Departmental Prestige and Career Mobility Patterns of College Physical Educators

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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the prestige of physical education graduate departments where faculty obtained their doctorates and the prestige of physical education graduate departments where faculty are now employed. Based on previous research in other academic disciplines, it was expected that graduates from the most prestigious departments tend to be employed at the most prestigious institutions; that their proportion declines as the institutional prestige of the doctoral granting institution declines; and that the institutional inbreeding of doctoral graduates in physical education will be the highest among the most prestigious institutions. Subjects (N = 795) were regular resident faculty with earned doctorates who were employed at any one of the 58 highest physical education doctoral degree producing institutions. A multiple regression analysis revealed a significant relationship (.01) between prestige of doctoral granting department and prestige of employing department. Data indicated that faculty positions at institutions ranking in the top 20 were available almost exclusively to graduates from the top 20, and that the higher the prestige of a department the greater the inbreeding of the faculty. Findings clearly supported the “sponsored” model of career mobility patterns rather than the “contest” model.