tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/academics-503/articlesAcademics – The Conversation2023-10-19T12:29:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2046642023-10-19T12:29:21Z2023-10-19T12:29:21ZDual enrollment can save college students time and money − but there’s one risk to avoid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553509/original/file-20231012-29-k05y0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">About a third of U.S. high school students are taking college courses. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenage-school-students-walking-in-hallway-royalty-free-image/1465474376">Solskin/DigitalVision Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a recent talk about <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/secretary-cardona-delivers-keynote-reimagining-college-admissions-summit-equal-opportunity-higher-education">new ways to do college admissions</a>, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona spoke about his own experience taking a college course while still in high school. He was referring to dual enrollment – <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019176.pdf">an increasingly common practice</a> in which <a href="https://nscresearchcenter.org/stay-informed/">high school students take college courses</a>, simultaneously earning high school and college credit.</p>
<p><a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019176.pdf">A 2019 report</a> showed that approximately 88% of U.S. high schools offered dual enrollment and approximately 34% of high school students in the U.S. are taking college courses. That represents an increase from 2010, when <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013001.pdf">82% of high schools offered dual enrollment</a> and <a href="https://www.nacep.org/resource-center/nacep-fast-facts/">approximately 10%</a> of high school students took college courses. </p>
<p>At the state level, there is evidence of dramatic growth. In Indiana, for example, <a href="https://cherp.utah.edu/_resources/documents/publications/research_priorities_for_advancing_equitable_dual_enrollment_policy_and_practice.pdf">60% of high school students</a> graduated with college credit in 2018, up from 39% in 2012. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pI7szcYAAAAJ&hl=en">higher education administrator</a> who has been involved with dual enrollment in Boston’s public schools, I know there is strong evidence that dual enrollment programs <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/EvidenceSnapshot/671">make it more likely</a> that students graduate from high school and earn a college degree. </p>
<h2>How dual enrollment works</h2>
<p>Dual enrollment programs may be known by different names, such as early college, concurrent enrollment, joint enrollment or dual credit programs. One study found the use of <a href="https://download.hlcommission.org/DualCreditinUSHigherEd_2013_INF.pdf">97 different terms</a> nationwide.</p>
<p>The courses are different from Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. While <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019430.pdf">AP and IB courses cover college-level material</a>, dual enrollment courses are college courses. </p>
<p>Students usually take these courses at their high schools, but they can also take them on a college campus, online or at another nearby high school. Some programs provide transportation to college campuses. The courses are offered in partnership with a college or university and taught by faculty from that college. Ideally, courses are offered during the standard high school day. </p>
<h2>Academic and financial benefits</h2>
<p>The North Carolina Career and College Promise dual enrollment program found that students in the program were <a href="https://www.dpi.nc.gov/cte-pathway/download?attachment">2% more likely to graduate</a> from high school and 9% more likely to enroll in college compared with similar students who did not take dual enrollment courses. </p>
<p>Dual enrollment programs also provide a practical way for students and their families to save time and money. Students are able to take college courses for free or at a discounted rate while still in high school instead of paying tuition for the classes during college. The programs often include books, materials and transportation. During the 2017-18 school year, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020125.pdf">78% of dual enrollment programs at public schools</a> received full or partial funding from the school, district or state. Additional funding came from families, students or some other entity such as foundations and donors. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://impactinged.pitt.edu/ojs/ImpactingEd/article/view/251/314">equity gaps exist</a> within dual enrollment programs. Recruitment efforts that do not target equity, a lack of qualified faculty, and certain <a href="https://www.sreb.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/dual_enrollmentcommonissues2021.pdf?1641412140">eligibility requirements</a> – such as minimum GPAs and standardized test scores – create barriers for some students. Even when dual enrollment programs are available at their high school, Black and Hispanic students <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019176.pdf">participate at lower rates</a> than their white and Asian classmates. In addition, students whose parents had earned at least a bachelor’s degree were much more likely to take these courses than students whose parents had not earned a high school diploma.</p>
<h2>Recruitment tool for colleges</h2>
<p>Many colleges have <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2023/05/24/leveling-bottom">experienced declining enrollments as of late</a>, and some experts predict a looming <a href="https://wcet.wiche.edu/frontiers/2023/07/14/college-enrollment-cliffs-shifts-and-lifts/">“enrollment cliff”</a> that some schools won’t survive. Dual enrollment programs can benefit colleges by drawing more students to their campuses, where they often re-enroll after high school. </p>
<p>A recent study found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2023.2182059">60% of 18- and 19-year-old</a> college students took dual enrollment courses at their college while in high school. </p>
<p>For community colleges, high school students in dual enrollment programs now make up <a href="https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/easyblog/what-happened-to-community-college-enrollment-depends-students-age.html">close to 20%</a> of their enrollments. </p>
<p>The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found in 2016 that 75% of colleges offering dual enrollment programs viewed them as an <a href="https://www.luminafoundation.org/files/resources/dual-enrollment-in-the-context-of-strategic-enrollment-management.pdf">important form of recruitment</a>. </p>
<p>However, the increased likelihood that a student will enroll in the college where they took dual enrollment courses in high school has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-021-09643-x">raised concerns about “undermatching</a>.” Undermatching is a phenomenon in which high school students don’t apply to a more selective college or university even though they have the ability. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-021-09643-x">One study</a> found that when dual enrollment students stay at a two-year college where they are undermatched – instead of transferring to a more selective school – they are 33% less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>Still, dual enrollment programs have proven to be both successful and popular in states across the country. If current trends continue, and states <a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/sen-markey-rep-espaillat-announce-legislation-to-expand-dual-enrollment-early-college-programs">such as Massachusetts</a> continue to push for increased funding for dual enrollment, programs will continue to grow in high schools, on college campuses and online.</p>
<p>The hope is that growth in dual enrollment will lead to more students graduating from college and being able to get better jobs and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/accounting-for-the-widening-mortality-gap-between-american-adults-with-and-without-a-ba/">live longer, healthier lives</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary L. Churchill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More high school students are taking college courses while still in high school. But equity gaps exist, with Black and Hispanic students participating at lower rates.Mary L. Churchill, Associate Dean of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2081792023-06-25T20:03:59Z2023-06-25T20:03:59Z‘Battered and broken. I must get out’: what staff told us about teaching and working in universities today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533365/original/file-20230622-17212-ffvzjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C32%2C5447%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The current funding crisis in New Zealand universities has not happened in a vacuum. It is a byproduct of the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoliberalism.asp">neoliberal</a> “reforms” introduced here in the 1980s and which have affected every aspect of university work. </p>
<p>Nor is this confined to New Zealand. The stress on corporate capitalism, adoption of business practices, and prioritisation of economic goals over all others has transformed higher education in the western world. </p>
<p>We see this time and again when universities cite financial losses and implement staff cuts. This has many consequences, including the exploitation of <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/saas/29/2/soca13011.xml">unpaid labour</a> by casual staff. Submissions to the Australian <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Job_Security/JobSecurity/Submissions">Senate Select Committee on Job Security</a> suggested underpayment of casual teaching staff in Australian universities is rampant. </p>
<p>The same applies in New Zealand, but the problem is likely worse than we know, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/05/australian-universities-accused-of-entrenched-non-compliance-with-workplace-law-over-staff-underpayment">precarious workers</a> unlikely to complain about their working conditions for fear of compromising future employment prospects. </p>
<p>Full-time staff are struggling too. Intensification of workloads, job insecurity amidst seemingly constant restructures, pressures to obtain competitive external funding, research excellence and student outcome targets, and toxic work environments are all <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1350508419867201">threats to staff wellbeing</a>. </p>
<p>To understand how university workers experience these realities of the modern university, our current project aims to capture their voices and stories. And those stories make for a depressing read. </p>
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<h2>‘Constantly drowning’</h2>
<p>To build empathy and understanding between workers with different experiences – precarious and permanent, faculty and professional staff, workers with disability and so on – we shared their anonymised posts on our open online site, <a href="https://workinginthemodernuniversity.wordpress.com/blog-2/">Working in the Modern University</a>. </p>
<p>In their stories, we hear about how the intensification of casual workloads leads to forced choices between poor quality teaching or working unpaid hours. We hear how staff feel trapped in a cycle of exhaustion, futility, guilt and hopelessness. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/starved-of-funds-and-vision-struggling-universities-put-nzs-entire-research-strategy-at-risk-207708">Starved of funds and vision, struggling universities put NZ’s entire research strategy at risk</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some describe how precarious life has become, either in or on the edge of poverty, constantly managing insecurity for little financial or personal reward. And we hear of people feeling “battered and broken”, of “constantly drowning”, and of feeling complicit in creating a “caricature of education”. </p>
<p>Reading these stories is hard. They speak of increased desperation, grief for a system that could be so much more, and a loss of hope from staff who also see this reflected in their students. </p>
<p>Without rapid and real change, we fear a future where the university’s role of nurturing critical thinkers is vastly diminished. And where research on and with marginalised people and ideas is replaced by sanitised research <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-57909-6">linked to economic priorities</a>.</p>
<p>That would mean the closure of one of the few places left where “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X1515600111">noisy conversations</a>” about democracy and political alternatives can take place. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1663681746414735360"}"></div></p>
<h2>The public good</h2>
<p>The shift to seeing students as customers or clients – on the pathway to becoming “job-ready graduates” – has also <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Richard-Hil-Selling-Students-Short-9781743318898">shifted focus</a> away from developing critical thinking skills and towards vocational training, pastoral care and keeping clients happy. One contributor wrote of:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the reinvention of the university as a place to train people for a capitalist workforce instead of developing their intellectual and creative potential more holistically.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is unfortunate for students, who pay dearly for their education but receive a “<a href="https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/141671?show=full">less than inspiring educational experience</a>”. As another wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Students expect to study full-time and achieve good grades while working full-time because the neoliberal complex implies this is possible. Meanwhile, student-to-teaching-staff ratios grow amidst bulging workloads and […] student feedback on our performance can make or break us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Knowledge is affected too. Staff are often on the receiving end of student complaints when topic material is complex or grades don’t match expectations. This deters teaching that challenges, develops critical thinking, or requires student engagement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-campus-numbers-plummeting-due-to-online-learning-do-we-need-two-categories-of-university-degree-208172">With campus numbers plummeting due to online learning, do we need two categories of university degree?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Similarly, research priorities have shifted. Universities no longer prioritise academics using their expertise to innovate and investigate for the public good. Instead, they are pressured to pursue externally-funded research, tailored to suit the appetite of a government or prevailing public opinion. </p>
<p>We have also seen a rise of the “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/anti.12502">subcontract model</a>”, where “lead” researchers no longer create the research products they “sell”, but rely on casual and fixed-term research assistants who are often <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539503001638">under-acknowledged</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-resigned-from-the-arc-college-of-experts-after-minister-vetoed-research-grants-175925">Why we resigned from the ARC College of Experts after minister vetoed research grants</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Funding for critical thinking</h2>
<p>We need to see a return to the idea of funding education as a public good in and of itself (granted, a radical idea under neoliberalism). Alongside this we need to separate education from current culture wars and recognise the value of arts, humanities and social sciences.</p>
<p>It’s no accident that the focus of frequent cuts by corporate-minded universities is on disciplines that teach critical thinking skills. While this may be partly due to declining student numbers, there’s certainly a case to be made that it reflects government priorities and rhetoric around “<a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/368436/universities-face-a-crisis-of-the-humanities">instrumentalised</a>” education.</p>
<p>And we need <a href="https://theconversation.com/starved-of-funds-and-vision-struggling-universities-put-nzs-entire-research-strategy-at-risk-207708">proper funding</a> for research that isn’t tied to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-resigned-from-the-arc-college-of-experts-after-minister-vetoed-research-grants-175925">government policy or ideology</a>. </p>
<p>Academics are not short of ideas about the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/good-university-9781350359833/">future of higher education</a>, from the practical to the idealistic. The proliferation of books, papers and conferences on the subject <a href="https://blogs.flinders.edu.au/southgate-institute-news/2020/11/23/public-universities-do-they-have-a-future/">attests to this</a>. Universities would do well to heed their own experts on this critical issue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stuff cuts are just the most visible aspect of critical problems within the modern university, as a new survey of academic workers reveals.Nik Taylor, Professor in Sociology, University of CanterburyZoei Sutton, Lecturer in Sociology, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2073942023-06-21T12:05:26Z2023-06-21T12:05:26ZAnnouncing The Conversation’s new investigative unit – we’re looking for collaborators in academia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532145/original/file-20230615-27-m4cp5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kurt Eichenwald, left, The Conversation's investigative editor, and Georgia State professor David Maimon working.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today we published our <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/investigations/mailbox-robberies-drop-accounts-checkwashing-fraud-gangs-of-fullz">first story</a> from The Conversation’s investigative unit, a significant expansion of our mission to ensure expert knowledge reaches the widest public audience possible.</p>
<p>Our incredible editorial team already works with academics every day to publish research news and explanatory journalism. These stories cover topics from space to politics to the economy to the environment. And because our content is free for all to read and republish, it reaches about 18 million people each month thanks to our partnerships with hundreds of news outlets. </p>
<p>But two things have happened since The Conversation started in the U.S. over eight years ago. First, our editing team has taken stock of the deep investigative research so many academics do. Often those research projects are in the public interest – but never reach a broad audience. Second, investigative journalism across the country has declined precipitously as news outlets consolidate, close and lay off experienced – and expensive – watchdog reporters.</p>
<p>Academics have deep knowledge of complex topics. They bring rigorous methodologies and peer-reviewed research to their specialties that even the best reporters at most media outlets do not possess. They’re focused on a wide range of topics that today’s smaller newsrooms are not staffed to cover and may not even be aware of. </p>
<p>Journalists know how to find a narrative and ethically talk to real people, and they have the platform and editing ability to reach the public at large.
Bringing academics and journalists together can help stem the decline of
important beat and investigative journalism nationally – but also locally. This is particularly true in specialized beats like genetics and business that increasingly intersect with people’s lives but have scant attention from the media. </p>
<p>Certainly, this is not a brand-new idea. Top-rate news outlets have sometimes used academics in more rigorous ways than merely quoting them in stories. Yet those efforts have mostly been one-offs and not scaled, because it would take a bridge between academia and journalism to make it happen. We believe The Conversation is that bridge.</p>
<p>Thanks to support from Arnold Ventures, we have been able to make this a reality. We have hired <a href="https://kurteichenwald.com/">Kurt Eichenwald</a> as our inaugural senior investigative editor. Kurt is a New York Times bestselling author of six nonfiction books and a longtime investigative reporter at The New York Times and several other national outlets.</p>
<p>Here is what Kurt wrote about how our first investigation was conducted: </p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/investigations/mailbox-robberies-drop-accounts-checkwashing-fraud-gangs-of-fullz">investigation Heists Worth Billions</a> is a collaboration between The Conversation U.S. and <a href="https://ebcs.gsu.edu/">Georgia State University’s Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group</a>, directed by professor <a href="https://ebcs.gsu.edu/profile/david-maimon-2/">David Maimon</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The research group develops techniques to improve cybersecurity by studying online criminal networks and observing underground markets. Two years ago, Maimon and his team <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cybercriminals-turn-paper-checks-stolen-from-mailboxes-into-bitcoin-173796">saw a large number of stolen checks</a> flooding those markets. They then noticed the marketing of drop accounts – bank accounts created by using fictitious identities that money is “dropped” into – that can be used for check fraud. Criminals rapidly figured out that an array of frauds could be facilitated by drop accounts, and markets exploded with the necessary tools and instructions to perpetrate those scams</em>.</p>
<p><em>Building on the research group’s work, The Conversation investigated gangs who relied on, purchased or sold drop accounts, identities, checks and other materials to perpetrate their criminal activities. We reviewed thousands of pages of court records and government documents, obtained transcripts of wiretaps and other official investigative material, bank documents, and online communications between co-conspirators. In addition, we interviewed officials in law enforcement, government and the banking industry. And, to better understand how these crimes were committed, we also spoke with reformed fraudsters and hackers who had previously participated in drop account schemes.</em> </p>
<p><em>The investigation by Maimon’s group and The Conversation provides an unprecedented look into a vast, secret enterprise that has long stayed hidden in the darkest reaches of the internet, and it exposed the huge scale of financial losses suffered by the public because of this crime wave.</em></p>
<p>Expanding our partnerships with academics to include investigative topics
is a natural evolution for The Conversation and a way for us to have a deeper impact than through the daily journalism we excel at. </p>
<p>And we want ideas. If you are an academic with an idea, please email <a href="mailto:investigations@theconversation.com">investigations@theconversation.com</a>. If you are a journalist with an idea that would benefit from data sets or deep academic knowledge, drop us a line. </p>
<p>This effort is new and experimental, and it comes with challenges. But given the deep knowledge locked in academia – and the talent of journalists to humanize data and research – I am convinced that the public will benefit from these collaborations.</p>
<p>We’d love to hear from you.</p>
<hr>
<p></p><div style="float:right;width:205px;">
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us/investigations/mailbox-robberies-drop-accounts-checkwashing-fraud-gangs-of-fullz"><img alt="Graphic showing a masked criminal on a stamp and saying 'Heists worth billions'" class="ls-is-cached lazyloaded" data-src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532510/original/file-20230618-28-hh0pox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=200&fit=clip" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532510/original/file-20230618-28-hh0pox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=200&fit=clip"></a></div>
<em>This article relates to <strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/investigations/mailbox-robberies-drop-accounts-checkwashing-fraud-gangs-of-fullz">Heists Worth Billions</a></strong>, an investigation from The Conversation that found criminal gangs using sham bank accounts and secret online marketplaces to steal from almost anyone – and uncovered just how little being done to combat the fraud.</em><p></p>
<p>• <strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-drop-account-fraud-tips-from-our-investigative-unit-206840">How to protect yourself from drop account fraud – tips from our investigative unit</a>.</strong></p>
<p>• <strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-the-scenes-of-the-investigation-heists-worth-billions-207158">Behind the scenes of the investigation</a></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Why The Conversation U.S. started an investigative unit.Beth Daley, Executive Editor and General ManagerLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2060462023-05-30T12:23:40Z2023-05-30T12:23:40ZWhat it takes to become a spelling bee champ<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528633/original/file-20230526-19-805x46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C23%2C5119%2C3369&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Study groups and quizzes can help, but one studying technique stands out above the rest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mixed-race-girl-wearing-number-on-stage-royalty-free-image/82149516?phrase=+spelling+bee&adppopup=true">Hill Street Studios / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whenever the <a href="https://spellingbee.com/">Scripps National Spelling Bee</a> takes place, parents and children may wonder: What does it take to become a champion? Is it worth the effort?</p>
<p>As just about any former Scripps champion could tell you, the contest – which is set to take place May 31 to June 1 this year – involves <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/us/spelling-their-way-to-success.html">a fair amount of luck</a>, so preparation does not guarantee a victory. There’s simply no way a contestant can know which word awaits them from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. But if young people <a href="https://syamantakpayra.com/assets/uploads/papers/payra_2016.pdf">find enjoyment</a> in learning how to spell words, as well as understanding the origins and meanings of these words, then they will feel proud of what they accomplished.</p>
<p>Still, as I state in my book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479831142/hyper-education/">Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough</a>,” there are certain practices that can greatly boost a child’s chances of becoming an excellent speller. I observed these practices among families who assist their children in competitive academics.</p>
<h2>1. Invest in study materials</h2>
<p>Rather than just open the dictionary, contestants study word lists, including the 4,000 words in the <a href="https://spellingbee.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/2022%20Words%20of%20the%20Champions.pdf">free official study guide provided</a> by Scripps. Some parents create their own word lists based on observing past bees. </p>
