[610] in magellan
TP Msg. #300 THE PURPOSE AND MISSION OF HIGHER EDUCATION
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Greg Anderson)
Wed Mar 14 10:56:09 2001
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Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 10:58:35 -0500
From: Greg Anderson <ganderso@MIT.EDU>
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FYI,
Interesting piece from Stanford's newsletter, "Tomorrow's Professor".
Greg
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Folks:
The excerpt below looks at the purpose and mission of higher
education and the barriers to a broader acceptance of the scholarship
of teaching and service. It is taken from Chapter 1 of: Colleges
and Universities as Citizens, edited by Robert G. Bringle, Richard
Games, and Edward A. Malloy. (Also the authors of Chapter 1).
Copyright (c) 1999 by Allyn and Bacon A Viacom Company, Needham
Heights, MA 02494 [http://vig.abacon.com/] Reprinted with permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu
UP NEXT: Managing Conflict Between Deans and Chairs
Tomorrow's Academy
----------------- 1,248 words ------------------
THE PURPOSE AND MISSION OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Chapter 1, Colleges and Universities as Citizens: Issues and
Perspectives, pp 6-9.
Robert G. Bringle
Richard Games,
Edward A. Malloy
THE PURPOSE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Although there are many facets to the purpose and work of higher
education, the clearest manifestation takes place through the work of
faculty. What does the nature of faculty work tell us about higher
education? According to Eugene Rice (1996), the view of what it means
to be a professor is dominated by a set of assumptions that became
firmly rooted in the academy in the post-World War II era. These
assumptions are listed below:
* Research is the central professional endeavor and the focus of
academic life.
* Quality in the profession is maintained by peer review and
professional autonomy.
* Knowledge is pursued for its own sake.
* The pursuit of knowledge is best organized by disciplines and
departments.
* Reputations are established in national and international professional
associations.
* Professional rewards and mobility accrue to those who persistently
accentuate their specialization.
* The distinctive task of the academic professional is the pursuit of
cognitive truth.
These assumptions have shifted the balance of faculty work across the
three areas of scholarship to a preoccupation on research and
discipline-based work, at the expense of teaching and service. Not only
is this picture accurate for the major research universities, but it
also portrays the attitudes and behavior of administrators and faculty
in the other types of institutions. Some have resisted the pressure.
Community colleges and private liberal arts colleges place a heavier
emphasis on teaching than on research, and their reputations are tied to
their success in developing innovative curricular for undergraduates.
However, for institutions that currently place heavy emphasis on either
research or teaching, the contemporary academy is internally fragmented
and compartmentalized through strict divisions created by the
disciplines. The faculty member's work is to conduct research within a
discipline and/or teach a discipline. Votruba (1996) notes that,
although the problem may be clear, the solution is not:
"Disciplines must overcome different languages, different theory bases,
and different ways of viewing the world. On most university campuses,
very few forces promote interdisciplinary work and many inhibit." (p.33)
This discipline-based approach to education has narrowed the focus to
such an extent that students are no longer being well prepared, to be
fully engaged as citizens. Most importantly, however, is that the same
conclusion about faculty work can be reached about colleges and
universities as institutions: The disciplined-based structure, work,
and aspirations of the faculty interfere with campuses being fully
engaged members of their communities, and they are too frequently
isolated from surrounding communities.
Is there a broader purpose to higher education than teaching and
conducting research in the disciplines? Any discussion of the aims of
general or liberal education produces a litany of objectives that
transcends the disciplines. Employers and academicians yearn for
students who are able to integrate knowledge, communicate, collaborate,
display critical thinking, understand other perspectives, and be active
participants in a democratic society. These are appropriate outcomes,
and higher education is well positioned to contribute better than any
other institution to helping the populace attain them. According to
Alexander Astin's analysis in Chapter 3, higher education must
acknowledge that (1) there is an important need for the academic
curriculum to prepare students for democratic life, (2) the academy has
not been particularly effective in teaching this broader set of skills
within a system that is truncated by disciplinary walls, and (3)
fundamental changes must take place in higher education in order for it
to fulfill its potential.
Furthermore, Astin challenges all of those in higher education to accept
the task of educating the under-prepared student, both in terms of
narrowly defined educational outcomes and the broader agenda of
preparing adults for participation in democracy. Astin contends that,
rather than simply blaming the pre-collegiate educational system for
under-prepared students, institutions of higher education need to share
responsibility for under-prepared students. Their culpability includes
their role in teacher preparation, the role they could play in school
reform, and their general isolation from K-12 schools, with the
exception of schools of education. When the academy better understands
and addresses the challenge of the under-prepared student, it will then
become engaged in larger social problems, develop alternative and more
creative pedagogies, and develop a broader educational agenda. Astin
points out that higher education has demonstrated that it has the
knowledge and resources to meet the challenge of the under-prepared
students. In fact, for the subset of student athletes that is
under-prepared, institutions have shown extraordinary skill an
motivation to produce high levels of success. However, this effort has
not been generalized to the needs of the larger group of under-prepared
students who are not athletes.
THE MISSION OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Every college and university has an explicit mission, which has been
adopted by its board of trustees and is vaguely understood by faculty
and students. For most colleges and universities, service is included
with teaching and research as defining the tripartite mission of the
institution. The nature of the mission statement and the degree to
which it guides policy and decisions evolve over time. In Chapter 4,
Barbara Holland argues that examining the nature and role of mission
statements and the discontinuity between mission and practice provides
an opportunity for institutions to engage in critical self-examination.
Her research, which involved case studies of a variety of colleges and
universities, confirms what is widely assumed: Service does not have
equal standing with research and teaching in the work, values,
reputations, or rewards of higher education. In addition, community
service as a professional activity has even lower status than service to
students, institution, and the discipline. Finally, and most
importantly, Holland's research found that some institutions have been
able to change the imbalance and emphasize community engagement as a
coherent aspect not only of service, but also of teaching and research.
It is important to note that the focus for change in Holland's analysis
is the institution. All institutions have some faculty members and
students who are engaged in community outreach. Some institutions also
have made interventions to increase the role of community service in
various aspects of their work (e.g., volunteering). However, only a few
have successfully shown evidence that these interventions have produced
institutional transformations toward engaging campuses as citizens.
Holland's study of higher education identifies two guiding principles
that were common to instances of successful institutional change. The
results support the conclusion that, first, no significant institutional
change occurred in the absence of a discussion and substantial consensus
on institutional mission as an overarching guide for action across all
levels of the institution. Second, she found that involvement of the
community in institutional change was important.
Concerning her first principle, in a survey of 186 colleges and
universities conducted by the American Association of State Colleges and
Universities (AASCU), when asked "What steps has your institution taken
to make its involvement in community service activity more effective?"
the most frequent response referred to placing greater emphasis on
community service in the missions of colleges and universities (American
Association of State Colleges and Universities, 1995). Holland found in
her research that a consensus on mission will be achieved only when
there is a culture of both understanding and trust on the campus. She
provides an informative presentation on the nature of a good mission
statement and how it will be used to change policy, decisions, and
operations. As such, mission becomes more than a nominal element with
little function, but a means through which deliberate reflection and
strategic planning can lead to systemic transformation.
REFERENCES
American Association of State Colleges and Universities. (1995). Urban
community service as AASCU and NASULGC institutions: A report on
conditions and activities. Washington, DC: Author.
Boyer E.L. (1996) The scholarship of engagement. Journal of Public
Service % Outreach, 1(1), 11-20.
Votruba, J.C. (1996). Strengthening the university's alignment with
society: Challenges and strategies. Journal of Public Service and
Outreach, 1(1), 29-36.
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