Over the past century, higher education in the United States has developed an increasingly powerful corporate ethos, as institutions compete for students, faculty, and funding. This book examines how the liberal democratic principles driving higher education often conflict with market pressures to credential students and offer knowledge that has a clear exchange value. Eric Gould, who has been both academician and college administrator, argues that the failure to structure the curriculum so that it integrates responsible social idealism and humanism with economic and cultural needs constitutes the moral crisis of the university. Gould analyzes the economics and politics of higher education, showing how student consumerism, culture wars, faculty alienation, trustee activism, and a split between the concepts of "culture" and "society" have all resulted from the unholy alliance between pragmatism, corporatism, and liberalism in higher education. He asserts that what is needed is a general education for undergraduates that promotes the ability to critique power relations (including those within higher education) so that students can understand how social forces--and their embodiment of ideas, ideologies, and claims for truth--shape contemporary public philosophy.

Academic Culture introduces students to the demands of university study in a clear and accessible way, and helps them understand what is expected of them. Chapters equip students with the skills to recognise opinions, positions and bias in academic texts from a range of genres, think critically, develop their own 'voice', and refer to others' ideas in an appropriate way. Having established a foundation for successful university study, the final part provides guidance on approaching different forms of academic writing, including essays, reports, reflective assignments and exam papers. Featuring helpful 'word lists', examples, 'think about this' reflective prompts and 'skills practice' activities in each chapter, this bestselling book is an essential resource for all students new to university-level study. New to this Edition: - Contains three new chapters on reflective writing, writing lab reports, and writing in exams - Features additional material on paraphrasing and summarizing - Includes a new section on creating and maintaining an e-portfolio - New 'think about this' feature

Never before have so many scholars produced so much work--and never before have they seemed to have so little to say to one another, or to the public at large. This is the dilemma of the modern university, which today sets the pattern for virtually all scholarship. In his eloquent book, David Damrosch offers a lucid, often troubling assessment of the state of scholarship in our academic institutions, a look at how these institutions acquired their present complexion, and a proposal for reforms that can promote scholarly communication and so, perhaps, broader, more relevant scholarship. We Scholars explores an academic culture in which disciplines are vigorously isolated and then further divided into specialized fields, making for a heady mix of scholarly alienation and disciplinary territorialism, a wealth of specialized inquiry and a poverty of general discussion. This pattern, however, is not necessary and immutable; rather, it stems from decisions made a century ago, when the American university assumed its modern form. Damrosch traces the political and economic assumptions behind these decisions and reveals their persisting effects on academic structures despite dramatic changes in the larger society. We Scholars makes a compelling case for a scholarly community more reflective of and attuned to today's needs. The author's call for cooperation as the basis for intellectual endeavor, both within and outside the academy, will resonate for anyone concerned with the present complexities and future possibilities of academic work.

Not long ago, it was understood that universities and culture were intimately related. However, to a large extent, that understanding has faded. Culture and the University confronts this situation. Written by three leading scholars of higher education and the philosophy of higher education, the book opens the debate about the cultural purpose of universities and higher education. The authors argue that the university should be and can be an institution of culture, of great cultural significance in the digital age, and exercise cultural leadership in society. This wide-ranging and polemic text addresses a range of subjects including environmentalism, citizenship, post-truth, the ethical implications of technology and feminist philosophy. The authors build on the work of key philosophers of the university from Aristotle, Nietzsche and Heidegger to Donna Haraway, Terry Eagleton and Martha C. Nussbaum to conceive of an entirely modern vision of the university. This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the future of higher education and the university.

In a masterly commentary on the possibilities of education, Bruner reveals how education can usher children into their culture, though it often fails to do so. Bruner looks past the issue of achieving individual competence to the question of how education equips individuals to participate in the culture on which life and livelihood depend.