<p>But to the extent possible, competitive spellers, including several <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/05/the-scripps-national-spelling-bee-how-8-kids-won/590782/">previous Scripps National Spelling Bee winners</a>, have purchased special <a href="https://spellpundit.com/#wordlists">word lists</a> to gain a competitive edge. These word lists, which may come in the form of computer software programs or printed booklets, are not easy for everyone to afford. The 2021 champion, Zaila Avant-garde, said her family <a href="https://time.com/6080654/zaila-avant-garde-spelling-bee-equality/">“had a little bit of trouble</a>” coming up with the money to purchase a popular online resource, which at the time cost $600.</p>
<p>Beyond purchasing supplemental materials, hiring a coach has become <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-national-spelling-bees-new-normal-200-an-hour-teen-spelling-coaches/2017/05/30/cc8eb8de-4228-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html">the new normal</a>. These coaches, who are often former spelling bee contestants or teachers, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-national-spelling-bees-new-normal-200-an-hour-teen-spelling-coaches/2017/05/30/cc8eb8de-4228-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html">charge between $50 to over $200 an hour</a>. Some coaches work with students one on one <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/16/733158499/a-spelling-bee-coach-on-how-to-spell-success">on a weekly basis all year</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Practice independently</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl reads a dictionary as she lies on the floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528644/original/file-20230526-27-5d0ns6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528644/original/file-20230526-27-5d0ns6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528644/original/file-20230526-27-5d0ns6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528644/original/file-20230526-27-5d0ns6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528644/original/file-20230526-27-5d0ns6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528644/original/file-20230526-27-5d0ns6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528644/original/file-20230526-27-5d0ns6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deliberate practice is one of the most effective ways to improve spelling bee performance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-girl-reading-the-dictionary-royalty-free-image/97437921?phrase=kids+dictionary&adppopup=true">Alexandra Grablewski via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Students must commit to learning the word lists primarily through studying by themselves. Research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550610385872">deliberate practice</a> – that is, studying and memorizing words while alone – is a better predictor of performance in the national spelling bee than being quizzed by others or reading for pleasure. All of the students I met recounted studying in their rooms or at libraries or school. The daily ritual of studying also helps youths build up the stamina of spelling needed on the competitive stage. </p>
<h2>3. Make studying a family affair</h2>
<p>While studying alone is essential for adequate preparation, families should be prepared to accompany their contestant on this journey. I observed one mother and daughter who studied word lists at the kitchen table for three hours a day – every day – as they prepared for the competition.</p>
<p>Other families would make a game out of studying, with homemade placards and grown-ups playing the role of announcer. Another family would frequently watch “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437800/">Akeelah and the Bee</a>” – a movie about a young girl from Los Angeles who tries to make it to the national spelling bee – as a way to keep their daughter motivated.</p>
<p>A former champion shared that when her family went to an Italian restaurant, her father would use it as an occasion to practice words of Italian origin, such as chardonnay, rigatoni and spaghetti. The daughter would write the words on the paper menu, which she then brought home as a study guide and kept for years as memorabilia. All of these activities help the child know that they are not in this alone.</p>
<h2>4. Form study groups</h2>
<p>Another way young spellers make connections in this process is through online study groups. This can be done whether they are classmates in the same school or contestants living across the country. Youths can quiz one another, share strategies or make up study games. Having a sense of connection can deepen their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0162353213480432">passion for learning</a> and further their motivation to stick with it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle school-aged boy with headphones looks at a laptop screen. He is smiling and writing in a notebook." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528661/original/file-20230526-17-spcgfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528661/original/file-20230526-17-spcgfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528661/original/file-20230526-17-spcgfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528661/original/file-20230526-17-spcgfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528661/original/file-20230526-17-spcgfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528661/original/file-20230526-17-spcgfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528661/original/file-20230526-17-spcgfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Forming online study groups can help keep kids engaged.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/asaian-child-boy-kid-taking-an-e-learning-learning-royalty-free-image/1393146298?phrase=online+study+middle+school&adppopup=true">travelism via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The same camaraderie that children form in these study groups can be seen on stage during the Scripps National Spelling Bee itself. It’s not uncommon for contestants to give each other high-fives after spelling a word correctly. There is less of an “us versus them” mentality that characterizes other competitive sports because students compete not against one another but against the dictionary. </p>
<h2>5. Read a lot</h2>
<p>When I investigated why students got interested in spelling, just about all of them mentioned their love of reading. They also listed reading as their favorite hobby. Reading cannot substitute for deliberate practice, but it forms the foundation for why students fell in love with words in the first place.</p>
<p>Students benefit when they learn to become active readers. This involves looking up words they do not understand, paying attention to the use of words in sentences and, of course, focusing on their spelling. </p>
<p>With all this being said, it’s important for families – and the contestants themselves – to pay attention to how they are feeling about the preparation. What parts do they enjoy the most? Is spelling practice taking up all their time to socialize or enjoy other interests and hobbies?</p>
<p>Burning out on a single competition isn’t worth it if it undermines a student’s passion for learning. Families should pay attention to when it’s time to tone down the studying and relax or let other interests rise to the surface. Parents of champions – and even champions themselves – routinely told me that their biggest benefit from the spelling bee was a heightened sense of responsibility and confidence. No trophy can match that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pawan Dhingra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The road to becoming a champion speller is made easier with support from family and friends, but ultimately it depends on an individual student’s commitment to learning, a scholar writes.Pawan Dhingra, Associate Provost and Professor of American Studies, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2006612023-03-01T06:14:12Z2023-03-01T06:14:12ZChatGPT: how to prevent it becoming a nightmare for professional writers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512653/original/file-20230228-1747-i2un5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'ChatGPT, please give me a 1,000 word article on how to stop you from making workplaces worse.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/technology-cyberspace-programming-concept-portrait-young-1901761405">Ground Picture</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nearly half of white-collar professionals have tried using ChatGPT to help with their work, according to a <a href="https://www.fishbowlapp.com/insights/70-percent-of-workers-using-chatgpt-at-work-are-not-telling-their-boss/">recent survey</a> of more than 10,000 people at blue chips such as Google, JP Morgan and McKinsey. That’s staggering, considering the AI chatbot was only released to the public in November. It’s potentially very exciting for the future of work, but it also brings serious risks. </p>
<p>ChatGPT and other <a href="https://theconversation.com/googles-search-business-doesnt-have-to-be-killed-by-ai-chatbots-heres-the-ugly-workaround-199801">imminent rivals</a> are part of a <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Printing_Press_as_an_Agent_of_Change/WR1eajpBG9cC?hl=en&gbpv=0">long history</a> of technologies geared to reducing the labour of writing. These range from the printing press to the telegram, the typewriter, word processors and personal computing.</p>
<p>AI chatbots can help overcome human limitations, including speed, foreign languages and writer’s block – potentially helping with <a href="https://digiday.com/marketing/what-we-know-about-how-workers-are-using-chatgpt-so-far/">everything from</a> writing emails to reports and articles to marketing campaigns. It’s a fascinating <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-36181-5">trans-human relationship</a> in which the AI uses past human-produced texts to inform and shape the writing of new texts by other humans. </p>
<p>Jobs involving significant amounts of writing will inevitably be affected most, such as journalists, academic researchers and policy analysts. In all cases, AI chatbots could allow for new knowledge and ideas to be disseminated more rapidly. Certainly it could lead to weaker, less useful writing, but if used to create a structure that is thoroughly edited by the writer using their own original ideas, it could be very beneficial. </p>
<p>Also, some people have a competitive advantage at writing not because their ideas are better but because they are just faster. This is often because they are writing in their first language, due to nothing more than historical coincidence. AI chatbots could therefore help make writing more inclusive and accessible. </p>
<h2>Downsides</h2>
<p>On the other hand, there are worries that ChatGPT and its competitors could steal many people’s jobs, especially in traditional white collar professions, though it’s very difficult to say at this stage how many people will be affected. For example Mihir Shukla, CEO and founder of California-based software company Automation Anywhere, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-chatbot-artificial-intelligence-job-replacement/">thinks that</a> “anywhere from 15% to 70% of all the work we do in front of the computer could be automated”. On the other hand a recent <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2021/03/job-loss-automation-robots-predictions.html">McKinsey report</a> suggests that only about 9% of people will have to change careers. Even so, that’s a lot of people. Lower to mid-level employees are likely to be the ones most affected. </p>
<p>Linked to possible job losses is the danger that employers will use these technologies to justify cost savings <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/11/automation-doesnt-just-create-or-destroy-jobs-it-transforms-them">by making</a> existing workers use these tools “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230217-how-shrinking-teams-are-pushing-workers-to-the-brink">to do more with less</a>”. Employers have historically used labour-saving devices to <a href="https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/features/when-all-that-we-count-becomes-all-that-counts-hr-at-the-heart-of-the-productivity-shift">maximise productivity</a>, making people work harder, not smarter or better. Computers and emails, for example, have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726721996763">made work never-ending</a> for many people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man checking his email at night" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512652/original/file-20230228-155-a1aime.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Whatever happened to the leisure age?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bearded-businessman-wearing-white-shirt-working-394279666">SFIO CRACHO</a></span>
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<p>Employees could now therefore end up being pressured to produce more work. Yet this risks missing the real leap in productivity that AI could bring about. If used correctly, AI chatbots could free up employees to have more time to produce high-quality, original work. </p>
<p>There are additionally concerns about the <a href="https://mashable.com/article/chat-gpt-open-ai-workers-exploitation">human cost</a> of creating AI chatbots. Kenyan workers, for instance, <a href="https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/">were paid</a> between US$1 and US$2 (80 pence to £1.60) per hour to train OpenAI’s GPT-3 model, on which ChatGPT is based. Their brief was to make it less toxic by labelling thousands of samples of potentially offensive text so that the platform could learn to detect violent, racist and sexist language. This was so traumatic for the workers that the <a href="https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/">contractor nearly</a> brought the project to an early end. Unfortunately, there’s likely to be much more of this kind of work to come. </p>
<p>Finally, AI chatbots raise fascinating <a href="https://patentgrasp.com/can-chat-gpt-be-patent-protected/">intellectual property</a> issues. In particular, it’s not clear <a href="https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=71298ed8-482e-446d-8b45-148d517ddeda">who owns</a> the work they produce. This could make it harder for companies or freelancers to protect their own output, while also potentially exposing them to copyright infringement claims from someone who owned the writing that seems to have been reproduced by the AI chatbot. It’s a complex area and it very much <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2022/12/21/who-ultimately-owns-content-generated-by-chatgpt-and-other-ai-platforms/?sh=55686b415423">remains to be seen</a> by courts will handle test cases. </p>
<p>It also raises questions about situations where the ownership of a piece of work is already in a grey area. While an employer will often own an employee’s written work, this has not traditionally been the case with university academics. Now, however, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nm0402-325">universities are</a> seeking to use their power as employers to often be the first owners of academics’ published research. If they succeed, they could then put pressure on academics to use AI chatbots to increase their level of research output. </p>
<h2>Worker-friendly AI?</h2>
<p>One way of dealing with the dangers of heavier workloads is through <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/research/events-courses/WCMS_857701/lang--en/index.htm">regulation</a>. At this stage, however we worry that the authorities will <a href="https://www.socialeurope.eu/artificial-intelligence-and-workers-rights">set more of</a> an aspirational “ceiling” for what employers should aim to do for employees rather than a clearly regulated and enforced “floor” for ensuring decent work. </p>
<p>We must start developing basic standards to limit the potential for exploiting workers. This could include caps on the amount of AI-assisted written work that companies can expect of individuals, for instance. There’s clearly also an important role for raising employers’ awareness about the potential harms and benefits from these technologies. </p>
<p>It’s also important to recognise that the dangers are being aggravated by companies’ focus on maximising profits and productivity. This points to the need for more alternative work environments where the emphasis is on providing workers with a good quality of life. The OECD has for instance been promoting the “<a href="https://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/social-economy/">social economy</a>”, which encompasses worker and community-owned cooperatives. In such workplaces, tools such as ChatGPT have the potential to be more beneficial than threatening. </p>
<p>The good news is that there is probably a narrow window before these technologies transform workplaces. We tried using ChatGPT to write this article and didn’t find it particularly useful – though that may partly reflect our own inexperience at prompting the chatbot. Now is the time to recognise where this is heading and get the world up to speed. A year or two from now, workplaces could look very different.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Journalists, policymakers and academics are among those whose worlds could be turned upside down by AI chatbots.Peter Bloom, Professor of Management, University of EssexPasi Ahonen, Senior Lecturer in Management and Marketing, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984632023-01-30T19:22:57Z2023-01-30T19:22:57ZUnlike with academics and reporters, you can’t check when ChatGPT’s telling the truth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506273/original/file-20230125-18-6yb4mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C5736%2C3790&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Being able to verify how information is produced is important, especially for academics and journalists.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/unlike-with-academics-and-reporters--you-can-t-check-when-chatgpt-s-telling-the-truth" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Of all the reactions elicited by ChatGPT, the chatbot from the American for-profit company OpenAI that produces grammatically correct responses to natural-language queries, few have matched those of educators and academics.</p>
<p>Academic publishers have moved <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/26/science-journals-ban-listing-of-chatgpt-as-co-author-on-papers">to ban ChatGPT from being listed as a co-author and issue strict guidelines outlining the conditions under which it may be used</a>. Leading universities and schools around the world, from France’s renowned <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/top-french-university-bans-use-chatgpt-prevent-plagiarism-2023-01-27/">Sciences Po</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/10/universities-to-return-to-pen-and-paper-exams-after-students-caught-using-ai-to-write-essays">many Australian universities</a>, have banned its use. </p>
<p>These bans are not merely the actions of academics who are worried they won’t be able to catch cheaters. This is not just about catching students who copied a source without attribution. Rather, the severity of these actions reflects a question, one that is not getting enough attention in the endless coverage of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot: Why should we trust anything that it outputs?</p>
<p>This is a vitally important question, as ChatGPT and programs like it can easily be used, with or without acknowledgement, in the information sources that comprise the foundation of our society, especially academia and the news media.</p>
<p>Based on my work on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003008309">political</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14540-8">economy</a> of <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781442666221/copyfight/">knowledge governance</a>, academic bans on ChatGPT’s use are a proportionate reaction to the threat ChatGPT poses to our entire information ecosystem. Journalists and academics should be wary of using ChatGPT. </p>
<p>Based on its output, ChatGPT might seem like just another information source or tool. However, in reality, ChatGPT — or, rather the means by which ChatGPT produces its output — is <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/articles/chatgpt-strikes-at-the-heart-of-the-scientific-world-view/">a dagger aimed directly at their very credibility as authoritative sources of knowledge</a>. It should not be taken lightly.</p>
<h2>Trust and information</h2>
<p>Think about why we see some information sources or types of knowledge as more trusted than others. Since <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Enlightenment-European-history">the European Enlightenment</a>, we’ve tended to equate scientific knowledge with knowledge in general. </p>
<p>Science is more than laboratory research: it’s a way of thinking that prioritizes empirically based evidence and the pursuit of transparent methods regarding evidence collection and evaluation. And it tends to be the gold standard by which all knowledge is judged.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-and-the-future-of-work-5-experts-on-what-chatgpt-dall-e-and-other-ai-tools-mean-for-artists-and-knowledge-workers-196783">AI and the future of work: 5 experts on what ChatGPT, DALL-E and other AI tools mean for artists and knowledge workers</a>
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<p>For example, journalists have credibility because they investigate information, cite sources and provide evidence. Even though sometimes the reporting may contain errors or omissions, that doesn’t change the profession’s authority.</p>
<p>The same goes for opinion editorial writers, especially academics and other experts because they — we — draw our authority from our status as experts in a subject. Expertise involves a command of the sources that are recognized as comprising legitimate knowledge in our fields. </p>
<p>Most op-eds aren’t citation-heavy, but responsible academics will be able to point you to the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/states-and-markets-9781474236935/">thinkers</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jinfopoli.7.2017.0176">the work</a> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/12390/the-social-construction-of-reality-by-peter-l-berger/">they’re</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776">drawing</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878">on</a>. And those sources themselves are built on verifiable sources that a reader should be able to verify for themselves.</p>
<h2>Truth and outputs</h2>
<p>Because human writers and ChatGPT seem to be producing the same output — sentences and paragraphs — it’s understandable that some people may mistakenly confer this scientifically sourced authority onto ChatGPT’s output. </p>
<p>That both ChatGPT and reporters produce sentences is where the similarity ends. What’s most important — the source of authority — is not <em>what</em> they produce, but <em>how</em> they produce it.</p>
<p>ChatGPT doesn’t produce sentences in the same way a reporter does. ChatGPT, and other machine-learning, large language models, may seem sophisticated, but they’re basically just complex autocomplete machines. Only instead of suggesting the next word in an email, they produce the most statistically likely words in much longer packages. </p>
<p>These programs repackage others’ work as if it were something new. It does not “understand” what it produces. </p>
<p>The justification for these outputs can never be truth. Its truth is the truth of the correlation, that the word “sentence” should always complete the phrase “We finish each other’s …” because it is the most common occurrence, not because it is expressing anything that has been observed.</p>
<p>Because ChatGPT’s truth is only a statistical truth, output produced by this program cannot ever be trusted in the same way that we can trust a reporter or an academic’s output. It cannot be verified because it has been constructed to create output in a different way than what we usually think of as being “scientific.” </p>
<p>You can’t check ChatGPT’s sources because the source is the statistical fact that most of the time, a set of words tend to follow each other.</p>
<p>No matter how coherent ChatGPT’s output may seem, simply publishing what it produces is still the equivalent of letting autocomplete run wild. It’s an irresponsible practice because it pretends that these statistical tricks are equivalent to well-sourced and verified knowledge.</p>
<p>Similarly, academics and others who incorporate ChatGPT into their workflow run the existential risk of kicking the entire edifice of scientific knowledge out from underneath themselves. </p>
<p>Because ChatGPT’s output is correlation-based, how does the writer know that it is accurate? Did they verify it against actual sources, or does the output simply conform to their personal prejudices? And if they’re experts in their field, why are they using ChatGPT in the first place?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man gives a lecture while reading from two laptop screens" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506942/original/file-20230129-36877-sutezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Academics have authority on their subject of expertise because there exists a scientific and evidence-based method to verify their work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Knowledge production and verification</h2>
<p>The point is that ChatGPT’s processes give us no way to verify its truthfulness. In contrast, that reporters and academics have a scientific, evidence-based method of producing knowledge serves to validate their work, even if the results might go against our preconceived notions.</p>
<p>The problem is especially acute for academics, given our central role in creating knowledge. Relying on ChatGPT to write even part of a column means they’re no longer relying on the scientific authority embedded in verified sources. </p>
<p>Instead, by resorting to statistically generated text, they are effectively making an argument from authority. Such actions also mislead the reader, because the reader can’t distinguish between text by an author and an AI.</p>
<p>ChatGPT may produce seemingly legible knowledge, as if by magic. But we would be well advised not to mistake its output for actual, scientific knowledge. One should never confuse coherence with understanding.</p>
<p>ChatGPT promises easy access to new and existing knowledge, but it is a poisoned chalice. Readers, academics and reporters beware.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198463/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blayne Haggart receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is a Senior Fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).</span></em></p>ChatGPT is a sophisticated AI program that generates text from vast databases. But it doesn’t understand the information it produces, which also can’t be verified through scientific means.Blayne Haggart, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975522023-01-16T13:45:20Z2023-01-16T13:45:20ZNigeria’s university system needs radical reform: student loans for more than 100 million people might be a good place to start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504407/original/file-20230113-15-rju7ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There should be a rethink of Nigeria's public university system. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dozens-of-students-packing-out-of-the-campus-of-the-lagos-news-photo/52021181?phrase=university%20students%20in%20nigeria&adppopup=true">Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amid <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/asuu-set-for-action-over-part-salary-payment/">strikes by Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities</a>, one thing is clear: the current funding model for the country’s public universities is broken. The government’s new <a href="https://von.gov.ng/national-assembly-passes-student-loan-bill/">Higher Education Bill</a> aims to fix it. </p>
