In his book, Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste, Herbert J. Gans distinguishes between producers and consumers of high and popular culture based on the disparities of educational attributes and class. Applied to the professional field of education in which tenured professors are representative of high culture and associate and/or adjunct professors are representative of popular culture, the disparity between the two groups in terms of both criteria is subtle (xv). In fact, tenure and associate professors who are equally educated are distinguished chiefly by tenure. Both tenure and associate professors have undergone four to eight years of graduate studies. However, tenured professors had also survived three to seven years of probation in tenure-track positions and undergone assessments and annual evaluations of their overall performance in teaching, research and relationships with their peers. Finally, they had also passed the challenging tenure review in which their performance was scrutinized by the department chair, dean, college provost, president and outside faculty. Tenured professors have thus demonstrated their commitment to their field of study and the teaching of their students throughout their academic career. Unlike associate professors, tenured professors have the freedom to pursue their academic work without fearing the consequences of dismissal (Scheuerman 66).
Because of their protection from the manipulation and control of outside interests, tenured professors are free to conduct research and teach their students in accordance with their perceptions of the high standards of academic excellence. On the other hand, associate professors may need to modify their work in response to university administrators, corporate sponsors or even students in order to ensure that they are not terminated. Thus, they are susceptible to the vagaries of the outside interests and are more r...