I don’t get it, but maybe it’s out of context. Are they implying that folks that teach methods are ‘unmovabe’ b/c they don’t want to move or b/c they have flaws….If they are trying to say there’s too much supply, then what’s with the seller’s market part?

I admit I may be dense, but I’m not sure what the comment is trying to say and/or imply.

I am confused as well. Please explain to us “dense” folks.

“Unmoveable” in the sense that anyone who can actually teach methods already has a cushy job teaching a 1–1 load paying $70k per year.

Yeah, right… maybe the Gary Kings/Neal Becks/Simon Jackmans/J Katzs of the world, but most have regular prof jobs.

Of course, there’s different types of ‘teaching methods.’ There’s the way King teaches methods (to PhD students), then there’s the way I teach methods (to terminal master’s students—but since we’re proposing a PhD soon…who knows…though I think they’ll still be stuck with me teaching the methods…not Gary King), and then there’s the way folks teach undergrad methods.

Now that I re-read Chris’s last comment, I see he qualifies it with “who can actually teach methods.” Maybe that’s the difference, I can’t “actually teach methods” the way the superstars do. :)

Well, for at least one of the names above (not even I’m stupid enough to say which one), from my experience you’d have to use the term “teach” very loosely.

Very few places—maybe the top 10 PhD programs, if even that—need people who can teach how to develop new methods; however, lots of places (PhD, MA, BA) need people who can teach how to use methods, and I find it hard to believe that either you need to be a hardcore pioneering methodologist to do that, or that everyone who does a good job with that is situated just where they want to be.

Now, I’d agree that it’s hard to move the pioneering methodologists, but that’s because there are only a dozen or so of them anyway and they by and large have the cushy jobs. But I’m not sure the best use of their time is teaching PhD students in a non-top-tier program where many of the students are coming in with no undergrad stats or research design at all, which is the reality outside the elite programs that already have these folks.