<p>Our view, based on over 30 years of working in the academy, including holding positions as university administrators in Nigeria and the UK, is that the bill won’t fix the many problems facing the country’s higher education system. Unless we rethink the whole system, it is unlikely to deliver the change that’s needed.</p>
<p>The biggest challenges facing the higher education sector include financial sustainability and investment, alignment of courses to the specific industrial and societal needs of Nigeria, and support with graduate employability. These need a rethink of the current funding arrangements for the sector. The new bill, with enhanced governance processes, offers the nation an opportunity to deliver a new financing model, with enhanced quality assurance, for the sector.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-universities-can-find-funds-and-produce-job-creators-heres-how-190155">Nigeria's universities can find funds and produce job creators: here's how</a>
</strong>
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</p>
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<p>.</p>
<h2>What’s in the bill, and what’s missing</h2>
<p>First, a summary of what’s in the bill.</p>
<p>It proposes an interest-free student loan for payment of tuition fees at universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and vocational schools established by federal or state governments. Eligibility applies to applicants with an income, or family income, less than N500,000 per annum (US$1,117), qualifying over 133 million Nigerians. Applicants require at least two guarantors. And they must begin repayment two years after completion of their National Youth Service Corps term.</p>
<p>Reasonable enough, maybe. But digging deeper we have uncovered hidden problems.</p>
<p>The first is value for money, or a lack of it. The student loan model in the UK has, at its core, the customer rights of students. This means fee-paying students have the right to question the quality, service and support provided by their university. Credit hours have to be met in full, course content must be delivered to the letter, and course delivery rigorously scrutinised.</p>
<p>In addition, for science and laboratory-related subjects, students are entitled to expect equipment that complements their lectures. Stipulated lab experiments, workshop, studio and field exposures must be met in full. </p>
<p>For the scheme to work in Nigeria, fee-paying students would rightly expect equipment that ensures they get value for the money they have invested. The reality is that such equipment is often inadequate or non-existent in many of Nigeria’s public universities, as is evident from <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/explainer-asuus-demands-and-what-government-has-met/">one of the lecturers’ demands</a>. </p>
<p>In its present form, the bill lacks a governance framework that would support the complaints of fee-paying students. </p>
<p>The Nigerian government must then consider which public body is responsible for setting the expectations and outcomes students should receive from their universities, along with the level of satisfaction they should be entitled to. </p>
<p>The government must consider, too, the types of skills, attributes and employment opportunities students are expected to receive. </p>
<p>Which brings us to the second fundamental problem with this legislation: employability.</p>
<p>Graduate employment is a cardinal principle upon which repayments are premised and structured. There need to be jobs for graduate students to go into before they begin paying back their loan. But with <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1119227/forecast-unemployment-rate-in-nigeria/">unemployment at 33%</a>, there aren’t the jobs for graduates to enter. </p>
<p>Even for those who get work, there ought to be a minimum threshold of income prior to the commencement of repayment. Without such a threshold, future graduates may be abandoned to a vicious cycle of indebtedness.</p>
<p>Further attention should be paid, too, to how the government manages the flow of public money to universities. The bill, for instance, makes no reference to future levels of tuition fees based on inflationary pressures. A cost-sharing mechanism between the government and students, with a cap on tuition fees, would not, in our view, address the funding challenges of the nation’s universities. </p>
<p>Nor does the bill provide the option for universities to provide maintenance grants that cover the living expenses of students. The new government Education Bank, which will manage the distribution of subsidised tuition fees, may be an attempt to solve this. But it is unclear why funding can’t be allocated to public universities without the need for such an intermediary. This isn’t cost effective or value for taxpayer money.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-university-strikes-winners-losers-and-ways-forward-179698">Nigeria's university strikes: winners, losers and ways forward</a>
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<p>.</p>
<h2>Blue-sky thinking</h2>
<p>We believe there should be a rethink of Nigeria’s entire public university system.</p>
<p>For example, what about a free market-style system, driven by supply and demand?</p>
<p>The government would have to remove any cap on tuition fees and allow universities to charge fees that reflect their own values and mission. This would ensure both value for money and future employment opportunities. </p>
<p>Under this scenario public universities would be fully commercialised. Students would demand more of their universities, which would drive improvements in student support, teaching practices and employability. New contracts for staff employed at universities would be struck, and new management hired, ending union strikes. </p>
<p>But such an approach would sound a death knell for the provision of public university education, one of the directives of state policy enshrined in the country’s constitution. And because of that it would be unworkable.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Nigeria can’t duck the need to find a way to balance value for money and employability, with demand for a public university education.</p>
<h2>Where to next?</h2>
<p>Nigeria needs a model that combines the public university concept with a cost-sharing mechanism that involves government, universities and students.</p>
<p>A good starting point would be to adjust the bill. It needs a governance framework which addresses the problems we have identified. In exchange for government funding, universities should improve their teaching and support to match student expectations, align academic courses and research to the needs of the national economy, work closely with the public and private sectors, and provide evidence of value for money.</p>
<p>These changes should be considered as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the current public university model.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In its present form, the new Higher Education Bill lacks a governance framework that addresses the complaints of fee-paying students.David Mba, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise), University of the Arts LondonVal Ekechukwu, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of NigeriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880502022-10-14T12:17:06Z2022-10-14T12:17:06ZDoes tutoring work? An education economist examines the evidence on whether it’s effective<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489239/original/file-20221011-11-b2kzti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C27%2C3639%2C2395&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tutoring works best when it's built into the school day.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teacher-reading-with-a-student-royalty-free-image/642634764?phrase=tutoring&adppopup=true">FatCamera via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>With reading and math scores <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/09/01/1120510251/reading-math-test-scores-pandemic">plummeting during the pandemic</a>, educators and parents are now turning their attention to how kids can catch up. In the following Q&A, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RUtLWRcAAAAJ&hl=en">Susanna Loeb</a>, an education economist at Brown University, shines a light on the best ways to use tutoring to help students get back on track.</em></p>
<h2>1. How much money is spent on tutoring in the US each year?</h2>
<p>Billions of dollars are spent each year on tutoring in the U.S. This was true <a href="https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/private-tutoring-market-104753">even before the pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>The private tutoring market – made up largely of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/many-parents-want-it-few-can-afford-it-amid-school-n1233977">parents who can afford to hire tutors</a> for their children – was <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/07/15/2263310/0/en/Global-Private-Tutoring-Market-to-Reach-201-8-Billion-by-206.html">estimated at US$24.9 billion</a> in 2021.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1105970186/pandemic-learning-loss-findings">many students struggling</a> as a result of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/children8121134">disruptions from the pandemic</a>, spending on tutoring is <a href="https://www.reportlinker.com/p05377685/Private-Tutoring-Market-in-the-US.html">expected to grow</a>. Much of this growth will be driven by wealthy families who <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wealthy-families-stick-with-full-time-tutors-hired-early-in-pandemic-11662543002">hired tutors during the pandemic and plan to keep them</a>. This extra help is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0276562412000054?via%3Dihub">likely to worsen the gaps</a> in academic achievement between students from upper-middle-class families and those from families who are poor.</p>
<p>School districts also invest in tutoring for their students. This means special sessions outside of their regular classes. Many districts, such as <a href="https://catalog.results4america.org/case-studies/high-dosage-tutoring-chicago">Chicago Public Schools</a> and those partnering with <a href="https://readingandmath.org/programs/reading-corps/">Reading Corps</a>, <a href="https://www.aarp.org/experience-corps/">Experience Corps</a> and others, provided tutoring before the pandemic. With new funding through the <a href="https://oese.ed.gov/offices/education-stabilization-fund/elementary-secondary-school-emergency-relief-fund/">Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund</a>, district investment in tutoring is also growing. Of the <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/standing-committees/education/cares-act-elementary-and-secondary-school-emergency-relief-fund-tracker.aspx">nearly $200 billion</a> in these emergency relief funds available, $22 billion must be spent to help kids catch up using interventions that are proved to work. High-impact tutoring qualifies as one of those interventions.</p>
<h2>2. What kind of difference does it make?</h2>
<p>It depends, because not all of the approaches are effective.</p>
<p>During the era of No Child Left Behind – the federal education law that sought to get <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/10/11/354931351/it-s-2014-all-children-are-supposed-to-be-proficient-under-federal-law">all children proficient in reading and math</a> by the year 2014 – parents of children in failing schools could sign them up for tutoring outside of school <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-06-758">at the school district’s expense</a>.</p>
<p>But it didn’t really work. Research shows that <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED508259">only 23% of eligible students</a> participated. And for those students, the average effect was <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED508259">close to zero</a>. When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act replaced No Child Left Behind in 2015, it <a href="https://studentsupportaccelerator.com/funding-tutoring-programs">did not require tutoring to be offered</a> to students in failing schools, although schools can still spend on tutoring if they choose.</p>
<p>Not all tutoring is effective. Research shows that for tutoring to be effective – or what I refer to as <a href="https://studentsupportaccelerator.com/sites/default/files/Presentation%20-%20What%20is%20High-Impact%20Tutoring.pdf">high-impact tutoring</a> – there are several critical elements. <a href="https://doi.org/10.26300/qf76-rj21">They include</a> small groups, meaning no more than three students. Tutoring also works best when it is <a href="https://studentsupportaccelerator.com/district-playbook/section-4/scheduling-sessions">embedded in the school day</a>, such as during homeroom or as an elective, occurs with a consistent tutor and takes place for at least 30 minutes at least three days a week. And it involves using student assessment data so that the tutor knows where to focus instructional time.</p>
<p>In fact, this type of small-group, relationship-based, data-informed, intensive tutoring embedded in the school day has been shown to have a <a href="https://doi.org/10.26300/qf76-rj21">larger positive effect</a> on student learning than any other academic intervention, such as reducing class sizes or sending teachers to professional development. <a href="https://studentsupportaccelerator.com/research/to-date">A large body of rigorous research</a> shows that tutoring can help students who are behind catch up by as much as half a school year to a full school year.</p>
<h2>3. Does tutoring work online?</h2>
<p>New studies from <a href="https://www.esade.edu/ecpol/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Working_paper_Menttores.pdf">Spain</a> and <a href="https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai21-350">Italy</a> find that virtual tutoring can be effective. Like in-person tutoring, virtual tutoring connects students to a consistent tutor. They just meet online instead of in person.</p>
<p>Potential for online tutoring broadens opportunities for students in rural districts. It does the same for those who need tutoring in subjects for which it is harder to find teachers, such as math.</p>
<h2>4. How can parents get free tutoring for their kids?</h2>
<p>The most effective way for parents to get free tutoring for their children is through their school. Tutoring programs offered through their child’s school offer a number of benefits for students, schools and parents. Students who attend tutoring as part of their regular school education either during or immediately before or after school are shown to have <a href="https://doi.org/10.26300/qf76-rj21">higher attendance rates</a>, which leads to better outcomes, such as <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/attendancedata/chapter1a.asp">stronger math and reading achievement</a>.</p>
<p>When tutoring is offered through the school, it enables the child’s teacher and tutor to collaborate on ways to help the child progress. </p>
<p>However, not all schools offer high-impact tutoring. Some states such as <a href="https://boardofed.idaho.gov/empowering-parents-program/">Idaho</a>, <a href="https://www.in.gov/doe/about/news/indiana-department-of-education-launches-statewide-math-and-englishlanguage-arts-tutoring-grant-program-for-indiana-families/">Indiana</a> and <a href="https://go2tutors.com/new-hampshire-tutoring-grants-unused/">New Hampshire</a> offer grants to parents that can be spent on tutoring. But in those cases, the parent must register and transport their child to take advantage of this opportunity.</p>
<p>Other states and districts offer opt-in tutoring or tutoring that is available at a convenient time, or homework help options. While there is value in this type of tutoring, <a href="https://www.edworkingpapers.com/index.php/ai22-654">recent research</a> shows that this type of tutoring – which is reliant on the student to ask for help – often does not reach those students most in need, and therefore likely will not show the same learning growth that high-impact tutoring does.</p>
<p>If educators want to reap the benefits of tutoring, research shows it should be high-impact tutoring that is built into the schools over the long run. Anything else will be less effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susanna Loeb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Billions of dollars are being spent on tutoring in the US. Will it be enough to help schoolchildren make up for pandemic learning loss? An education economist weighs in.Susanna Loeb, Director of the Annenberg Institute and Professor of Education, Brown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1896752022-09-15T13:19:55Z2022-09-15T13:19:55ZRemoving author fees can help open access journals make research available to everyone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483777/original/file-20220909-7447-on5881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C6000%2C3952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Open access journals make peer-reviewed research available to anyone interested.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Open access (OA) journals are academic, peer-reviewed journals that are free and available for anyone to read without paying subscription fees. To make up for lost subscription revenue, many journals instead charge author fees to researchers who wish to publish in them. These fees can reach <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2264">thousands of dollars per article</a>, paid out of publicly funded research grants. </p>
<p>This costs <a href="https://doi.org/10.29173/cais1262">Canadians millions of dollars annually</a>, and lines the pockets of major publishers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502">whose profit margins rival those of Pfizer</a>. However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4558704">thousands of OA journals don’t charge author fees</a>, proving that publishing in open access journals doesn’t have to be this expensive.</p>
<p>I work as an academic librarian at McGill University, serving as an on-campus expert on open access publishing. According to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/jep.153">research conducted by myself and a colleague</a>, Canada is home to <a href="https://doi.org/10.7939/DVN/EPSJJR">nearly 300 no-fee, open access journals</a>. This is important, as author fees serve as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00157">barrier for many researchers to make their work available for anyone interested</a>. </p>
<h2>Cost of publishing</h2>
<p>Typical costs of publishing an academic journal include salaries for copy editors, typesetters and translators, and fees for technical infrastructure such as web hosting and submission systems. There are also costs associated with running non-OA journals, such as managing paywalls, subscription payment systems and salaries for sales personnel. </p>
<p>Publishing a journal requires money, <a href="https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.27468.2">but that amounts to only 10 to 15 per cent of what publishers charge authors to make their work open access</a>. Author fees are disproportionate with publishing costs, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00016">correlate to the journal’s prestige</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4119/unibi/2931061">impact</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22673">profit model</a>. </p>
<p>In this environment, <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/06/04/the-gold-rush-why-open-access-will-boost-publisher-profits/">author fees will continue to increase so long as someone can pay for it</a>. It also means that open access publishing privileges a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00091">certain set of researchers</a>. </p>
<h2>A case study</h2>
<p>McGill University Library supports a no-fee, OA science journal called <em><a href="https://seismica.library.mcgill.ca/">Seismica</a></em>, which publishes peer-reviewed research in seismology and earthquake science. <em>Seismica</em> represents an alternative to rising author fees, such as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/madhukarpai/2020/11/30/how-prestige-journals-remain-elite-exclusive-and-exclusionary/"><em>Nature</em>‘s controversial</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf8491">$10,000+ open access author fee</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1331609521236680704"}"></div></p>
<p>A community of nearly 50 researchers and international scientists make up <a href="https://seismica.library.mcgill.ca/about/editorialTeam"><em>Seismica</em>’s editorial team</a>. McGill Library covers the technical costs for <em>Seismica</em>, including <a href="https://www.doi.org/index.html">DOI registration</a>, preservation, web hosting and management of the manuscript submission platform. </p>
<p>Volunteer labour provided by the <em>Seismica</em> team handles the journal’s operations: soliciting reviewers, reviewing submissions and publishing accepted manuscripts. The journal is also responsible for creating its own author guidelines, updating its website and promoting itself. <em>Seismica</em> provides authors with preformatted templates to reduce time spent on layout and production.</p>
<p>McGill Library is one of many Canadian libraries supporting journals in this manner. Of the nearly 300, no-fee OA Canadian journals we researched, 90 per cent were supported in some way by academic libraries. </p>
<h2>Community value</h2>
<p>Journals aren’t simply about publishing papers; to be successful, they must be recognized and valued by the community. At <em>Seismica</em>, significant effort and resources have gone into <a href="https://doi.org/10.31223/X5304V">grassroots community building</a>. In a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3999612/">publish-or-perish culture</a>, launching a new journal isn’t enough — it must be valued and respond to its community’s needs in order to attract submissions. </p>
<p>Editors and peer reviewers contribute their time to journals as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1600-0498.12290">part of their service to their profession</a>. Some researchers and editors are dissatisfied with providing volunteer labour to publishing companies producing millions of dollars in profits. No-fee, scholar-led journals provide an attractive alternative; this has certainly been a <a href="https://doi.org/10.31223/X5304V">motivating factor for the editorial team at <em>Seismica</em></a>.</p>
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<p><em>Seismica</em> is unique as a no-fee, OA science journal. Our research identified that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/jep.153">Canadian STEM journals were nearly 40 per cent less likely to be open access than journals in other disciplines</a>. This is also true globally. One study found that humanities and social sciences journals represented <a href="https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.277">60 per cent of no-fee, OA journals</a>, compared to 22 per cent in science and 17 per cent in medicine. </p>
<p>Furthermore, science and medicine journals make up the majority of fee-charging, OA journals. This is likely because these journals were early adopters of the author-fee model; researchers publishing in them also had larger grants available to pay these fees. </p>
<h2>Future publishing models</h2>
<p>As author fees charged by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10280">big publishers skyrocket</a>, libraries, universities and funding agencies should encourage alternative publishing models. No-fee, OA journals can serve this need, but can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1990">precarious</a> and require <a href="https://www.scienceeurope.org/our-resources/action-plan-for-diamond-open-access/">support</a>. </p>
<p>Canada, for example, has a <a href="https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/scholarly_journals-revues_savantes-eng.aspx">grant to support journals in the social sciences and humanities</a>, but no such grant exists at the federal level for science and medical journals. Canada has also been a leader in launching a <a href="http://partnership.erudit.org/principles">cooperative funding model for open access journals</a>. </p>
<p>The focus here, too, has been on arts and humanities and social sciences. Canadian libraries, universities, funding agencies and nonprofit publishers should continue working together to ensure a sustainable, affordable publishing system for all disciplines.</p>
<p>Author fees limit affordable open access for researchers, particularly those without grant funding. Supporting no-fee OA journals is one way forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Lange received funding from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) - Research in Librarianship grant. </span></em></p>Some open access journals — those that don’t charge their readers a fee — require that researchers pay to publish with them. Removing author fees helps more researchers to publish their work.Jessica Lange, Scholarly Communications Librarian, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1866232022-09-06T12:37:48Z2022-09-06T12:37:48ZPurpose and gratitude boost academic engagement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480130/original/file-20220819-3730-qjuiuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C10%2C6659%2C4456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students who are career-driven tend to do better academically.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-female-student-studying-in-classroom-royalty-free-image/1339976961?adppopup=true">Morsa Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>When it comes to academic success for college students, having a sense of purpose and gratitude makes a significant difference. That’s what I found in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251221100415">peer-reviewed study</a> published in June 2022 in the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice.</p>
<p>For the study, I analyzed answers provided by 295 undergraduates to questions about whether they did better academically if they had a sense of purpose and gratitude during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>I wondered if students were more likely to be academically engaged – and less likely to suffer academic burnout – if they had a strong sense of purpose. I specifically asked about three types of purpose: self-growth, others-growth and career-focused purpose orientations. I also wanted to know if being grateful for positive experiences made a difference.</p>
<p>I defined academic engagement as a motivational mindset that is characterized by students’ enthusiasm for school-related activities. I also looked at three types of academic burnout: devaluation of schoolwork, reduced sense of accomplishment and mental exhaustion. </p>
