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Balancing Global and Local Trends with Cities and Higher Education

A significant focus of my recent research has considered the interactions between higher education and cities. I am increasingly convinced that the role of higher education within cities will be a dominant trend for the next century. Social, political, economic, and demographic changes all suggest that the importance of the city-university relationship. Over the next three posts, I’m going to be sharing excerpts from my recently published Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research chapter that my coauthor, Karri Holley, and I wrote examining the role of higher education in cities. In today’s post, I will share a section on balancing global and local trends with cities and higher education.

Photo credit: UAB

Evidence of the growth of the knowledge economy can be seen in a move from economies driven by the production and distribution of goods to those driven by information exchange and the high-level provision of services (Kasarda, 1988).

The 20th century economic mainstays of manufacturing, warehouses, and retail have largely disappeared, replaced by white-collar jobs requiring postsecondary training.

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Understanding the different types of colleges and universities

There are many different types of college and universities in the United States. Too often, we discuss higher education through the prism of selective and research institutions. Yet, we know that these types of institutions aren’t the norm, but instead are a very small percentage of all colleges and universities. In today’s post, I want to share the different criteria that can be used to identify differences between institutions. Understanding the different types of colleges and universities is important for graduate students and really anyone involved in higher education.

Photo credit: Eric Chan

The range of institutions present in the U.S. system of higher education is considered a major strength.

As I’ve discussed here as well as my monograph on the subject, institutional diversity is profoundly important for higher education to meet the multiple and, at times, conflicting goals placed on the system.

But how do we tell institutions apart?  What criteria and characteristics are most useful to consider?

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Missouri fires controversial professor. Were they right?

The fallout from the protests on the racial environment at the University of Missouri continues. The university has fired Melissa Click, an assistant professor in communications. Click was videoed calling for “muscle” to help remove a student reporter and became a lightning rod for critics of the protesters. After voting to fire her, the board acknowledged the process used to terminate Click was not typical. This seems to be the only point where everyone agrees. Today, I want to tackle the question of whether they were right to fire her.

Photo credit: Mark Schierbecker/AP Images

To begin, I find Professor Click’s behavior disappointing and reprehensible. I don’t know her, but I have colleagues that I can see being a part of the protest and even responding in similar ways.

I don’t consider that part of my role as a faculty member. It doesn’t mean that I’m right and she’s wrong— necessarily. We just view our roles differently.

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Practitioners need to learn scholarly writing

My entire career has been spent teaching and working with graduate students who are also practitioners. I’ve worked with college presidents and vice presidents far along in their careers as well as new master’s students just starting theirs. During this time, I’ve had many conversations with colleagues and students regarding how to best prepare practitioners in practice not focusing on research . Common questions include the necessity of theory, teaching technical skills, and the value of case studies for offering a glimpse into “real life.” One of the most common questions that come up in these discussions is the role of scholarly writing. Do students need to write a dissertation? What should that look like for practitioners versus future scholars? Should class assignments mirror real life problems or the abstract world of scholarship. In today’s post, I want to explain why I think practitioners need to learn scholarly writing.

Photo credit: A. Birkan Caghan

Scholarly writing is hard. It is easy to say some students can do it and other can’t. This simply isn’t true.

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Designing environments to encourage student learning

We do a notoriously poor job teaching graduate students how to teach. Graduate programs devote tremendous energy into delivering content knowledge while pedagogy is all but ignored. Yet, we know that many graduate students will be teaching whether in undergraduate classes or in other professional settings. Content knowledge is vital, yet it is not the only component needed when teaching. In addition, one needs to understand how to design environments to encourage student learning and how to work with students. In today’s post, I will focus on designing positive learning environments.

Photo credit: planzeichnen

Teaching is hard work. It often doesn’t come easy and requires effort to improve.