Transcript Institutional Culture and the Academic Job Search Prepared for the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching Melora Sundt, Associate Dean USC Rossier School of Education February.

Institutional Culture and the
Academic Job Search
Prepared for the USC Center for Excellence in
Teaching
Melora Sundt, Associate Dean
USC Rossier School of Education
February 1, 2005
Agenda
• Where colleges come from
• Enduring characteristics
• Enduring divides
– Research vs. liberal arts
– Teaching/research/service
• Public vs private: California as an example
Main Points
• Mission impacts culture which impacts
funding, rewards, priorities
• Some characteristics of culture transcend
a specific institution – they are historical
artifacts
• Matching your strengths/ambitions to the
culture of an institution can accelerate
your career, increase your sense of job
satisfaction
Traditional College Culture
• Two historical forces:
– Research/scholarship --German research universities
(plays out in state colleges and research universities)
– Collaboration/quasi-political activity – Colonial, from
British universities (Bergquist, 1992) (remnants in
liberal arts colleges)
• “Encourages diversity of perspective and relative
autonomy of work” (Bergquist, 1992)
• “Loosely coupled” (Birnbaum, 1988)
Little connection historically
between k-12 and college
• “Elementary school”
– Students aged 5-10
– Rudimentary math/reading to be able to engage in
commerce and read the Bible (Bergquist, 1992)
• College
– Students aged 17-22
– Preparation for clergy
• College preparatory schools
– Created to fill the gap between elementary and
college
– Precursors to middle and high schools
Characteristics of US Higher
Education
•
•
•
•
•
Diversity of institutional types
Access
Diversity of mission
Decentralized control
History of philanthropy benefiting these
institutions
How these forces play now
• Key shift in 1950s/1960s
– Sputnik
– Emphasis on research, contributing to field
• Bergquist argues that most faculty now
were prepared then – when research
dominated the emphasis
• Research university model dominates our
assumptions about faculty role/culture
Rosovsky on type
Liberal arts college
• Looking for pedagogical
strength: inspiring, creative
• Likely to have small intimate
classes
• Smaller communities:
– personality matters
– Tends to be less diverse
– Less depth/range of coverage
• Strength in communicating
material at elementary and
intermediate levels
Research university
• 33% spend 20+ hours/week on
research (Clark)
• Status/advancement hinges
more on research productivity
• Characteristically a more
impersonal, detached
faculty/atmosphere
• Tend to be more diverse
• Expected to be producers of
new knowledge
The role of the undergraduate
curriculum
• The emphasis on liberal studies (carryover
from the British model)
– Focus on improving the mind not vocational
aspirations
– Can one major in business?
– Who teaches the gateway courses?
– What is being “student centered?”
• Proportion of undergraduates
California Master Plan
• Delineates the mission and roles of all
public colleges/universities
– UC: primary research institutions; exclusive
right to award doctoral degree; top 8%
– CSU: primary focus is undergraduate and
master’s level education; research ok if
focused on teaching mission; top 33%
– Community colleges: lower division,
vocational, non-credit, ESL, remedial; ability
to benefit
Fundamental Job Responsibilities
• Teaching
• Research
• Service
How mission translates into work
expectations
UC
CSU
CC
AY Course
load
4
8
12
Research
expectations
Central to getting
tenure
Publications and
grants
Work with doctoral
student RAs
No independent
doctoral program
(no doctoral RAs);
Research ok if
aligns with teaching
mission
No upper division
No grad students
No expectation
Service
expectations
Undefined;
typically one
committee
developing and implementing
curriculum and related
assessment procedures,
student advising, building
relations with the business and
professional
community, and participating in
University service.
Department meetings;
advisory committee
meetings; curriculum
development; faculty
evaluation, college-wide
committees
Status in higher education
• How does a US university rise in rank and
prestige?
– Money (gifts and grants)
– Faculty reputation (Rosovsky calls it “faculty
excellence”), derived from:
•
•
•
•
•
Grant money
Publications
Appointments to prestigious boards
Addresses at prestigious events
press
Understanding governance
• The single leader: the president
– Early college presidents taught the final
undergrad course, knew all students, lived
on/near the campus, rarely left; viewed faculty
as hired help.
• The role of a board of regents/trustees
• Appointed vs elected leaders – impact on
leadership/decision making
Locating culture
What is:
• Celebrated
• Rewarded
How decisions are made
Dress
Address
Communication/socializing patterns
What happens to newcomers?
• Faculty identity/loyalty tends to favor the
discipline rather than the institution
• Communities generate “local patriotism”
about their institutions
• Most common new faculty complaint:
loneliness and under-stimulation (Boice,
1992)
When new faculty arrive
• Some campuses use new hires to change the
culture (improve teaching, strengthen research)
– Cluster hires
• Evidence of resulting cultural clashes
– Senior faculty exclude new faculty in decision making
– Senior faculty complain about new faculty’s national
visibility vs local relevance
– Senior faculty show “undisguised disdain” for new
faculty’s research
– Senior faculty complain that new faculty teach
courses that are too narrow (Boice, 1992)
How the old characteristics of
culture play out for new faculty
• Research model dominates = detached,
independent faculty
“Now that I’m here, no one pays much attention to
me. That’s disappointing, I suppose, but I should
have known that this would happen. The other
people in the department have their own
business to take care of. I wish this were a
happier place, one where we took more interest
in what each other teachers.”
Boice (1992) Interview mid-first-semester with new hire
Boice’s antidote to culture
• IRSS strategy
– Involvement
• Getting to know colleagues/students
• Developing a sense of membership
• Ex: grant writing with others; joining the campus fitness center
– Regimen
• Task management – apportioning your time (balance)
• Ex: no more than 2 hours prep per 1 hour in class
– Self-control
• Focus
• Correctly identifying the problem/solution
• No negative self-talk
– Social networks
• Engage them; treat them as just as important as writing
• Ex: invite others to guest lecture and reciprocate
Conclusions
• Mission impacts culture which impacts
funding, rewards, priorities
• Some characteristics of culture transcend
a specific institution – they are historical
artifacts
• Matching your strengths/ambitions to the
culture of an institution can accelerate
your career, increase your sense of job
satisfaction