<p>I found that only one type of purpose was directly relevant to engagement and burnout - career-focused purpose. When undergraduate students connect their life purpose with career aspirations, they tend to be engaged in their academic studies. They are also less likely to devalue their schoolwork or feel unaccomplished in their studies.</p>
<p>I also found that gratitude was just as important. These findings suggest that the more grateful undergraduate students feel, the more they are engaged in their academic work and the more they feel accomplished and value schoolwork. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>This study adds to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09729-w">growing body</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-021-09517-9">research</a> that suggests having a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2018.0045">deep sense</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251221076828">life purpose</a> is important for people’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2022.2116469">well-being</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845320946398">success</a> and ability to cope with challenging life situations. </p>
<p>My study suggests that university advisers and faculty should recognize the role that sense of purpose plays for student success. They should also engage in practices that foster students’ sense of life purpose. For example, faculty members can use assignments to encourage students to reflect on their life purpose and connect it with their future career aspirations.</p>
<p>Fostering gratitude is also important. This is because gratitude is also associated with greater academic engagement and less burnout among undergraduate students. My study also suggests that it benefits students if they are given opportunities to reflect on things in life for which they are grateful. Such opportunities can be incorporated into first-year experience courses or incoming student orientations. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Since this study was conducted when participants had few, if any, opportunities to help others due to COVID19 restrictions, I wonder if others-growth and self-growth types of purpose will be more relevant to academic success once these restrictions are eased.</p>
<p>I also wonder whether classroom activities aimed at connecting life purpose with students’ future careers will lead to higher graduation rates.</p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>As part of <a href="https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/why-the-csu-matters/graduation-initiative-2025/What-Is-Graduation-Initiative-2025">Graduation Initiative 2025</a> – an initiative is meant to increase graduation rates and close gaps in the rates of graduation between different groups – my colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MeQjuuzQqhIC&hl=en&oi=ao">Gitima Sharma</a> and I created an undergraduate course, titled “Fostering Sense of Purpose.” Our preliminary data showed that students who took this course in spring of 2022 reported a strengthened sense of life purpose. We plan to continue to examine how effective the course is at fostering sense of purpose in life. We also plan to look at whether the course leads to lasting positive effects for students’ academic and career success, such as higher graduation rates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mariya Yukhymenko does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>College students who are focused on career goals and personal growth – and growth for others – tend to fare better academically, new research finds.Mariya Yukhymenko, Associate Professor of Research and Statistics, California State University, FresnoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1863032022-07-07T19:52:22Z2022-07-07T19:52:22ZFor many NZ scholars, the old career paths are broken. Our survey shows the reality for this new ‘academic precariat’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472895/original/file-20220706-24-4ioit1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5391%2C3597&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As in many Western countries, New Zealand’s universities have become increasingly reliant on casual and temporary employees to run classes and undertake research. The situation is becoming critical, both for young academics themselves and for the country in general. </p>
<p>The problem has been recognised in <a href="https://www.oecd.org/publications/reducing-the-precarity-of-academic-research-careers-0f8bd468-en.htm">a recent OECD report</a> as affecting the well-being of individual researchers and undermining national capacity to undertake vital research “necessary to address urgent societal challenges”.</p>
<p>The New Zealand government has also recognised the issue, acknowledging recently in its <a href="https://www.mbie.govt.nz/have-your-say/future-pathways/">Te Ara Paerangi – Future Pathways</a> green paper that “early career researchers are particularly vulnerable to career uncertainty and precarity”. Submissions on this and related issues are now being reviewed.</p>
<p>But focusing only on early career researchers (ECRs) creates a false separation between teaching and research, given our Education and Training Act stipulates the former should be informed by the latter. </p>
<p>In turn, this implies the system is comfortable with students being taught by workers on precarious, short-term contracts, with little professional development or hope of career progression.</p>
<p>Our report, <a href="https://auckland.figshare.com/articles/report/Elephant_In_The_Room_Precarious_Work_In_New_Zealand_Universities/19243626">Elephant in the Room: Precarious Work in New Zealand Universities</a>, is based on a survey of 760 academics on fixed-term or casual contracts (including both postgraduate students and those with PhDs) across New Zealand’s eight universities. It shows the majority are stitching together a mix of short-term research and teaching contracts in an attempt to make ends meet. </p>
<p>Rather than being called “early career researchers”, we argue the term “academic precariat” better reflects the reality of a highly skilled workforce defined by insecure, short-term contracts, coupled with a sense of disposability and marginalisation. </p>
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<h2>A two-tier system emerges</h2>
<p>The traditional (but never formalised) ECR model is based on two years spent on a single fixed-term, postdoctoral research position, before a move to a permanent lecturer post.</p>
<p>Due to underfunding and the increasing corporatisation of university management structures, however, both postdoctoral and permanent lecturer posts are increasingly rare in New Zealand, particularly outside the “STEM” subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). </p>
<p>The introduction of the Performance-Based Research Fund (<a href="https://www.tec.govt.nz/funding/funding-and-performance/funding/fund-finder/performance-based-research-fund/">PBRF</a>) in 2003, which provides 20% of funding for universities based on assessments of individual staff members research performance, has also contributed to an increase in the use of precarious contracts. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-black-hole-of-global-university-rankings-rediscovering-the-true-value-of-knowledge-and-ideas-140236">Beyond the black hole of global university rankings: rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas</a>
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<p>This is because casual or short-term contractors reduce the teaching burden on PBRF-assessed staff, so the latter can focus on their research outputs. This has seen the emergence of a two-tier system where permanent academic staff effectively have their careers sustained by an army of casualised academic workers.</p>
<p>Rather than this being a short-term hardship, the two-tiered system has translated into academics spending years – sometimes entire careers – cycling through contracts that leave them with no security and little autonomy or professional development. </p>
<p>At the same time, they are highly vulnerable to changes in student demand or funding from research grants.</p>
<h2>Lack of professional development</h2>
<p>Our survey results show a majority of participants (62%) had been employed on precarious contracts (casual or fixed-term) for more than two years, with nearly a third (28.9%) for more than five years. </p>
<p>A total of 60% also reported their contracts were the most precarious types: either casual, with no guarantee of ongoing work (25%), or a fixed-term of less than six months (35%). Less than a quarter (22%) had contracts lasting 12 months or more. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/where-has-the-joy-of-working-in-australian-universities-gone-184251">Where has the joy of working in Australian universities gone?</a>
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<p>This means they must take on multiple contracts to get by, with nearly half (47.8%) taking on three or more employment agreements in the past 12 months.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, with multiple short-term contracts being the norm, nearly half (44.9%) of all survey participants said they had no access to any form of professional development in their roles. </p>
<p>Only 26.3% of participants had access to performance reviews, 21.4% to peer reviews or mentoring, and just 12.5% to formal role-specific upskilling.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many early career academics work multiple jobs with few professional development opportunities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Precarious and insecure</h2>
<p>We also found some evidence this system reinforces structural racism, echoing <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339802428_The_Pakaru_'Pipeline'_Maori_and_Pasifika_Pathways_within_the_Academy">other research</a> arguing that academic pathways for Māori and Pasifika aren’t working. </p>
<p>In our survey, over three-quarters of both Māori (77.4%) and Pasifika (76.9%) participants were currently enrolled students (compared to 51.9% of the overall sample), taking teaching or research contracts to supplement their studies. </p>
<p>The majority of those students (47.6% of Māori and 57.7% of Pasifika) were enrolled in non-PhD courses (compared with just 25.8% of Pākehā). PhD study is the recognised path into academia, and the need to take on multiple precarious contracts while studying is impeding that path for Māori and Pasifika students.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/maori-and-pasifika-scholars-remain-severely-under-represented-in-new-zealand-universities-122330">Māori and Pasifika scholars remain severely under-represented in New Zealand universities</a>
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<p>Even greater numbers of international students reported being employed on casual or fixed-term contracts of less than six months than the general survey participants (67% compared to 60%). </p>
<p>At the same time, over half (56.7%) of international students expressed a lack of confidence they would have sufficient ongoing academic work in the next 12 months, and relied on personal savings (63.8%) and accepting extra work even when it risked jeopardising the completion of their degrees (60.9%).</p>
<p>At the same time, one third of survey participants (33.7%) had personally experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment, or otherwise felt unsafe in their workplace. Women (36.3%), people aged over 50 (46.5%), Māori (42.9%), Pasifika (50%), “other” ethnicities (47.6%), and people who were deaf or disabled (47.3%) were over-represented in this cohort.</p>
<h2>A broken path</h2>
<p>The survey also enquired into health and well-being in the context of a pandemic and the additional workloads involved in the move to online learning, combined with universities signalling cutbacks and redundancies due to the loss of international student revenue. </p>
<p>Participants were asked to rate their current stress levels out of ten, with the mean being 6.94. Some 43% of participants reported high to very high stress levels (8-10). Most troublingly, 30% disclosed a mental illness. These participants reported one of the highest mean stress levels (7.39) of any subgroup. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">Here's what the government and universities can do about the crisis of insecure academic work</a>
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<p>Feelings of isolation and lack of support from managers were widespread, as over a quarter (27.6%) of staff with a mental illness suggested they had no understanding at all of who to approach for support.</p>
<p>Overall, our report provides compelling evidence that the traditional career path of early career researchers is now largely broken. This is causing significant harm to those who attempt to take it, while reinforcing existing inequities. </p>
<p>Ultimately, if allowed to continue, this reality will severely compromise the country’s future capacity to keep and grow the best researchers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leon Salter is Spokesperson for Tertiary Education Action Group Aotearoa (TEAGA) and Academic Delegate for the Massey University branch of the Tertiary Education Union (TEU).</span></em></p>Casual or short-term contracts, a lack of professional development, little hope of career progression: a survey of academic working conditions sounds a warning.Leon Salter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837672022-06-09T20:44:08Z2022-06-09T20:44:08ZGender pay gap: It’s roughly half-a-million dollars for women professors across a lifetime<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467767/original/file-20220608-22-sxtm8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C1086%2C5121%2C2733&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The gender pay gap for faculty in Canadian universities is significant and persistent.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/gender-pay-gap--it-s-roughly-half-a-million-dollars-for-women-professors-across-a-lifetime" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>There are substantial, long-term impacts from the gender pay gap for faculty at Canadian universities. </p>
<p>Recent research from <a href="https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.vi0.189215">our multidisciplinary team</a>, which includes expertise in equity policy, political science and cognitive science with mathematical modelling, shows that over the course of a career and retirement, this pay gap leads to a difference of roughly half-a-million dollars.</p>
<p>The gender pay gap <a href="https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/caut_equity_report_2018-04final.pdf">for faculty in Canadian universities</a> is significant and persistent. Women professors earn <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710010801">on average 10 per cent (or $10,500 per year) less than men for the same work</a>. </p>
<p>This gender pay gap <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/articles/canadian-universities-must-stop-undervaluing-female-academics/">can result from bias in determining starting salaries and subsequent merit pay, from differing rates of promotion</a> and from the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-how-men-taking-more-paternity-leave-could-save-mothers-careers/">punitive effects of parental and caregiving leave</a>.</p>
<p>Focusing solely on pay differences, however, leads people to underestimate the long-term financial consequences of gender inequities as the pay gap also has implications for pensions. </p>
<h2>Case study</h2>
<p>Quantifying the effects of the gender pay and pension gap (<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/135578">research not done in over 30 years</a>) poses a challenge, given the many variables at play.</p>
<p>To address this challenge, our team used King’s University College as a case study. Using King’s made the challenge more tractable because potential bias was confined to starting salary and promotion decisions. Unlike <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/005282ar">many universities</a>, King’s does not offer merit pay, and faculty have a defined-benefit pension plan. </p>
<p>We were able to examine the effects of bias in starting salary, based on the determination of how many years of relevant experience people had at hire, and in promotion to full professor.</p>
<p>Women faculty at King’s <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710010801">made nine per cent less than men on average</a>. This calculation was based on all full-time professors, including both racialized and non-racialized faculty. We took this nine per cent average difference ($8,771) as our starting point. We then calculated the pay and pension gap across a 30-year career and 21-year retirement for different career trajectories.</p>
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<img alt="A doorway is seen in a university courtyard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467596/original/file-20220607-20-no7x0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467596/original/file-20220607-20-no7x0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467596/original/file-20220607-20-no7x0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467596/original/file-20220607-20-no7x0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467596/original/file-20220607-20-no7x0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467596/original/file-20220607-20-no7x0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467596/original/file-20220607-20-no7x0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Differences in starting salaries for faculty add up significantly over time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay/Pexels)</span></span>
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<p>We calculated what would happen if a woman progressed through the ranks to become a tenured associate professor and remained so for the rest of her career, compared to a man in the same position. </p>
<p>We calculated what would happen if she was promoted to full professor, compared to a man in the same position. Promotion to full professor is based on one’s research contributions. Most professors don’t achieve this position, although men are far more likely to do so than women. </p>
<p>We found that a $9,000 difference in starting pay led to a cumulative pay and pension gap of $454,000 at the associate level, and a $468,000 gap at the full professor level. </p>
<p>We also calculated what would happen if a woman was not promoted to full professor compared to a man who was. In this more likely scenario, the pay and pension gap was $660,000. In retirement, this gap translates to a $7,000-$12,250 per year difference in pension, depending on the scenario.</p>
<h2>Racialized inequities</h2>
<p>Our research focused solely on gender, given that <a href="https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvVariableList&Id=1395507">race was not a variable provided in the available Statistics Canada data</a> or at the institutional level. This ongoing issue has been highlighted with urgent <a href="https://www.thediversitygapcanada.com/uploads/1/3/0/4/130476297/1.perpetual_crisis.pdf">calls for better data collection</a>. </p>
<p>Data from the Canadian Association of University Teachers shows racialized professors experience <a href="https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/caut_equity_report_2018-04final.pdf">a 10 per cent pay gap relative to their non-racialized peers</a>. Racialized women professors, in particular, experience greater pay inequity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A professor stands at the front of a room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467599/original/file-20220607-15494-q4t923.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467599/original/file-20220607-15494-q4t923.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467599/original/file-20220607-15494-q4t923.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467599/original/file-20220607-15494-q4t923.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467599/original/file-20220607-15494-q4t923.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467599/original/file-20220607-15494-q4t923.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467599/original/file-20220607-15494-q4t923.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Racialized women professors experience greater pay inequity than their non-racialized women counterparts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/ICSA)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given that the gender <a href="https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/caut_equity_report_2018-04final.pdf">pay gap for racialized women professors is double that of their non-racialized women counterparts</a>, it follows that racialized women professors face larger lifetime salary and pension gaps than our calculation for women professors overall.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/workplace/human-rights/overview-pay-equity-act.html">Pay equity legislation</a>, however, remains fixed on gender; it doesn’t currently address wage penalties faced by <a href="https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/caut_equity_report_2018-04final.pdf">Indigenous, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ faculty</a>. </p>
<h2>Correcting imbalances</h2>
<p>Universities have used <a href="https://ocufa.on.ca/assets/OCUFA-Submission-on-the-Gender-Wage-Gap-FINAL.pdf">salary anomaly studies and wage adjustments to address the gender pay gap</a>. Corrections have been done either on an individual basis or across the board for women faculty, but without retroactive pay. King’s just completed its first study and awarded women one additional year of experience <a href="https://www.kings.uwo.ca/kings/assets/File/about/Salary%20anomaly%20report%202022.pdf">going forward (a $2,506-$2,770 per year boost, depending on rank, under the current contract)</a>. </p>
<p>Yet salary studies, while helpful, have tended to insufficiently address the problem. Without addressing the systemic bias that leads to pay differences, the gap is often reintroduced or increases over time with new hires and with promotion (or due to merit or market factors). Taking a gradual <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ501603">approach to pay equity also likely costs more over time than taking meaningful steps to close the gap</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Women are seen sitting at laptops." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467597/original/file-20220607-15494-ogv3vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467597/original/file-20220607-15494-ogv3vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467597/original/file-20220607-15494-ogv3vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467597/original/file-20220607-15494-ogv3vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467597/original/file-20220607-15494-ogv3vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467597/original/file-20220607-15494-ogv3vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467597/original/file-20220607-15494-ogv3vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employers should foster environments for women to thrive and encourage them to go up for promotion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Ketut Subiyanto)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What universities can do</h2>
<p>So what additional steps can universities take to address the gender pay gap? First, they can provide greater transparency. Faculty should be made <a href="https://www.caut.ca/equity-toolkit/article/equitable-compensation">aware of the criteria being used to assess their experience and performance,</a> the variables and data available to measure the gender pay gap at their institution, and how their school is rectifying it. </p>
<p>They can foster environments for women researchers to thrive and encourage them to go up for promotion (<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-locked-out-of-the-ivory-tower-how-universities-keep-women-from-rising/">68 per cent of full professors in 2019 were men</a>). <a href="https://theconversation.com/university-survey-shows-how-covid-19-pandemic-is-hampering-career-progress-for-women-and-racialized-faculty-153169">Women and racialized faculty’s research and career progress were more negatively impacted by the pandemic</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/early-career-professors-want-changes-in-how-tenure-is-evaluated-in-wake-of-pandemic-effects-on-productivity-174590">Early-career professors want changes in how tenure is evaluated in wake of pandemic effects on productivity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>They can address <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-power-gap/">the power gap</a> in senior leadership: Despite ongoing equity, diversity and inclusion efforts, most senior leadership posts remain unaffected. In 2019, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-locked-out-of-the-ivory-tower-how-universities-keep-women-from-rising/">men continued to make up 80 per cent of the presidents, 60 per cent of the provosts and vice-presidents, and 58 per cent of the deans in Canadian universities</a>. Only one in five of the top earners at Canadian universities were women, while only three in 100 were identified as racialized women. </p>
<h2>60 years to close gender pay gaps?</h2>
<p>Our research shows that the gender pension gap is substantial — <a href="https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.vi0.189215">with a third or more of the full gap (pay and pension) owing to pension</a>, leading to greater long-term inequities for women than previously estimated. </p>
<p>The World Economic Forum suggests that at this rate, both within and outside academia, <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf">it’ll take another 60 years to close the gap</a>. Sadly, our daughters will still be waiting for equity when they retire.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcie Penner was past co-chair of the King's University College Salary Anomaly Committee and has previously received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracy Smith-Carrier receives funding from the Canada Research Chairs program, funded by the Government of Canada.</span></em></p>Over the course of a career and retirement, gender pay gaps lead to a difference of roughly half-a-million dollars for women professors relative to their male counterparts.Marcie Penner, Associate Professor of Psychology, King's University College, Western UniversityTracy Smith-Carrier, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1796982022-06-09T08:45:29Z2022-06-09T08:45:29ZNigeria’s university strikes: winners, losers and ways forward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467031/original/file-20220604-183-cdq7cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerian journalists protesting on 25 April against the continuous closure of public universities in Lagos, Nigeria.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webgate.epa.eu/webgate">Akintunde Akinleye/EPA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Lecturers in Nigerian public universities have embarked on strikes <a href="https://rnn.ng/16-times-asuu-has-gone-on-strike/">16 times</a> since 1999. Cumulatively, the public universities have lost about <a href="https://www.newtelegraphng.com/asuu-vs-fg-parents-students-groan-over-16th-strike-in-20-years/">50 months</a>
of their academic calendar to these actions in the last 23 years.
