Differences in Counselor Educators’ Tenure Status, Work Experiences, and Job Satisfaction Based on Institutional Variables

Abstract

ABSTRACT Full‐time counselor educators ( n = 491) provided online survey data about their faculty credentials, work experiences, and job satisfaction. Counselor educators in residential/hybrid programs and those employed at public institutions had higher odds of being in tenure‐line positions than counselor educators in fully online programs and those employed at nonsectarian institutions, respectively. Counselor educators in non‐tenure‐line positions spent a higher percentage of their workload on teaching and supervision and less on research and service than counselor educators in tenure‐line positions, even after accounting for their institutions’ Carnegie Research Classifications. After controlling for three covariates (academic year salary, experience, discrepancies between actual and preferred workload distributions), tenured counselor educators reported lower job satisfaction than both tenure‐track and non‐tenure‐line counselor educators. Counselor educators in residential/hybrid programs reported lower job satisfaction than counselor educators in programs that were either fully online or those that offered both residential/hybrid and online options, and counselor educators at public institutions reported lower job satisfaction than counselor educators at sectarian institutions. Potential implications of these findings for counselor education positions are discussed.