Books > Social sciences > Education > Philosophy of education
|
Buy Now
Marginal Worth - Teaching and the Academic Labor Market (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,371
Discovery Miles 13 710
|
|
Marginal Worth - Teaching and the Academic Labor Market (Paperback)
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
In the American university system for most of this century, the
academic reward system has been blamed for both the neglect of
teaching and a glut of uninspiring research. The salaries for
faculty at institutions that place special emphasis on teaching are
lower than those for faculty at institutions where both teaching
and research are expected. In Marginal Worth, Lionel S. Lewis
examines the contemporary academic labor market to explain why
teaching which is almost universally acknowledged both off and on
campus to be at the center of the American educational experience
is not at the center of the academic labor market, and why it is
only modestly rewarded. The evidence collected and analyzed by
Lewis suggests that this is the case because teaching is not a
particularly productive activity, and its quality is hard to
measure. Teaching does not generate automatic prestige, most
students do not learn a great deal, and in many instances other
matters absorb the attention of faculty. Fifteen anonymous academic
administrators and faculty members from around the country provided
Lewis with the many letters, reports, and other documents he used
in his analysis. By examining the material justifying merit salary
awards, he reveals how merit is defined in academia. The focus of
the letters is on teaching, research, administration, and service;
teaching is not always seen as central to the academic role. For
several years and from all sides, American institutions of higher
learning have been called to account for a variety of failures.
Significantly, the one indictment most often heard is that
classrooms have been abandoned for laboratories and libraries,
where faculty pursue interests to further their careers. Lewis
argues that restoring the balance between teaching and research is
too simple a solution to the problem. We need to better understand
how disciplinary and institutional reward structures affect
teaching, how and why faculty allocate their tune, and why teaching
appears to be neglected and underappreciated. Lewis applies tenets
of the neoclassical labor market model to the academy, and
considers what might be done to strike a better balance between
expectations and circumstances in the academic marketplace. This
candid look into the political economy of higher education will be
enlightening reading for all concerned with the future of American
higher education: professors, administrators, students, and
parents.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.