The reasons for the strikes generally relate to funding and salary issues.</em></p>
<p><em>Nigeria has <a href="https://www.nuc.edu.ng/">217</a> licensed universities. The federal government runs 49 and another 57 belong to state governments. The remaining 111 are run by private operators. In January 2022 there were <a href="https://tribuneonlineng.com/universities-in-nigeria-have-100000-lecturers-for-2-1-million-students-%E2%80%95-nuc/#:%7E:text=The%20National%20Universities%20Commission%20">over 100,000</a> lecturers, the majority of them members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. The country has a total of about <a href="https://punchng.com/nigeria-has-only-100000-lecturers-for-2-1-million-varsity-students-nuc/">2.1 million university students</a>. The Conversation Africa asked historian Ayodeji Olukoju, a former university vice chancellor, to explain the protests and their impacts.</em> </p>
<h2>What impact have the strikes had on students?</h2>
<p>Without prejudice to the <a href="https://dailypost.ng/2020/09/07/asuu-justifies-strike-condemns-increased-petrol-electricity-charges/">justification for the strikes</a> by university teaching and non-teaching workers, they have cumulatively disrupted the training of the workforce. The academic calendar is the immediate victim and the normal duration of academic programmes has been elongated. This has implications for the career plans of students and staff. </p>
<p>Students stay <a href="https://dailytrust.com/five-major-ways-asuu-strike-is-affecting-students">longer in school</a>, lose valuable years, and defer or forfeit post-graduation opportunities. The uncertainty and disruption subject them to financial, material and psychological stress. </p>
<p>These challenges affect their <a href="https://www.thecable.ng/striking-at-the-future-of-the-nigerian-youth">academic performance</a> and, by extension, the quality of their degrees. </p>
<p>Striking staff themselves pay a steep price. Institutional staff exchanges, research activities, sabbatical and study leave, and promotion prospects suffer setbacks. They are denied wages each time government applies the <a href="https://thenationonlineng.net/fed-govt-invokes-no-work-no-pay-as-unions-ground-varsities/">no-work no-pay policy</a>. However, these wages are eventually released after the suspension of each round of strikes.</p>
<p>The national economy pays a high price for the disruption of a sub-sector that provides its workforce. Potential graduates are held back from applying their needed skills in the economy. Overstaying students take up resources that their sponsors could have used elsewhere. </p>
<p>On the other hand, private universities have taken advantage of the strikes in public universities by using the uninterrupted academic calendar as their unique selling point. This is evident in the increasing number of <a href="https://www.nuc.edu.ng/nigerian-univerisities/private-univeristies/">private universities</a>, which grew from 50 in 2014 to 99 in 2022.</p>
<h2>Are strikes effective for industrial disputes in the university system?</h2>
<p>Strikes are weapons of last resort. But if the country is not alive to its best interests of providing a good education system that runs on a stable calendar and produces high quality, globally competitive products, the union should focus on the welfare of its members, who earn slave wages in a modern economy. A professor earns around US$1,000 per month.</p>
<h2>Is it right to create new state and federal universities if existing ones aren’t well funded?</h2>
<p>The government has created multiple universities and converted colleges of education and polytechnics into full-fledged universities. This amounts to an abuse of the university system and a lack of understanding of how it works. These “universities” were established without rigorous planning.</p>
<p>There is a stark difference in the planning, execution and funding that produced the regional universities at Nsukka, Ile-Ife and Zaria. </p>
<p>It appears that the decreeing of universities is a distribution of political patronage completely at variance with the idea of a university. These mushroom universities are never well funded, staffed or equipped, especially as they are added to older and equally poorly funded and governed institutions. </p>
<p>Some state governors win political support by siting these toy universities in politically strategic places to win elections. They can always get infrastructure for them by tapping into the Tertiary Education Trust Fund. This is an intervention agency set up by the Nigerian government to provide supplementary support to public tertiary institutions from the 2% education tax paid by registered firms in the country. </p>
<p>But there’s still a paucity of qualified staff (holders of PhD degrees, grant winners and scholars with reputable scholarly publications) and irregular payment of poor salaries.</p>
<h2>Should universities be shut for a few years to allow for a fresh start?</h2>
<p>We cannot afford to shut down the university system. The damage will be irreparable. There will be an exodus of highly qualified scholars and researchers. That happened in the 1980s and 1990s and the system hardly recovered. </p>
<p>What is required is to stop issuing licences to operators of private universities and creating emergency universities.</p>
<p>An inventory of all university teachers and staff is needed to determine how many there are and how they are distributed by rank, discipline and location.</p>
<p>When the gaps are identified, they should be addressed by way of more rigorous quality controls and benchmarking, targeted training, funding, and providing facilities and equipment. </p>
<p>Policy guidelines should be developed to guide <a href="https://guardian.ng/opinion/tertiary-education-in-nigeria-another-perspective/">Nigeria’s tertiary education sector</a> with strategic plans of 10, 20 and 50 years.</p>
<p>The country’s universities should be ranked using objective criteria to identify the top five and top ten to be developed into postgraduate training centres. These should have only a 40% undergraduate and 60% graduate student enrolment. The top universities in countries like the US skew student enrolment towards postgraduate programmes. This is why research from such universities propels their countries to greatness. In Nigeria, the University of Ibadan has been operating on that model for the last decade. But it has been undermined by the lack of facilities and restriction on recruitment of qualified staff to replace staff who retire. </p>
<p>The ranking criteria should include quality of staff, carrying capacity of facilities for staff and students, comparative advantage and course offerings.</p>
<p>The other institutions should be colleges for the training of bachelor degree holders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ayodeji Olukoju does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Strikes have had a negative impact on Nigeria but private universities have benefited.Ayodeji Olukoju, Distinguished Professor of History and Strategic Studies, University of LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1824652022-05-16T14:35:22Z2022-05-16T14:35:22ZGhana’s high school system sets many students up for failure: it needs a rethink<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462707/original/file-20220512-15-7seusg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Legacy schools in Ghana are over subscribed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, educational research has found that students’ achievement and experiences largely depend on which school they attend and the resources available to support learning. Educational policies mostly determine the distribution of resources to schools and a student’s choice of school could be limited by these policies. </p>
<p>In Ghana, secondary schools are grouped into categories based on their performance in the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination. This is a school-leaving exam that grade 12 students take before progressing to tertiary institutions. Some schools are better resourced based on their history and the largesse of past students. They use networks to build infrastructure and provide key learning resources that the government does not provide.</p>
<p>Students are placed in a category of school based on their exam results at the end of grade 9. Students with low scores are mostly placed in under-resourced schools (category C). Students with high scores are mostly placed in better-endowed schools (A and B). </p>
<p>So, if an individual performs poorly in grade 9 he or she is placed in a school that also tends to do poorly in grade 12.</p>
<p>The Ghana Education Service 2020 <a href="https://ges.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Annual-Digest-2020-ecopy.pdf">report</a> revealed that in 76% of senior high schools captured in the report, fewer than half the students passed the school leaving exam. This helps explain why only <a href="https://myshsrank.com/images/2021%20senior%20high%20schools%20-%20category%20A.pdf">8%</a> of schools are in category A. </p>
<p>Categorisation of students based on academic achievements has been <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/219374375.pdf">documented</a> as spurring inequities. It encourages stereotyping, discrimination, and marginalisation. </p>
<p>This effect appears to show in the fact that about 46% of the students who qualify for tertiary education in Ghana are from the top 20% of senior high schools. Only 8% of students from the bottom 20% of the schools qualify for tertiary education.</p>
<p>Against this background, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10911359.2022.2061665">we examined</a> how secondary school categorisation in Ghana shapes students’ learning and schooling experiences. </p>
<p>We found that students in less endowed schools had lower self-esteem than students in more endowed schools. Category C students felt less confident about their academic abilities. In contrast, students in the most prestigious schools reported that they were more confident about their academic abilities. They believed they were better placed to succeed academically and hence felt highly motivated to learn.</p>
<p>Grouping schools into categories worsens inequities and we believe this system should end.</p>
<h2>Student motivation</h2>
<p>We interviewed 20 students in total: nine males and 11 females aged 18 to 20. They were enrolled in government-funded secondary schools. Using in-depth, unstructured interviews, we invited students to share their experiences of attending categories A, B or C schools, their learning motivation and how their experiences shaped their learning. </p>
<p>We found that students’ motivation to learn differed significantly based on the category of school they attended. </p>
<p>All the participants in the undervalued schools reported low motivation to learn. They were eager to change schools if they had the means to do so. A 2020 <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1262305.pdf">study</a> found that affluent parents used their monetary influence to secure placement for their wards in better schools. Those in category C schools cited academic performance, the quality of teaching and learning, the resources available and negative community perceptions of their school as reasons for wanting to move.</p>
<p>Conversely, all the students in highly valued schools reported that they were motivated to learn and preferred to stay in their schools because of the prestige, quality of teachers, high academic abilities of their peers and the availability of education resources that promoted lifelong learning. </p>
<p>A central theme that emerged from the interviews was disparities in teaching and learning resources. When the participants were asked what affected their academic work, all the students in category C schools alluded to shortcomings in teaching and learning materials, physical infrastructure such as science resource centres or laboratory and computer access. Those in category A and B schools reported that their schools were well equipped with resources which promoted learning.</p>
<p>Students in category C schools reported that most of their teachers perceived them to be less intelligent than those in valued schools. Category A and B students responded that they believed their teachers had high expectations of their academic abilities and supported them to succeed in their learning.</p>
<p>All the students in category C schools said their communities’ perceptions and beliefs about their schools were mostly demotivating. People – including their parents – did not have high expectations of their academic performance. They had already been labelled “not good enough”. Students in category A and B schools reported a narrative that elite schools produce the best and brightest students in the country.</p>
<h2>Effects of the category system</h2>
<p>In Ghana’s secondary school system, placing a student in a category C school is tantamount to setting the student on a path of academic and social failure because these schools have fewer resources and record poorer academic results in the school leaving exam. </p>
<p>In effect, students who may need support to succeed in their schooling are placed in schools that are under-resourced. After three years of secondary education, these students who face double marginalisation are required to take the same exams as students in better-equipped schools, if they want to continue to post-secondary education. Only a few students from category C gain admission into higher learning institutions.</p>
<p>Category C students are restricted from accessing the opportunities that come with higher education. They also have lower confidence and esteem.</p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>The study’s sample size was relatively small, therefore findings cannot be generalised. Nevertheless, this study has provided an initial understanding of students’ experiences.</p>
<p>It shows that the inadequate resources in low performing schools pose a major barrier to academic success. Grouping schools into categories also exacerbates inequities by encouraging people to discriminate against students in low ranked schools. </p>
<p>Therefore the distribution of students and resources should be more equitable. We recommend that the system of categories based on exam results should be phased out. Every student should have the opportunity to be enrolled in well resourced secondary schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Grouping of high schools in Ghana into categories perpetuates inequalities.David Baidoo-Anu, PhD Candidate, Queen's University, OntarioKenneth Gyamerah, PhD Candidate, Queen's University, OntarioTimothy Chanimbe, PhD Candidate, Hong Kong Baptist UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700632021-10-27T12:16:50Z2021-10-27T12:16:50ZWhy student absences aren’t the real problem in America’s ‘attendance crisis’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427648/original/file-20211020-19039-vtlwo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C8%2C5964%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Economic hardships, lack of transportation and family crises can keep kids out of school.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/upset-preteen-boy-not-wanting-to-go-to-school-royalty-free-image/855109936">Fertnig/E+ Collection via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nationally, one in six children miss 15 or more days of school in a year and are considered <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html#intro">chronically absent</a>. Education officials have lamented that all this missed instruction has <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2013-sep-30-la-me-truant-kids-20130930-story.html">for years</a> constituted an attendance crisis in U.S. elementary, middle and high schools.</p>
<p>The fear among policymakers is that these chronically absent students suffer academically because of all the classroom instruction they miss out on. In 2015, the U.S. secretary of education and other federal officials responded to this perceived crisis, urging communities to “support every student, every day to attend and be successful in school[.]” Their <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/chronicabsenteeism/toolkit.pdf">open letter</a> stated that missing 10% of school days in a year for any reason – excused or unexcused – “is a primary cause of low academic achievement.”</p>
<p>Worrying about whether children attend school makes sense. After all, if students don’t show up, teachers can’t teach them. </p>
<p>But what if America’s attendance crisis is about much more than students missing class? What if, instead, it is a reflection of family and community crises these students face – such as being evicted from the family apartment, fearing for their safety in their neighborhood or suffering an illness? These circumstances can both limit children’s academic achievement and keep them from getting to school.</p>
<h2>Excused vs. unexcused absences</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EzoNzxAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">social scientists</a> who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WT0vZX4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">inequality in schools</a>, and an <a href="https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/research-innovation/research-program-evaluation-office">education researcher and school district leader</a>, we investigated how excused and unexcused absences <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048211049428">relate to children’s academic achievement</a>. </p>
<p>Excused absences are those for which a parent or guardian contacts the school, or responds to the school’s request for information, explaining why the child is not or won’t be in class. If that doesn’t happen, the child is marked “unexcused.”</p>
<p>Our study tracks how both types of absences are linked to elementary school reading and math test scores in Madison, Wisconsin, which is home to a <a href="https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about">diverse urban public school district</a>.</p>
<p>We show that absences excused by a parent or guardian do little to harm children’s learning over the school year. In fact, children with no unexcused absences – but 15 to 18 excused absences – have test scores on par with their peers who have no absences.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the average child with even just one unexcused absence does much worse academically than peers with none. For example, the average student in our study with no unexcused absences is at the 58th percentile of math test scores. The average student with one unexcused absence is at the 38th percentile of math test, and the average student with 18 unexcused absences is at the 17th percentile.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men in suits walk through a school gymnasium where adults are seated in rows of chairs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427649/original/file-20211020-20-1o30oe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427649/original/file-20211020-20-1o30oe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427649/original/file-20211020-20-1o30oe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427649/original/file-20211020-20-1o30oe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427649/original/file-20211020-20-1o30oe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427649/original/file-20211020-20-1o30oe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427649/original/file-20211020-20-1o30oe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Department of Education officials visit a Washington, D.C., school in 2015 to announce a national initiative to address and eliminate chronic absenteeism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/senior-advisor-delegated-the-duties-of-deputy-secretary-of-news-photo/513454550">Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Signals of family crisis</h2>
<p>Does this mean schools shouldn’t worry about a student’s education as long as a parent calls in each time the child misses class?</p>
<p>Not exactly.</p>
<p>But our findings don’t make sense if absence from school affects achievement mainly because kids miss class time.</p>
<p>That is most apparent when considering the relationship between 18 unexcused absences and test score achievement. Accounting for differences among students unrelated to the current year of instruction – including their health conditions, prior academic achievement and family education and income – explains 88% of that relationship. That means children with so many unexcused absences would almost certainly have similarly low test scores even if their parents called in or if they had attended school more regularly.</p>
<p>Instead, we believe unexcused absence is a strong signal of the many challenges children and families face outside of school. Those challenges include <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-018-0022-0">economic</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/health_and_academics/index.htm">medical</a> hardships and insecurity with <a href="https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/144/4/e20190824">food</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373717699472">transportation</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240707200203">family</a> and <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Students_Experiencing_Homelessness_REPORT.pdf">housing</a>. Unexcused absences can be a powerful signal of how those out-of-school challenges affect children’s academic progress.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Policy changes</h2>
<p>To be clear, our evidence suggests unexcused absences are problematic, but for a different reason than people often think. Absence from school, and especially unexcused absence, matters mainly as a signal of many crises children and their families may be facing. It matters less as a cause of lower student achievement due to missed instruction.</p>
<p>How researchers and the public choose to think of school absences matters for educational policy. National, state and school district attendance policies typically hold <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/essa-puts-pressure-on-schools-to-reduce-student-absences-heres-how-they-might-do-it/2019/08">schools</a> and <a href="https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/laws/truancy-laws/">families</a> accountable for all of the days children miss, regardless of whether they were excused or unexcused absences.</p>
<p>These policies assume that missing school for any reason harms children academically because they are missing classroom instruction. They also assume that schools will be able to effectively intervene to increase academic achievement by reducing student absences. We find neither to be the case.</p>
<p>As a result, these attendance policies end up disproportionately <a href="https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/laws/truancy-laws/">punishing families</a> dealing with out-of-school crises in their lives and <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/essa-puts-pressure-on-schools-to-reduce-student-absences-heres-how-they-might-do-it/2019/08">pressuring schools</a> who serve them to get students to school more often.</p>
<p>We instead suggest using unexcused absence from school as a signal to channel resources to the children and families who need them most.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I work for the Madison Metropolitan School District, the district studied in this report and the other key partner in the research-practice partnership.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Grodsky receives funding from NIH and IES. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaymes Pyne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The problem with chronic absenteeism isn’t so much that kids are missing instruction time; it’s that unexcused absences may indicate crises at home, new research suggests.Jaymes Pyne, Quantitative Research Associate, Stanford UniversityElizabeth Vaade, Education Researcher, University of Wisconsin-MadisonEric Grodsky, Professor, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1693662021-10-11T02:00:22Z2021-10-11T02:00:22ZHit hard by the pandemic, researchers expect its impacts to linger for years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425402/original/file-20211008-21-p2yxsw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3253%2C2160&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The impacts of COVID-19 on Australian university researchers are likely to have consequences for research productivity and quality for many years to come. </p>
<p>According to an online survey of academics at the University of Canberra between November 2020 and February 2021, they have deep concerns about their ability to undertake research during the pandemic and the flow-on effects of this. The findings are consistent with those of <a href="https://researchaustralia.org/covid-19/">Research Australia</a> from research in 2020 and 2021 and suggest Australia’s research sector will take a substantive hit from COVID-19. </p>
<p>The knowledge produced by university research <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/policy-submissions/research-innovations/">generates an estimated 10%</a> of Australia’s GDP. <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/uni-viability-crucial-to-national-recovery/">Without access to JobKeeper</a> in 2020, universities across the sector cut back on casual staff and increased the teaching load of full-time academics. Combined with the challenges of working from home, this has had a real impact on research, not just immediately but in the longer term. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-6-billion-and-11-of-researchers-our-estimate-of-how-much-australian-university-research-stands-to-lose-by-2024-146672">$7.6 billion and 11% of researchers: our estimate of how much Australian university research stands to lose by 2024</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Almost three-quarters (73%) of respondents reported teaching commitments increased in the transition to online learning. Almost two-thirds reported delays in project milestones (63%) and publication (62%). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bar chart showing percentages of researchers reporting negative impacts of pandemic on their activities" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425401/original/file-20211008-27-1o3yxxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>In addition to reduced research productivity, staff expressed concerns about the quality of outputs as they are aware their general mental well-being has been affected. As one academic said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Although I have completed the usual number of papers, I am concerned about their quality due to the sense of being so overwhelmed by work and the COVID impacts that I couldn’t apply my usual critical judgements.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Impacts on researchers are highly uneven</h2>
<p>About half (52%) of respondents felt positive about the flexibility of working from home. In fact, we may see a shift in the work culture following the pandemic. An <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/household-impacts-covid-19-survey/latest-release#job-status">Australian Bureau of Statistics survey</a> in June found one-third (33%) of Australians said working from home was the aspect of COVID life they would most like to continue. </p>
<p>However, working from home did not translate into work-life balance and productivity for many academics. Domestic arrangements for a significant number have had an overall negative impact. These impacts particularly affected those with carers’ responsibilities. </p>
<p>Of those with children up to year 12, 64% said working at home had a negative impact on the hours of work, compared with 50% of those with no children at home. Those with children at home were three times more likely to say their domestic responsibilities had a negative impact on their research. </p>
<p>The impacts of COVID-19 on academic staff are not evenly distributed. There was a disproportionate gender impact, which is in line with previous reports across the sector. Impacts were greatest on academics in the early stages of their careers, often with young families. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bar chart showing percentage of academics saying pandemic had an impact on domestic arrangements" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425399/original/file-20211008-15-17vqhwm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425399/original/file-20211008-15-17vqhwm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425399/original/file-20211008-15-17vqhwm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425399/original/file-20211008-15-17vqhwm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425399/original/file-20211008-15-17vqhwm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425399/original/file-20211008-15-17vqhwm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425399/original/file-20211008-15-17vqhwm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>This differential impact is reflected in other <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/4/e045176">research</a> into academic publishing, which shows the gender gap widening during the pandemic.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-is-widening-the-academic-gender-divide-146007">How COVID is widening the academic gender divide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>Research is a long-term endeavour. It takes years and even decades for research to come to fruition. </p>
