experiences and challenges of sub-Saharan African professors through their voices. The study revealed that respondents’ experiences with tenure and promotion were not smooth one, and would best be described as bittersweet. As a result of migrating abroad to the United States to teach although considered an upgrade of their career, respondents lost their social position and status back home.