The results of a collaborative research project by the Critical Theory Institute at the University of California, Irvine, this collection explores the role that scholars and universities play in shaping and defining culture, and how teaching and research institutions are changing in response to international movements and social forces. 7 photos.

Tracing the roots of the modern American University in German philosophy and in the work of British thinkers such as Newman and Arnold, Bill Readings argues that the integrity of the modern University has been linked to the nation-state, which it has served by promoting and protecting the idea of a national culture. But now the nation-state is in decline, and national culture no longer needs to be either promoted or protected.

At a time in American history when football ruled the American campus and fraternities dominated student life, Frank Aydelotte, through his determination to specialize exclusively in initiating an Honors program of study, accomplished a feat virtually unknown in American higher education. That is, he succeeded in shaping one regional, run of the mill, Quaker school - Swarthmore College - into an intellectually-charged, academically-focused institution able to command national respectability, prestige, and financial support and commit itself to intellectual life at a time when higher education in the United States met with pressures against such change. Under Aydelotte’s leadership, Swarthmore was able to hold out in a period of tremendous expansion of higher education and staggering growth of intercollegiate athletics, “student activities,” and vocational education. While oxymoronic in the early 20th century to suggest to mainstream America that a college would define itself by a commitment to the life of the mind, Aydelotte did just that, indelibly shaping the culture of Swarthmore in a manner so deep-seated as to persist to the present day. The ways in which Swarthmore changed as a college under Aydelotte’s leadership shed light on how change occurs and persists in higher education and how change on a single campus can bring about wide-spread educational reform that affects a nation. Frank Aydelotte returned from his time in England as a Rhodes Scholar fully committed to affording to America’s highest achieving college students the educational experiences that had shaped him while abroad. A complicated combination of idealism and elitism, mixed with a deep reformer’s drive to spread the Oxford gospel in America, led to his focus on pedagogy when he returned to the US. Aydelotte undertook concrete and highly strategic steps toward the long-term goal of introducing to American higher education Oxford-like methods aimed at empowering intellectually-oriented students to excel far beyond the barriers present in American education that resulted from high achievers being held back by the “pace of the average.” This mission became his personal crusade for the rest of his life and played out most vividly on the campus of tiny Swarthmore College where he served as president from 1921 to 1940.

This composite picture of the present-day South is a far cry from the traditional South of sentimental novels. The symposium, including chapters by thirty-one economists, sociologists, educators, artists, and writers, is the most comprehensive, revealing, and authentic picture of the South yet published. Originally published in 1934. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Publikace si klade za cíl kulturní analýzu univerzitního prostředí, přičemž jejím hlavním analytickým nástrojem je pojem „mýtus“. Autoři chápou mýtus jako kulturní jev spojující současnost akademické sféry s minulostí a jako archetyp ve smyslu psychologie Carla Gustava Junga. Mýtus je podle autorů pevně vázán na symboly, rituály, hierarchické znaky a tradice nejrůznějšího druhu. Kniha představuje americkému a západoevropskému čtenáři univerzitní kulturu vlastní tzv. humboldtovskému okruhu akademické tradice, přičemž v centru pozornosti stojí prostředí českého vysokého školství ve srovnání se situací v Německu, Polsku, Rakousku a dalších zemích. Významným aspektem je proto charakteristika středoevropských univerzit, které prošly ve 20. století diskontinuitním vývojem. Specifikem knihy je preference náhledu akademické kultury převážně z pozice ne-metropolitních vysokých škol vzniklých v 19. a 20. století. Autoři pojali svou knihu historicky, ale nebrání se významným aktualizacím. Zajímá je zejména rozpor mezi humboldtovským ideálem a „akademickým kapitalismem“, hledání univerzitní jednoty v rámci diverzifikačních tlaků, tendence k oslabování univerzitních svobod a různé podoby univerzitní samosprávy. Autoři se pokouší svou publikací vyvolat debatu nejen v historických kruzích, ale také u zájemců napříč univerzitní komunitou._x000D_ _x000D_