<p>We asked respondents how they saw the future of their research. The majority felt pessimistic about all aspects of research: funding, publication, collaborating and supervising PhD students. More than two-thirds of respondents had negative views about their ability to attract funding and pursue research projects in the near future. </p>
<p>More importantly, those who have young families are feeling despondent about their research careers. A majority of them say their ability to publish will be hampered for the next two to three years. This group is the future of Australian academic research, so the negative impact of COVID-19 is of serious concern.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425393/original/file-20211008-13-1f6mzll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>This is bad for Australia in terms of lost or delayed advances in science and technology, stalled or postponed advances in health care and treatment, reduced capacity to inform public debate, and fewer opportunities to contribute to Australia’s lifestyle and culture. The impacts of the pandemic on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-and-mid-career-scientists-face-a-bleak-future-in-the-wake-of-the-pandemic-144350">emerging generation of researchers</a> will have long-term consequences. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/early-and-mid-career-scientists-face-a-bleak-future-in-the-wake-of-the-pandemic-144350">Early and mid-career scientists face a bleak future in the wake of the pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In June, the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/household-impacts-covid-19-survey/latest-release#key-statistics">ABS survey of pandemic impacts</a> found one in five (20%) Australians experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress due to COVID-19. This has not changed since last November. Like many Australians, academics are under enormous pressure trying to balance work and home life. </p>
<p>As well as the concerns about the blurring of work and home life, we found evidence of low morale and exhaustion among staff. These findings match those of a <a href="https://apesma.informz.net/apesma/pages/2021_22_SCI_remuneration_report">report</a> released today by Professional Scientists Australia.</p>
<p>There is a need for both the government and universities to develop a long-term, tailored strategy to support the research community. This will help ensure Australia’s research effort continues at its above-world-class level, with the associated societal benefits it brings. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>The survey and the analysis of the data were carried out in collaboration with <a href="https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/persons/janie-busby-grant">Janie Busby Grant</a>, <a href="https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/persons/elke-stracke">Elke Stracke</a>, <a href="https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/persons/simon-niemeyer">Simon Niemeyer</a>, <a href="https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/persons/roland-goecke">Roland Goecke</a>, and <a href="https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/persons/dianne-gleeson">Dianne Gleeson</a> at the University of Canberra.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sora Park receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Alannah Madeline Foundation, NAMLE and Social Science Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennie Scarvell and Linda Botterill do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Academics in all areas have deep concerns about their ability to undertake research during the pandemic and the flow-on effects of this. Women and early career researchers were particularly hard hit.Sora Park, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Arts & Design, University of CanberraJennie Scarvell, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, Faculty of Health, University of CanberraLinda Botterill, Associate Dean Research – Strategy & Performance, Faculty of Business, Government & Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1667502021-09-15T02:50:36Z2021-09-15T02:50:36ZShould I stay or should I go? Academics facing this dilemma should ask themselves 3 questions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420968/original/file-20210914-21-lrrxzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5112%2C3400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/worried-frustrated-woman-shocked-by-bad-1075401716">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year my partner and my brother both left academia. They are part of a nation-wide changing of the guard at most universities in Australia and many overseas. </p>
<p>Over <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/17000-uni-jobs-lost-to-covid-19/">17,000 Australian university jobs</a> disappeared in 2020, Universities Australia estimated. It predicted more to come. By May this year an estimated <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-13/covid-job-cuts-at-universities-prompting-fears-for-future/100447960">one in five positions</a> in higher education had been lost, according to <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/theausinstitute/pages/3830/attachments/original/1631479548/An_Avoidable_Catastrophe_FINAL.pdf?1631479548">an Australia Institute analysis</a>. </p>
<p>Universities have <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-lost-6-of-their-revenue-in-2020-and-the-next-2-years-are-looking-worse-166749">lost billions in revenue</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic. They saw no alternative to reducing the <a href="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNThhMjNiZGEtMzlkNy00OWM5LWFmMmEtODFhN2ViNzE4ZGY1IiwidCI6ImRkMGNmZDE1LTQ1NTgtNGIxMi04YmFkLWVhMjY5ODRmYzQxNyJ9">biggest expense</a> on their books: staff salaries. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1356873268423090178"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-lost-6-of-their-revenue-in-2020-and-the-next-2-years-are-looking-worse-166749">Universities lost 6% of their revenue in 2020 — and the next 2 years are looking worse</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some academics have left with a smile on their face. They are the ones who were able to take advantage of early retirement, voluntary redundancy or voluntary separation schemes backed by enterprise agreements. Universities such as ANU, Monash, UQ, Griffith, USC, UNSW, Macquarie, Canberra and others offered generous payments to entice staff to exit, reducing their total headcount. </p>
<p>Other departures weren’t so voluntary. Several universities, including Melbourne, UWA, QUT, CQU and others, have made staff redundant in specific areas, sometimes through <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/new-wave-redundancies-sweeps-australian-universities">multiple rounds</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-badly-needs-earth-science-skills-but-universities-are-cutting-the-supply-163248">Australia badly needs earth science skills, but universities are cutting the supply</a></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-time-of-covid-and-climate-change-social-sciences-are-vital-but-theyre-on-university-chopping-blocks-166015">In a time of COVID and climate change, social sciences are vital, but they’re on university chopping blocks</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>To minimise disruption, professional staff who hold service or support roles have been <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210721154014538">prioritised for cuts</a>. This is a tough sell, especially when their expertise is so valuable with the rapid shift to online learning, increases in students’ peripheral support needs, and new processes brought about by organisational restructures. </p>
<p>Other elephants in the room are now looming large, including unmanageable workloads, increasing administrative burdens, deteriorating working conditions, unhealthy work practices during lockdown (and arguably outside lockdown too). It is no wonder many academics are contemplating whether they still want their jobs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-uni-teachers-were-already-among-the-worlds-most-stressed-covid-and-student-feedback-have-just-made-things-worse-162612">Our uni teachers were already among the world's most stressed. COVID and student feedback have just made things worse</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If you’re considering whether you are better off outside academia, the grass may not be greener on the other side. First ask yourself three key questions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="male worker with belongings packed up in box stands in front of city" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420969/original/file-20210914-13-uykvr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420969/original/file-20210914-13-uykvr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420969/original/file-20210914-13-uykvr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420969/original/file-20210914-13-uykvr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420969/original/file-20210914-13-uykvr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420969/original/file-20210914-13-uykvr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420969/original/file-20210914-13-uykvr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People contemplating leaving academia need to fully consider whether the grass really is greener on the other side.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/unemployed-business-man-worker-carrying-packed-1998589127">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>1. Is your role secure?</h2>
<p>Alarmingly, <a href="http://honisoit.com/2021/04/casual-university-staff-speak-on-precarious-employment-before-senate-committee/">up to three-quarters of staff</a> in several universities are on casual or fixed-term contracts. Even before COVID-19, the higher education sector was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/casualisation-of-university-workforce-is-a-national-disgrace-20180803-p4zvcm.html">criticised for mass casualisation</a> of its workforce. In defence, <a href="https://choiceaustralia.com.au/2012/11/the-impact-of-casualisation-on-the-australian-workforce/">this trend is being seen across Australia</a> as employers increasingly look to manage overheads in pursuit of economic efficiencies. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, casual academics have also been the <a href="https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-australia-universities-2020-4-casual-academic-staff-overwhelmed-by-online-teaching-demands/">hardest hit</a> by COVID-related impacts on universities. This includes their unrecognised (and therefore unpaid) hours of work required to set up online courses and support business continuity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>There is hope: <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-hit-casual-academics-hard-here-are-5-ways-to-produce-a-better-deal-for-unis-and-staff-155357">there are calls</a> to transfer casual staff to fixed term or continuing positions. Anecdotally, executive staff are hearing these calls. Some universities are investigating their options to recognise the work casuals do through flexible but more secure employment arrangements.</p>
<p>Academics in continuing positions may feel lucky, and let’s not forget their employer-provided superannuation is <a href="https://www.superannuation.asn.au/ArticleDocuments/359/rc1003_Employercontributionstosuperannuation.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y">nearly twice as generous as in most other industries</a>. When considering jobs in other sectors, be aware they may not offer the generous leave provisions for academics. This includes longer-than-typical sick leave, parental leave, recreational leave and long-service leave. </p>
<h2>2. Is the flexibility worth the workload?</h2>
<p>Ask any academic whether they have enough time to complete the work their role requires of them; the answer will be a firm “No”. Unmanageable workloads pose a <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/we-must-confront-culture-overwork-tackle-academias-mental-health-crisis">serious risk to mental health</a>. However, “success” in an academic career typically requires individuals to defy the odds when it comes to producing high-volume, high-quality work. </p>
<p>Early-career academics <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0309877X.2019.1636213">usually feel overwhelmed</a> by such an expectation. It can drive them to leave the industry. In response to this challenge, academic workload models now exist in many universities, despite <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academic-workload-models-tool-exploit-staff-and-cut-costs">concerns raised overseas</a> about their value in improving working conditions. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/early-and-mid-career-scientists-face-a-bleak-future-in-the-wake-of-the-pandemic-144350">Early and mid-career scientists face a bleak future in the wake of the pandemic</a>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1298077637579948032"}"></div></p>
<p>Flexible working conditions are a great benefit of academic work. COVID-19 has resulted in other industries <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-management-resistance-overcome-working-from-home-may-be-here-to-stay-144850">realising the value</a> of supporting staff to “work from anywhere”. It has meant many academics have continued to earn while in lockdown, a privilege not afforded to all Australians. </p>
<p>But, as with all adults who are increasingly working from home, juggling the load along with housework and schooling from home challenges us all – arguably <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/this-lockdown-women-are-once-again-doing-more-of-the-housework-home-schooling-20210727-p58d94.html">even more so women</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-is-widening-the-academic-gender-divide-146007">How COVID is widening the academic gender divide</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>3. Can you still pursue your intellectual passions?</h2>
<p>A deep commitment to scholarship <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1490923/The_Academic_Profession_in_Transition_Sept2011.pdf">draws people to academia</a>. A genuine passion for a discipline, field or topic also lays the foundation for a career dedicated to pursuing new knowledge and having an impact. These rewarding aspects of academia can seem hidden at present, especially when academics need to focus their efforts on <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-11040-z">other urgent, reactive tasks</a>. </p>
<p>Some academics have opportunistically pivoted into COVID-19 related research. The pandemic has sparked a new-found intellectual pursuit, backed by <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/05/07/new-medical-foundation-invests-in-covid-19-research-funding.html">several COVID-targeted funding opportunities</a>, including from the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/further-investment-in-three-new-australian-covid-19-vaccine-research-projects">Medical Research Future Fund</a>. </p>
<p>Universities <a href="https://theconversation.com/seven-ways-universities-benefit-society-81072">undeniably benefit a society at its core</a>, particularly their endeavours to address societal challenges and foster positive change. However, they are not without their professional criticisms. </p>
<p>The coming years will bring further changes to the way education is delivered to communities, but must also bring innovative improvements that support and nurture academics to succeed in their work. </p>
<p><em>Correction: this article previously included La Trobe in a list of universities that had involuntary redundancies. La Trobe has now been removed from that list.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Ball receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, RACGP Foundation, VicHealth and Queensland Health.</span></em></p>The pandemic is forcing many academics to consider their future. These are tough times for universities and many have lost jobs, but those fortunate enough to have a choice should weigh up all options.Lauren Ball, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Menzies Health Institute, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1671122021-09-03T05:35:00Z2021-09-03T05:35:00ZCourt gives legal weight to academics’ right to intellectual freedom, but it’s not the final word<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419195/original/file-20210903-13-5q0oxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=835%2C192%2C2414%2C1554&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The nature and enforceability of university codes of conduct have been in the news lately. Prominent sackings for alleged misconduct include the cases of Professors <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/as-peter-ridd-case-shows-pursuit-of-truth-not-always-a-civil-affair/news-story/84966a687902b26a5c75c5610778b63b">Peter Ridd</a> from James Cook University and Tim Anderson from the University of Sydney. </p>
<p>Anderson had a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/court-backs-academics-free-speech-in-swastika-dismissal-case-20210831-p58ngf.html">legal win this week</a> when the full court of the Federal Court decided Sydney’s enterprise agreement contains an enforceable right of academics to “intellectual freedom”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/tim-anderson-20201127-p56ilr.html">Previous court rulings</a> had suggested intellectual freedom is an aspirational goal with limited legal force. Ridd and Anderson have both argued they were sacked for exercising their right to intellectual freedom, albeit in ways to which many, including us, would object. </p>
<p>The issue, broadly speaking, is what happens when the manner in which academics want to exercise their right of intellectual freedom under university enterprise agreements collides with what their university’s code of conduct requires of them. Universities are clearly wondering about the worth of their codes of conduct if they cannot dismiss staff for discourteous, disrespectful or offensive behaviour. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/feel-free-to-disagree-on-campus-by-learning-to-do-it-well-151019">Feel free to disagree on campus ... by learning to do it well</a>
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</p>
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<p>Universities and academics, and Ridd in particular, are awaiting the outcome of his <a href="https://www.hcourt.gov.au/cases/case_b12-2021">appeal to the High Court</a>. </p>
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<p>As for Anderson, the National Tertiary Education Industry Union supported him in the case of <a href="https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/full/2021/2021fcafc0159">NTEU and Anderson v University of Sydney [2021] FCAFC 159</a>. The full court found this week that his right to exercise intellectual freedom is relatively unfettered. But victory is only partially complete: a Federal Court judge will now have to decide whether Anderson <em>was</em> exercising his right to intellectual freedom.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-not-in-a-university-then-where-academia-must-define-harm-to-allow-open-debate-on-difficult-issues-163355">If not in a university, then where? Academia must define harm to allow open debate on difficult issues</a>
</strong>
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</p>
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<h2>Why was Anderson dismissed?</h2>
<p>Anderson was dismissed in 2019 after the university repeatedly warned him about his social media activity. Among other things, he posted: </p>
<ul>
<li>PowerPoint slides with an infographic of an Israeli flag with a swastika superimposed over it</li>
<li>a photo of one of his tutors wearing a shirt bearing the words in Arabic “Death to Israel”, “Curse the Jews” and “Victory to all Islam”</li>
<li>allegedly false references to the university’s allegations against him when he had been directed to keep their communications confidential. </li>
</ul>
<p>Anderson removed the “University of Sydney” from the “about” details of his Facebook and Twitter accounts after receiving a final warning. He did not remove the comments and posts. After he reposted and retweeted the Israeli flag with swastika infographic, the university at first suspended and then terminated his employment for “serious misconduct”. </p>
<p>Anderson argues he was exercising his right to intellectual freedom under the university’s enterprise agreement and, as such, his activities could not constitute misconduct. He contends that, in warning him and terminating him, the university breached the agreement (it crossed two agreements, from <a href="https://www.nteu.org.au/library/download/id/4679">2013-17</a> and <a href="https://www.nteu.org.au/library/view/id/8705">2018-21</a>) and contravened the Fair Work Act 2009.</p>
<h2>What is the effect of the judgment?</h2>
<p>What does the court finding mean? This right to intellectual freedom under their enterprise agreement allows Sydney’s academics to express unpopular or controversial views, provided they do not engage in harassment, vilification or intimidation. They must also exercise their right “in accordance with the highest ethical, professional and legal standards”. </p>
<p>The court found that <em>if</em> Sydney academics are exercising the right to intellectual freedom, it generally could not be misconduct or serious misconduct to do so. This was the case even if the manner in which they exercised their right breached the code of conduct. </p>
<p>In this way, the court privileged the intellectual freedom clauses over other clauses in the agreement. These included “misconduct” and “serious misconduct” being specifically defined as including breaches of the code of conduct. </p>
<p>The ongoing problem for Sydney’s academics is that the court decided the code of conduct did not identify the “standards” relevant to deciding whether intellectual freedom was being exercised “in accordance with the highest ethical, professional and legal standards”, as stated in the enterprise agreement. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-relevance-hinges-on-academic-freedom-160346">Universities' relevance hinges on academic freedom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>The court was considering the legal issues of the relationship between Sydney’s enterprise agreement and its code of conduct. But whether Anderson’s social media activity was a permissible exercise of intellectual freedom under the agreement and whether he was wrongfully dismissed remains to be decided by a Federal Court judge. If the judge finds in favour of Anderson, the University of Sydney may have to reinstate and compensate him. </p>
<p>In the meantime, the Federal Court has left Sydney’s academics with a relatively unqualified right to express their opinions however they choose. They are unconstrained by any behavioural standards, as long as they do not harass, vilify, intimidate or fail to uphold the “highest ethical, professional and legal standards”. </p>
<p>This judgment underscores to Australian universities what they must do to ensure they can terminate staff for breaches of their codes of conduct. Their enterprise agreements must explicitly qualify the right of intellectual freedom by reference to upholding the code of conduct. </p>
<p>Universities will also have to consider the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UWALawRw/2020/11.html">effect of the French Model Code</a> for the Protection of Free Speech and Academic Freedom on this course of action. </p>
<p>For Australian academics generally, the judgment demonstrates that their right to intellectual freedom is strongly prescribed by what their particular enterprise agreement says. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dan-tehan-wants-a-model-code-on-free-speech-at-universities-what-is-it-and-do-unis-need-it-119163">Dan Tehan wants a 'model code' on free speech at universities – what is it and do unis need it?</a>
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</em>
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<p>The lingering question for Sydney academics is: what are the “the highest ethical, professional and legal standards”? This week’s judgment suggested these standards do not require them to avoid causing any offence to others. Nor did they necessarily have to conduct themselves with “respect”, “impartiality” or “courtesy”. It also did not matter to the court whether the conduct might be able to be carried out in a different way so as to not cause offence.</p>
<p>We, along with Anderson, now have to await a Federal Court judge’s view as to whether his conduct departed from the required standards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167112/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Does intellectual freedom mean academics can say what they want in whatever way they choose? Tim Anderson had a win this week, but a judge must still decide whether he was wrongfully dismissed.Pnina Levine, Lecturer in Law, Curtin Law School, Curtin UniversityNarrelle Morris, Senior Lecturer, Curtin Law School, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655252021-08-09T12:27:11Z2021-08-09T12:27:11ZHip-hop holiday signals a turning point in education for a music form that began at a back-to-school party in the Bronx<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415012/original/file-20210806-21-s6c8ki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4479%2C2807&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">DJ Kool Herc is considered the "sonic originator" of hip-hop. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-dj-kool-herc-performs-with-dj-jerry-dee-at-the-news-photo/177754517?adppopup=true">Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whenever I teach courses on hip-hop at the University of Virginia, I provide a brief overview of where hip-hop music began. One of the important dates I use is Aug. 11, 1973. That’s when DJ Kool Herc, who was 18 at the time, threw a “Back To School Jam” for his sister Cindy in the South Bronx – in the rec room at 1520 Sedgwick Ave., to be specific.</p>
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<img alt="Flyer for the Back to School Jam hosted by DJ Kool Herc" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414431/original/file-20210803-25-spxunc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414431/original/file-20210803-25-spxunc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414431/original/file-20210803-25-spxunc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414431/original/file-20210803-25-spxunc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414431/original/file-20210803-25-spxunc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414431/original/file-20210803-25-spxunc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414431/original/file-20210803-25-spxunc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Flyer for the Back To School Jam hosted by DJ Kool Herc.</span>
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<p>The landmark back-to-school party thrown by the Jamaican-American DJ, whose given name is Clive Campbell, will be officially and rightly recognized on Aug. 11, 2021, as <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-resolution/331/text">Hip-Hop Celebration Day</a>, as designated by Congress. August 2021 has also been designated as Hip-Hop Recognition Month, and November 2021 will be recognized as Hip-Hop History Month.</p>
<p>The hip-hop holiday, if you will, represents yet another milestone for hip-hop as its stature and prominence as a literary art and musical form continue to grow. </p>
<h2>Multiple origins</h2>
<p>Of course, the true genealogy of hip-hop is far more varied and complex than a single back-to-school party in the Bronx.</p>
<p>In his introduction to the “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300141917/anthology-rap">Yale Anthology of Rap</a>,” historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes that the first person he heard “rap” was his father, who was born in 1913, as he was “signifying,” or playing “<a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-02-11-1994042244-story.html">the Dozens</a>,” a pastime in which participants trade searing insults about one another’s relatives, typically their mothers, as a way <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-02-11-1994042244-story.html">to teach mental strength</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1968 memoir of Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/28698/soul-on-ice-by-eldridge-cleaver/">Soul On Ice</a>,” Cleaver – in an entry dated Aug. 16, 1965 – describes a type of rap he heard in the wake of the <a href="http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome">Watts uprising</a>, a six-day-long rebellion in the predominantly Black neighborhood in Los Angeles sparked by a violent exchange between police and bystanders when a young Black motorist was stopped and arrested by a member of the California Highway Patrol. </p>
<p>He refers to young men he calls “low riders” assembled in a circle on the basketball court after leaving the mess hall in Folsom State Prison that previous Sunday morning. The Watts uprising had been going on for four days by then. The men “were wearing jubilant, triumphant smiles, animated by a vicarious spirit.” A round of signifying hand gestures turned to speech after one asked, “What they doing out there? Break it down for me, Baby.”</p>
<p>Cleaver writes that one of the low riders stepped into the middle of the circle and began to speak:</p>
<blockquote><p> “They walking in fours and kicking in doors / dropping Reds and busting heads / drinking wine and committing crime / shooting and looting / high-siding and low-riding / setting fires and slashing tires / turning over cars and burning down bars / making Parker mad and making me glad / putting an end to that ‘go slow’ crap and putting sweet Watts on the map / my black ass is in Folsom this morning but my black heart is in Watts!” </p></blockquote>
<p>Cleaver describes the laugh shared by the men in the cipher – or small, circular gathering – as “cleansing, revolutionary,” as “tears of joy were rolling from (the speaker’s) eyes.”</p>
<p>California rapper Ras Kass named his <a href="https://www.discogs.com/Ras-Kass-Soul-On-Ice/release/405225">debut album</a>, released in 1996, after Cleaver’s book.</p>
<h2>Kool Herc, the pioneer</h2>
<p>Herc is described in the Yale anthology as “the man most often mentioned as the sonic originator of hip-hop.” He invented “the break” by using two turntables – and two copies of the same album – to extend a song’s instrumental, typically highly percussive, portion. He then took the signifying that Gates and Cleaver describe and performed a version of it over the separated song breaks he blasted on his sound system. His breaks and banter bade dancers to improvise to the music he played. Tricia Rose, author of pioneering hip-hop scholarship including “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/black-noise-rap-music-and-black-culture-in-contemporary-america/oclc/29358082">Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America</a>” writes that “DJ Kool Herc was a graffiti writer and dancer first before he began playing records.”</p>
<p>Though modern graffiti writing is said to have originated in the 1960s when a 12-year-old Philadelphia kid named Darryl McCray began tagging his nickname, “Cornbread,” on the Philadelphia Youth Development Center walls, and then eventually all around the city, DJ Kool Herc embodied all of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/hip-hop">original elements</a> of hip-hop: DJing, emceeing, break dancing, and graffiti writing.</p>
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<h2>Worldwide phenomenon</h2>
<p>In the years since that back-to-school party, hip-hop has become a well-recognized global phenomenon. It is <a href="https://www.musicianwave.com/top-music-genres/">one of the most widely consumed musical forms</a> worldwide. It is also a widely sampled and highly scrutinized cultural movement.</p>
<p>Since hip-hop began as a back-to-school party, it follows that it should be taught in the halls of academia. College classes <a href="https://booksandideas.net/U-S-Hip-Hop-Studies-Formation-Flow-and-Trajectory.html">as far back as the 1980s</a> have taken up hip-hop culture and artists as the objects and subjects of study.</p>
<p>In 2013, the Hiphop Archive and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University established the <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/newsplus/nasir-jones-hiphop-fellowship-established-by-hiphop-archive-and-du-bois-institute/">Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship</a>. The fellowship – named after the rapper Nas – is meant for select scholars and artists with “exceptional capacity for productive scholarship and exceptional creative ability in the arts, in connection with Hiphop.”</p>
<p>Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.” received the <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/kendrick-lamar">2018 Pulitzer Prize for music</a>. In 2019, New Orleans rapper Mia X <a href="https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the_latest/article_4a31cb67-7ec1-5964-9a21-503d05170dc5.html">joined the music industry faculty</a> at Loyola University. She is <a href="https://www.xxlmag.com/a-history-of-rappers-in-college-classrooms/">one of many rappers and producers</a> to teach at a university. Black Thought from the widely acclaimed rap band The Roots will be <a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/hip-hop/2021-2022/roots-black-thought/">hosting a residency at the Kennedy Center</a> in October 2021 during which he will talk with contemporaries about art, inspiration and creative consciousness.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p>
<h2>A hip-hop dissertation</h2>
<p>My own forays into academia are squarely rooted in hip-hop. I <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/07/15/537274235/after-rapping-his-dissertation-a-d-carson-is-uvas-new-hip-hop-professor">accepted my current job</a> – assistant professor of hip-hop – after I submitted my doctoral dissertation as a <a href="http://phd.aydeethegreat.com">rap album and digital archive</a> in 2017. </p>
<p>I had few academic models for my work to follow – those laid out by Gates’ father, people like the low riders from Cleaver’s memoir, scholars like Tricia Rose and pioneers like DJ Kool Herc. I wanted my work, in rap form, to <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/11738372/i_used_to_love_to_dream">be the scholarship</a> on its own. Hip-hop has always been academic to me, even though it often seems as though making music, DJing, break dancing or doing graffiti painting as scholarship are usually acceptable only outside of formal spaces of learning, as part of an alternative curriculum. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414436/original/file-20210803-16-hr79bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414436/original/file-20210803-16-hr79bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414436/original/file-20210803-16-hr79bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414436/original/file-20210803-16-hr79bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414436/original/file-20210803-16-hr79bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414436/original/file-20210803-16-hr79bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414436/original/file-20210803-16-hr79bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cover of A.D. Carson’s Dissertation Album, ‘Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions.’</span>
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</figure>
<p>Congress’ formal establishment of a hip-hop holiday and month of recognition – at least in 2021 – lends credence to the notion that hip-hop finally deserves a place in academia as a discipline of its own. From my perspective, it is long overdue that hip-hop be seen not solely as a subject of study but as a tool to continue to produce new knowledge and new ways of presenting it.</p>
<p>Hip-hop’s influence on other disciplines is as abundant as its influence on other music and art forms. Perhaps soon, in celebration of Cindy and Clive Campbell’s historic “Back To School Jam,” some students will be going back to school to become fully immersed in the academic rigors of the culture being celebrated nationally on Aug. 11.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With Congress designating Aug. 11, 2021, as Hip-Hop Celebration Day, a scholar and performer of the art form makes the case for hip-hop to become more prominent in American academe.A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1622252021-06-28T12:18:52Z2021-06-28T12:18:52ZCollege can still be rigorous without a lot of homework<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407509/original/file-20210621-35715-16btbsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Completing hefty reading and writing assignments can pose an unnecessary burden on students who must work.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/diverse-students-are-interested-in-guest-lecturers-royalty-free-image/1216637044?adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How hard should it be to earn a college degree? </p>
<p>When the book “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo10327226.html">Academically Adrift</a>” appeared in 2011, it generated <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/academically-adrift">widespread concern</a> that college was not effectively educating students and preparing them for today’s world. Among other things, authors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa claimed that most colleges were not rigorous or demanding, in part because college students were not reading and writing enough in order to build their critical thinking skills. But is it really how much work students are assigned that makes college rigorous and helps them learn?</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vGfxmwgAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of higher education</a>, I have taken a close look at college students’ academic experiences and outcomes for several years. Some people define rigor as how many pages a student reads or how many pages a student writes. But in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2021.1920825">a 2021 peer-reviewed study that I published</a> with colleagues <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Yp_l61UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">John Braxton</a> and <a href="https://education.uiowa.edu/person/ernest-pascarella">Ernie Pascarella</a>, I found that if they do that, they might miss key elements of what it takes to help students develop critical thinking skills and become lifelong learners. They also might create an unnecessary burden for students who have other demands on their time.</p>
<h2>What is rigor?</h2>
<p>In education, academic rigor tends to be defined in <a href="https://www.edglossary.org/rigor/">two different ways</a>: as a workload that is demanding and difficult or as learning experiences that challenge and support students to think more deeply. </p>
<p>Given the importance of critical thinking, the way rigor is defined makes a big difference in terms of the ways that the general public – as well as administrators, policymakers, journalists and researchers – assess if a college is rigorous. It also makes a difference in terms of faculties’ expectations for students, the types of classroom activities they use and the assignments they give. </p>
<p>In other words, if rigor means workload, then students who spend a lot of time studying should become better critical thinkers. In contrast, if rigor means academic challenge, then students who practice <a href="https://tophat.com/glossary/h/high-order-thinking-skills/">higher-order thinking skills, such as analysis and evaluation</a>, during class, on assignments and during exams should become better critical thinkers. </p>
<p>That’s why my study examines each definition of rigor – workload and academic challenge – in terms of helping students develop critical thinking skills. The study also looks at those definitions of rigor in relation to two related dimensions of lifelong learning. One is reading and writing for pleasure, and the other is the habit of thinking deeply and critically about things.</p>
<h2>The college difference</h2>
<p>The study included about 2,800 students who attended one of 46 four-year colleges in the U.S. between 2006 and 2012. These students took part in the <a href="https://centerofinquiry.org/wabash-national-study-of-liberal-arts-education/">Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education</a>, which was a large, longitudinal study of how college experiences affected outcomes associated with a liberal arts education. They completed surveys and tests at three different points during college: at the beginning of their first year, at the end of their first year and at the end of their fourth year.</p>
<p>In these surveys, students reported their course workload, including how many books they read, pages they wrote and hours they spent studying for class. They also reported how much their courses challenged them to engage in higher-order thinking. Faculty ask students to practice higher-order thinking when they ask challenging questions in class and give assignments that ask students to analyze information or form an argument. </p>
<p>Since the Wabash National Study measured students’ critical thinking and lifelong learning skills at multiple timepoints, my study looked at how much students developed these skills in relation to their workload and the academic challenge of their classes. Of course, students who are motivated to get good grades may be more likely to develop these skills. And lots of other college experiences, like interacting with faculty outside of class or being in an honors program, might also make a difference. My study accounts for these factors in order to better understand the unique influence of each definition of rigor. </p>
<h2>What matters</h2>
<p>Here’s what we found. </p>
<p>In the first year of college, higher-order thinking was related to an increase in both dimensions of lifelong learning: reading and writing for pleasure and the tendency to think deeply. Higher-order thinking was not related to development of critical thinking skills. Workload was not related to students’ critical thinking or either dimension of lifelong learning.</p>
<p>Across four years of college, higher-order thinking was related to an increase in students’ critical thinking skills and both dimensions of lifelong learning. Workload was related to only one dimension of lifelong learning: reading and writing for pleasure. This relationship was driven primarily by the amount of reading students did, rather than the amount of writing they did or the amount of time they spent studying.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, my study suggests that students learn important critical thinking and lifelong learning skills because of challenging class experiences regardless of the workload. In other words, college can help students be better critical thinkers and lifelong learners without requiring them to spend a lot of time studying.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Implications for colleges</h2>
<p>This study has implications for how courses and colleges are assessed as being rigorous. It also has implications for how faculty teach, as it suggests that they should create courses that engage students in higher-order thinking, rather than asking them to complete long reading and writing assignments.</p>
<p>These implications matter particularly for students from low-income backgrounds, who are <a href="https://1gyhoq479ufd3yna29x7ubjn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Low-Income-Working-Learners-FR.pdf">more likely to work full-time</a> during college. Low-income students are also <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203810163-21/engaging-low-income-students-adrianna-kezar-marybeth-walpole-laura-perna">more likely to commute to campus and have family responsibilities</a>. </p>
<p>Because of these responsibilities, students from low-income backgrounds often have less time to dedicate to homework compared to students from wealthier backgrounds who live on campus and who don’t work as many hours. This creates an <a href="https://www.edglossary.org/opportunity-gap/">opportunity gap</a> in students’ ability to be successful. A <a href="http://pellinstitute.org/downloads/publications-Indicators_of_Higher_Education_Equity_in_the_US_2018_Historical_Trend_Report.pdf">2018 report from the Pell Institute</a> shows that low-income students graduate at much lower rates than students from higher-income backgrounds. </p>
<p>If campuses want students from low-income backgrounds to graduate at the same rate as their peers, then it is important that these students have a reasonable workload in their courses so that they don’t have to choose between college and their other responsibilities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>KC Culver does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Higher education in the US has been faulted for not requiring students to read and write enough. But is that criticism justified? New research raises doubts.KC Culver, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1611502021-06-15T12:25:00Z2021-06-15T12:25:00ZBringing joy back to the classroom and supporting stressed kids – what summer school looks like in 2021<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406232/original/file-20210614-125373-itc4lk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=88%2C0%2C7260%2C4912&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Summer schools need to address the emotional and academic needs of children. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/group-of-happy-pretty-little-girls-hiking-together-royalty-free-image/1211676347?adppopup=true">CandyRetriever/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Already <a href="https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/news/2021/pta-assessment-topline-findings.pdf">62% of parents</a> believe their children are behind in learning, according to a survey conducted by the National PTA and Learning Heroes. The transition from in-person to remote learning in 2020 has disrupted students’ academic work. We’ve assembled a panel of academics to talk about how summer schools should be supporting students this year. Here, five experts explain what summer school does, and why it may look very different this year.</em></p>
<h2>Does voluntary summer school work?</h2>
<p><strong>Kathleen Lynch, assistant professor of learning sciences, University of Connecticut</strong> </p>
<p>Summer school programs help children get better at both <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/jameskim/publications/effects-summer-reading-low-income-children%E2%80%99s-literacy-achievement-kindergarten">reading</a> and <a href="https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai21-379">mathematics</a>. Students who attend summer school tend to have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3181549">higher test scores</a> than those who don’t, which means that offering voluntary summer programs is likely to help students catch up from pandemic-related learning slowdowns. And summer learning programs may also improve outcomes beyond test scores, such as by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2016.1168500">helping students to recover course credits</a>.</p>
<p>Summer learning programs work best when the reading instruction uses <a href="https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf">research-based strategies</a> such as guided oral reading and modeling approaches to reading comprehension, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487111404241">when daily time</a> is given to math.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA205-3.html">Sports, extracurricular clubs and field trips</a> can improve attendance at summer school programs – a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10824660802427652">necessary ingredient</a> for learning. </p>
<p>Summer programs can and should also create <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0065-4">hands-on learning</a> activities to build personal and social skills that will help children during the school year. For example, one <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915618712">summer program</a>, in which students in Baltimore worked in teams to build robots while also learning math, improved school attendance during the following academic year. </p>
<h2>What should summer school look like after a year of the pandemic?</h2>
<p><strong>Roberta Golinkoff, professor of education, University of Delaware; Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, professor of psychology, Temple University and the Brookings Institution; Naomi Polinsky, doctoral candidate in cognitive psychology, Northwestern University</strong> </p>
<p><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2021/05/13/rush-to-summer-school-a-moment-for-celebration-and-caution/">Summer school</a> is the perfect time to return joy to classrooms with educational games, physical activity and inviting children to talk and participate. This year in particular, it’s a chance to reimagine what the regular school year will look like, and make sure it meets kids’ academic and social needs after many months of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Blending the fun of summer camp with summer school allows us to put the best science to work for children – and teachers. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1529100615569721">Playful learning</a> that is active, engaging, meaningful, socially interactive and fun <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/08/05/relationships-and-learning">can reignite a love of learning</a> along with promoting strong teacher-student relationships.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/miguel-cardona-unveils-summer-learning-partnership-releases-some-covid-19-aid/2021/03">The Department of Education</a> is aligned with this vision of what summer school can be for children – an active and interactive experience that enriches 21st-century skills like collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence, or the “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/a-new-path-to-education-reform-playful-learning-promotes-21st-century-skills-in-schools-and-beyond/">6Cs</a>.” When children work together to figure out which butterflies are local, they are engaging in collaboration, communication and content. When they investigate whether a moth is the same as a butterfly, they are using critical thinking. And when they present their findings to the class, they are using creative innovation and building their confidence. </p>
<p>Summer school can have a rich curriculum and still cultivate the skills that children will need to succeed in a world where knowing how to solve problems, beyond just knowing the answer, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/podcast-episode/becoming-brilliant-what-science-tells-us-about-raising-successful-children/">is of critical importance</a>. Indeed, children <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/a-new-path-to-education-reform-playful-learning-promotes-21st-century-skills-in-schools-and-beyond/">learn best</a> when they are actively engaged with the material.</p>
<p>When material to be learned is meaningful and linked to children’s lives, it is also easier to learn. And children love to be socially interactive and learn with their peers. Learning should be iterative so it can be revisited and tied in with new learning. These learning principles increase children’s learning by increasing their agency and making the learning “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2015.1053373">stick</a>.”</p>
<h2>What challenges will summer school teachers face this year?</h2>
<p><strong>Raphael Travis Jr., professor of social work, Texas State University</strong></p>
<p>Teachers may not be prepared <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=23459">to address the social and emotional needs of children</a>, needs that have always existed but will play an important role this summer if children are to attend summer school.</p>
<p>In summer programming meant to support the social and emotional needs of youth, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2019.1607646">the phenomenon of “summer strain”</a> was introduced to highlight the student stress and mental health concerns that continue to affect student lives throughout the summer, without the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2020.1826614">added buffer</a> of school structure and support. This contrasts with the idea of summer slide or summer slump, which focuses on <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/is-summer-learning-loss-real-how-i-lost-faith-education-research-results/">perceived academic losses</a> during summer months. </p>
<p>One <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2020.1826614">strategy using hip-hop culture</a> allows youths to shape the direction of activities by exploring, researching and processing emotional themes of importance to them, such as strained relationships or overcoming life challenges. Next, they are able to make music that discusses these themes and possible solutions, for themselves or for others. </p>
<p>Of course, the circumstances that produce summer strain have occurred on an even <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMms2024920">larger scale during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. This includes <a href="https://www.cdsplab.org/tulsaseedstudy">reduced activity, loneliness and social isolation</a>, <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMms2024920">family stress</a>, and limited <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1674/sustainability-12-04141-v3.pdf?1623356711">access to food and mental health services.</a> </p>
<p>Health care claims for teenagers increased substantially <a href="https://www.fairhealth.org">between April 2019 and April 2020</a>, reflecting significant increases in anxiety, depression and substance use disorders. <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/mental-health-covid-19">Girls</a>, <a href="https://mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america">LGBTQ+ youth</a> and children from <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6932a1.htm">minority racial or ethnic groups</a> have been particularly affected.</p>
<p>I believe we must take meaningful steps to refocus summer school programs beyond academics to address these challenges.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 106,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphael Travis Jr. previously received funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Department of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Lynch receives funding from the Spencer Foundation, and previously from the American Educational Research Association</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathy Hirsh-Pasek receives funding from NSF; Wm Penn Foundation. She is affiliated with The Brookings Institution. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberta Golinkoff received funding from the Institute for Education Sciences and the LEGO Foundation.. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Polinsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This year summer schools will have to figure out how to tend to the emotional and academic needs of students coming out of remote learning.Raphael Travis Jr., Professor of Social Work, Texas State UniversityKathleen Lynch, Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences, University of ConnecticutKathy Hirsh-Pasek, Director of the Infant Language Laboratory, Temple UniversityNaomi Polinsky, PhD Candidate, Northwestern UniversityRoberta Golinkoff, Professor of Education, University of DelawareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1600082021-04-30T07:02:52Z2021-04-30T07:02:52ZPoliticisation of Indonesia’s state research body shatters technocrat dream – time for scholars to stop being naive and anti-politics<p>The leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), a member of the country’s ruling coalition, will <a href="https://kumparan.com/kumparannews/kepala-brin-megawati-jadi-ketua-dewan-pengarah-1ve5pWgWqvB">head the supervisory council</a> of the newly established <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2021/04/28/reshuffle-marks-new-era-of-research-innovation.html">National Research and Innovation Agency</a> (<em>Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional</em> or BRIN).</p>
<p>New BRIN chief Laksana Tri Handoko said that, according to a yet-to-be-published presidential regulation, the chair of the state ideology body, the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP), will head the BRIN supervisory council. That will be the matriarch of PDI-P (of which President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is a member), former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.</p>
<p>BRIN had been under the purview of the now-defunct Research and Technology Ministry. The agency will co-ordinate all research by government bodies and universities.</p>
<p>The new oversight of BRIN opens the door to <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1455880/the-danger-in-politicizing-research">politicisation of research</a> in Indonesia.</p>
<p>Not only could the research budget be misused for narrow political-economy interests, the research institution could be policitised for profit-gaining. This can be done, for example, by giving scientific support to huge projects that do not necessarily benefit the public.</p>
<p>Megawati has previously said BRIN was established as part of an effort to <a href="https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20210413124417-4-237461/brin-mimpi-megawati-yang-diwujudkan-jokowi">implement the state ideology of Pancasila</a>, instead of to mainstream research.</p>
<p>As such, BRIN is now placed as an instrument of state ideological indoctrination that serves the ruling interests.</p>
<p>This shatters the dream of technocrats who pushed BRIN as a vehicle to create a knowledge and innovation ecosystem that supports the making of quality research-based public policies. </p>
<p>The change in BRIN’s institutional design to be open to political intervention shows how the government is unwilling to prioritise research and technology. It is also evidence of the limitations of technocratic ideas.</p>
<h2>Technocratic limitations exposed</h2>
<p>The creation of BRIN, under the <a href="https://penelitian.ugm.ac.id/2019/08/21/undang-undang-no-11-tahun-2019-tentang-sistem-nasional-ilmu-pengetahuan-dan-teknologi/">2019 law on national system of science and technology</a>, was a technocratic effort to push research-based public policies.</p>
<p>Technocratic ideas rely on changes on an institutional level that underline actor and institution capacity and institutional management. The idea is that a problem happens due to weak actor and institutional capacity, or poor institutional design.</p>
<p>The technocratic solution is to strengthen the capacity of actors working in an institution through various forms of training. Promoting new regulations or bodies, like BRIN, to build a superior research ecosystem is also a form of change based on technocratic ideas.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ksi-indonesia.org/id/about">Knowledge Sector Initiative</a> (KSI), a partnership program between the Indonesian and Australian governments, is <a href="https://www.ksi-indonesia.org/id/wawasan/detail/1136-membangun-badan-riset-dan-inovasi-nasional-yang-efektif">one of the main proponents</a> of this approach. KSI is one of The Conversation Indonesia’s donors. </p>
<p>KSI positions itself as catalyst for change that brings together stakeholders to push research-based policymaking.</p>
<p>To realise these technocratic ideas, this partnership program has facilitated meetings between Indonesian ministries - especially between the Research and Technology Ministry, the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), and the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry - leading to the Science and Innovation (<em>Ekosistem Pengetahuan dan Inovasi</em> or EPI) <a href="https://lldikti5.kemdikbud.go.id/assets/thirdparty/filemanager/source/sistem_informasi/regulasi/FINAL%20-%20CETAK%20BIRU%20EKOSISTEM%20PENGETAHUAN%20%26%20INOVASI.pdf">blueprint</a>. This document aims to “synchronise policies and programs” and various legal regulations in creating this science ecosystem.</p>
<p>KSI also supports involvement by policy research institutions and the scientific community in drafting the law on a national system of science and technology.</p>
<p>However, the government’s manoeuvre in allowing political intervention in BRIN shows the technocratic approach is not enough to bring about meaningful change.</p>
<p>There are two problems with this approach. First, it tends to disregard aspects of power and considers public institutions in a vacuum.</p>
<p>Stanford University anthropologist James Ferguson consider this perspective as <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-anti-politics-machine">anti-politics</a> for disregarding political aspects in understanding realities.</p>
<p>An institution or a regulation can be made with noble intentions, but in the end power relations determine how the institution or regulation will work.</p>
<p>More often than not, technocratic ideas have legitimised power itself.</p>
<p>Second, because of its anti-politics characteristics, this approach tends to be optimistic but naive in looking at a problem. <a href="https://www.kompas.id/baca/opini/2021/04/15/riset-dan-inovasi-di-simpang-jalan/">Several articles by Indonesian technocrats</a> on the BRIN debate illustrate this optimism.</p>
<p>Despite political interests having more opportunity to intervene in BRIN, the technocrats still believe the state is <a href="https://theconversation.com/brin-cerai-dari-kementerian-riset-dan-teknologi-benarkah-akan-mengakhiri-ketidakpastian-status-dan-fungsinya-158947">on the side of research and innovation</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, the dissolution of the Research and Technology Ministry clearly shows the government does not see building a superior research ecosystem as a priority.</p>
<h2>Focus on rent seeking</h2>
<p>The politicisation of BRIN also shows research products are not considered important in Indonesian policymaking.</p>
<p>The government clearly prioritises economic development over other fields, including science and technology.</p>
<p>Even in COVID-19 pandemic management, <a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/investment-at-all-costs-jokowi-fails-the-coronavirus-test/">economic concerns</a> took priority over public health matters that put human lives at risk. For example, vaccines were prioritised for working-age adults over vulnerable groups like the elderly. <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/covid-19-indonesia-vaccine-program-worker-mandiri-jokowi-sinovac-14341636">Economic recovery was a stronger motive in decision-making than pandemic mitigation</a>.</p>
<p>But, what kind of economy is the Indonesian government focusing on?</p>
<p>When efforts to build research and innovation ecosystem are marginalised, then rent-seeking economics will be the focus, especially activities that rely on non-renewable resources (extractive industries), which tend to destroy nature and dismiss local/indigenous communities.</p>
<p>It’s a simple logic: if rent-seeking economic activities can generate profit for politico-business alliances, why should they invest more in research that produces no clear profit for these industries?</p>
<p>In the meantime, political control over BRIN also creates opportunities to exploit research resources for profit. It also provides opportunities to make scientific justification for rent-seeking practices. </p>
<p>Rent-seeking economics has become dominant in Indonesia, marked by <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203155011-14/democracy-money-politics-case-indonesia-vedi-hadiz">endemic corruption</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/the-end-of-the-kpk-at-the-hands-of-the-good-president/">incapacitation</a> of the Corruption Eradication Commission has given more space to rent-seeking practices.</p>
<p>The dominance of rent-seeking economics dismisses not only liberal economic principles of clean and good governance, but also research- and innovation-based economics.</p>
<h2>Weak scientific communities</h2>
<p>The politicisation of BRIN also reveals the Indonesian scientific communities’ weakness in analysing political situation and organising effective strategy.</p>
<p>The technocratic approach is too optimistic and ignorant in identifying the strength of scientific communities in generating change. It’s too heavily reliant on documents like EPI blueprints and the establishment of new institutions to build a superior research ecosystem.</p>
<p>Such documents appear to assume the ruling elites have interest in advancing research and innovation. In fact, politicians and businesspeople have their own logics in which accumulating wealth and power is their main interest.</p>
<p>There needs to be either an incentive or threat to push politico-business alliances to put aside their political-economic interest. Blueprints and new institutions like BRIN not only fail to provide incentive or threat, but also pave the way for very different interests to prevail.</p>
<p>EPI blueprints even support problematic laws like the <a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/omnibus-law-shows-how-democratic-process-has-been-corrupted/">Job Creation Law</a>, which threatens <a href="https://tirto.id/dampak-omnibus-law-uu-cipta-kerja-rugikan-buruh-hingga-abaikan-ham-f5Cs">labor rights</a> and the <a href="https://katadata.co.id/sortatobing/ekonomi-hijau/5f7c3f0e25cc1/bahaya-pasal-pasal-omnibus-law-uu-ciptaker-yang-ancam-lingkungan-hidup">environment</a>, and facilitate <a href="https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/10/05/20012551/diatur-uu-cipta-kerja-lembaga-pengelola-investasi-dinilai-berpotensi?page=all">rent-seeking practices</a>.</p>
<p>The technocratic approach with its anti-politics attitude needs to be abandoned.</p>
<p>Change, including efforts to build a scientific ecosystem, can only be achieved through political struggle; it is not born out of politicians’ charity and goodwill.</p>
<p>Pushing for change means entering the arena of political fights: between advancing research against wealth-accumulating interests, and between science-based economics versus rent-seeking economics.</p>
<p>But political struggle is not about lobbying or seeking positions within the power structure in the hope of achieving change from within. That would be equivalent to submitting to subjugation or purposely seeking profit for self.</p>
<p>What needs to be done is to transform the scientific communities together with other social groups concerned with justice and welfare into a political power able to subdue the predatory alliance of politicians and businesspeople.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that the Knowledge Sector Initiative is one of The Conversation Indonesia’s donors.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir is a commissioner at the Indonesian Caucus for Academic Freedom.</span></em></p>The institutional design of BRIN allows for political intervention, showing how the Indonesian government is unwilling to prioritise research and technology.Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, State University of Jakarta and Honorary Research Fellow at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1537612021-03-15T12:53:31Z2021-03-15T12:53:31ZHip-hop professor looks to open doors with world’s first peer-reviewed rap album<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388885/original/file-20210310-15-189tilm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C41%2C1997%2C1227&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hip-hop professor A.D. Carson</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Addison</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a rap artist who is also a professor of hip-hop, I always make it a point to have my songs reviewed by other artists I admire.</p>
<p>So when I released “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372">i used to love to dream</a>” – my latest album – in 2020, I turned to Phonte Coleman, one half of the <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/little-brother-interview-phonte-big-pooh-drake-influence-reunion.html">trailblazing</a> rap group Little Brother.</p>
<p>“Just listened to the album. S— is dope!” Phonte texted me after he checked it out. “Salute!”</p>
<p>I responded with sincere appreciation for his encouraging words. I told him they meant a lot to me, especially coming from him. </p>
<p>“Nah, bro. The bars are on point,” he replied. “Much love and respect.”</p>
<p>This informal conversation with a <a href="https://www.xxlmag.com/whos-drakes-favorite-rapper-like-for-real/">highly esteemed rapper</a> – one whose work I’ve studied and hold in high regard – is perhaps the most resounding affirmation I can ask for as an artist.</p>
<p>The situation is similar in academia. That is, in order to establish oneself as a serious scholar, an academic must get their work – typically some sort of written product – published in a peer-reviewed journal, which is a journal in which works are evaluated by others in a given field to ensure their relevance and quality.</p>
<p>As a rap artist and academic, I wondered if I could do the same thing with my new album. Could I get my album “published” through an academic press?</p>
<p>Thankfully, I have discovered that the answer was “yes.”
In August 2020, my album became what Michigan Publishing described as the “<a href="https://www.publishing.umich.edu/stories-of-impact/rethinking-peer-review">first ever peer-reviewed rap album published by a university press</a>.” This is a development that I believe could open doors for scholars from all kinds of different backgrounds – including but not limited to hip-hop scholars – to contribute new forms of knowledge.</p>
<h2>New methods</h2>
<p>“With this new form of scholarship comes a new approach to the peer review and production process,” the University of Michigan Press <a href="https://www.publishing.umich.edu/stories-of-impact/rethinking-peer-review">stated</a> in an article about my work.</p>
<p>But in order to get a peer-reviewed rap album, it’s not like I just went into the studio, rapped over some beats and hoped for the best. I presented liner notes and created a documentary about how I made the album, which I refer to as a “mixtap/e/ssay” – an amalgamation of the words “<a href="https://artists.spotify.com/blog/the-significance-of-the-mixtape-in-the-streaming-era">mixtape</a>,” which is a sampling of an array of select songs, and “essay.” I also submitted articles that help explain how the music relates to certain academic conversations, events in society and my own life.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man records an album next to a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘i used to love to dream’ is a semi-autobiographic take on Carson’s life growing up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amy Jackson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, since the album is semi-autobiographical and I am from Decatur, Illinois, I note how in May 2020, my hometown was listed as America’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/south-west-fastest-growing.html">third-fastest shrinking city</a>. Since my album deals with Black life, I note how USA Today ranked Decatur as one of “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/11/16/racial-disparity-cities-worst-metro-areas-black-americans/38460961/">the 15 worst cities in America for Black people</a>” in terms of various metrics, such as household income, educational attainment, homeownership, incarceration and life spans.</p>
<p>My album – which is free and open source – deals with topics that range from race and justice to identity and citizenship.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 500px; height: 406px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=734046536/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless="" width="100%" height="400"><a href="https://aydeethegreat.bandcamp.com/album/i-used-to-love-to-dream">‘i used to love to dream’ by A.D. Carson.</a></iframe>
<h2>Confronting societal ills</h2>
<p>In the lyrics, I reflect from where I am now – in my career as an assistant professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville – on my memories growing up and living in the central Illinois town. </p>
<p>The content of the album demonstrates this, covering issues like the war on drugs and its legacy in the 1980s and 1990s and contrasting it with the current opioid crisis on the song “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.7">crack, usa</a>”; the seeming inevitability of police killings of Black people and how we might prepare ourselves and our loved ones on “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.8">just in case</a>”; and the trap of incarceration and institutionalization presented on “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.10">nword gem</a>.” It also provides space for processing mental health matters like trauma, alienation, alcoholism and depression with tracks like “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.6">ampersand</a>,” “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.9">stage fright</a>” and “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.12">asterisk</a>.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2HBw0Wpka5o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I published my album with University of Michigan Press because I believe it’s important that hip-hop – and hip-hop scholarship – occupies a space that’s not an “exotic other” and, instead, functions as a way of knowing, similar to, but distinct from, other resources such as a peer-reviewed paper or book.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of students sit on desks while using their laptops in a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Professor A.D. Carson and students in the Rap Lab at the University of Virginia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Miguel 'MiG' Martinez</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In order to review my album as an academic work, the academic publisher had to “come up with appropriate questions for the evaluation of a sonic, rather than written, work.”</p>
<p>“The press’s standard peer review questions consider purpose, organization, and audience,” the University of Michigan Press has <a href="https://www.publishing.umich.edu/stories-of-impact/rethinking-peer-review">stated</a>. “While many of those general themes were captured in the questions developed for ‘i used to love to dream,’ the process for coming up with new questions was much more collaborative.”</p>
<h2>Is higher ed ready?</h2>
<p>I must admit – both before and during my doctoral studies – I was skeptical of the formal peer-review process. My thought was, what is the university to ask hip-hop to prove itself?</p>
<p>But my skepticism faded once I saw the responses from the anonymous scholars who reviewed my album. Based on their insightful feedback, I got the sense that they truly understood Black music and Black rhetoric. They encouraged me to consider how to present the album online in a way that would help audiences better understand the content, which is part of the reason I included the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.4">short documentary</a> about the making of the album.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>This is not my first academic foray using rap. I actually <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/07/15/537274235/after-rapping-his-dissertation-a-d-carson-is-uvas-new-hip-hop-professor">earned my Ph.D.</a> for writing a <a href="http://phd.aydeethegreat.com">rap album</a>.</p>
<p>I appreciate that hip-hop is sometimes celebrated in the academic world, but it seems to me that a lot of the excitement focuses on hip-hop as a particular kind of content rather than what it teaches people about other things in the world, many of which aren’t hip-hop.</p>
<p>For me, hip-hop is like a telescope, and the topics I discuss are like celestial bodies and galaxies. Taking that astronomical analogy a step farther, I would ask: Does it make sense to spend more time talking about the telescope that brought those faraway objects into focus and a sharper view? Or should more time be devoted to discussing the actual phenomena that the telescope enables people to see?</p>
<p>I can fully understand and appreciate how hip-hop – being not just a telescope but a powerful telescope – would generate a fair amount of discussion as a magnifier. At the same time, at some point society should be able to both focus on the potency of the lens of hip-hop and also concentrate on what hip-hop brings into view.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can college professors rap their way into academic publishing? One professor makes an album to prove they can.A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1561072021-03-08T01:39:51Z2021-03-08T01:39:51ZForget the ideal worker myth. Unis need to become more inclusive for all women (men will benefit too)<p>Movements like <a href="https://time.com/5189945/whats-the-difference-between-the-metoo-and-times-up-movements/">#metoo</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/black-lives-matter-everywhere-44608">#blacklivesmatter</a> have increased voice and visibility of gender and race disparities in society and, in particular, workplaces. That includes universities. As we recover from the pandemic, we need innovative approaches to reshaping workplace rituals, rules and routines to advance gender equality and ensure safe workplaces. </p>
<p>Universities, where we prepare professionals and leaders of tomorrow, should be demonstrating and leading these changes. It’s time to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>embed an inclusive leadership approach</p></li>
<li><p>move more quickly towards gender equality</p></li>
<li><p>challenge the barriers to greater diversity</p></li>
<li><p>acknowledge the unequal power relations that exist in universities. </p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-change-at-the-top-for-university-leaders-as-men-outnumber-women-3-to-1-154556">No change at the top for university leaders as men outnumber women 3 to 1</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Stop assuming the <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/05/the-pandemic-has-exposed-the-fallacy-of-the-ideal-worker">ideal worker exists</a>: the myth is busted. Chaining people to their desks or labs for every available productive hour is not responsible or effective. Nor does it create a sense of autonomy, wellness or active connections to the workplace or community. </p>
<h2>Finding better ways of working</h2>
<p>Treating people with dignity and respect can achieve more meaningful ways of working. In particular, universities need to broaden the range of flexible work options. These options include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>being adaptable about where work is done</p></li>
<li><p>changing start and finish times</p></li>
<li><p>a <a href="https://theconversation.com/working-four-day-weeks-for-five-days-pay-research-shows-it-pays-off-100375">shorter week</a></p></li>
<li><p>adapting role types and leave arrangements</p></li>
<li><p>ensuring meeting times allow for community and family commitments.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>More innovative approaches include <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2020-03/apo-nid277446_0.pdf">vertical job share</a>. For example, in an 80/20 split of time between two staff the division of role responsibility rests with the senior job share partner. Innovation calls for a work mindset shift from “no way” to “it starts with yes” when it comes to flexibility. </p>
<p>Women are traditionally seen as needing flexibility due to caring responsibilities. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/helping-men-get-work-life-balance-can-help-everyone-43000">increasing flexibility for men</a> is an often neglected but necessary part of change. It’s an obvious way to increase options for men to share family and community involvement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/helping-men-get-work-life-balance-can-help-everyone-43000">Helping men get work-life balance can help everyone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When Australian universities have introduced more flexible and progressive arrangements the results have been positive. For example, “rules” on who gets a car park (such as accessibility based on caring responsibilities), promotion and lecture start times have been rewritten. Increased participation and productivity are among the many benefits that flow from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02678373.2019.1686440?casa_token=kmLp5x9ML-UAAAAA%3A8jvR9DmHNh8_vW39vxabFUThK6uLlS6hSQ5zK86TO4Zp02Jc-vU5lHToNjnu1nSmgGKdN618Brb5RfE">more meaningful work and opportunities</a> for women (and men) across the hierarchy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="smiling women takes notes as she chats with colleagues online" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388173/original/file-20210307-23-2k35xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388173/original/file-20210307-23-2k35xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388173/original/file-20210307-23-2k35xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388173/original/file-20210307-23-2k35xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388173/original/file-20210307-23-2k35xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388173/original/file-20210307-23-2k35xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388173/original/file-20210307-23-2k35xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workplaces that are adaptable about where work is done have seen increases in participation and productivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-young-woman-headset-participating-online-1878904171">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Creating leadership pathways</h2>
<p>However, universities need to go further. Academic and professional promotion and reward structures need to measure and recognise the <a href="https://unswtwlp.mailchimpsites.com">impacts</a> of all the work academics and professionals do beyond traditional measures. Measures of social, environmental, cultural and economic impacts on communities, industries, government and media are vital to ensure we are contributing to equity in society. One innovative example of such impacts is <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/tax-clinic.html">tax clinics</a> that advise to lower-income taxpayers and small businesses while also providing practical experience for accounting/tax students.</p>
<p>Athena Swan has <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/Fac/Soc/Sociology/Research/Centres/Gender/Calendar/Certifying_Equality_A/Certifying_Equality_-_Critical_Reflection_On_Athena_Swan.pdf">exposed the dearth of data</a> in universities on workforce diversity such as LGBTQI+, Indigenous and migrant women. Acting on this will mean higher education encompasses a broader range of women’s diverse lives. This includes their experiences of cultural identities, disability and sexual orientation. </p>
<p>The HR data are meaningless unless the information adds value to the people it describes. And that requires a critical conversation about how to collect new types of data and willingness to provide it. </p>
<p>Universities, governments and countries cannot thrive without including all members of society. Women, especially those from diverse backgrounds, still have fewer pathways and <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-higher-education-can-be-seen-as-hostile-to-women-of-color-140575">more barriers to leadership</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-higher-education-can-be-seen-as-hostile-to-women-of-color-140575">5 ways higher education can be seen as hostile to women of color</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Universities have enormous opportunities to be at the forefront of ensuring more gender-diverse women, more women of colour, more women with disability and more LGBTQI+ women reach senior leadership positions. Indeed, they have a moral obligation to show the way.</p>
<p>Creating these pathways for diverse women will also challenge how universities operate in terms of visibility, dominant cultures and beliefs. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343400540_Imagining_a_More_Inclusive_University">Underrepresented women</a> (such as of colour) have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jul/28/uks-white-female-academics-are-being-privileged-above-women-and-men-of-colour">not benefited from anti-discrimination legislation or equity policies in the same way white women have</a>.</p>
<h2>Helping students become better citizens</h2>
<p>Academics have a duty to create <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew-Kitchenham/publication/249634386_The_Evolution_of_John_Mezirow%27s_Transformative_Learning_Theory/links/5d1e203b458515c11c1260e1/The-Evolution-of-John-Mezirows-Transformative-Learning-Theory.pdf">transformational educational experiences</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1541344607299394">ways of learning</a> in partnership with our students. In particular, they need a better understanding of the nature of privilege.</p>
<p>Universities must work to ensure the educational experience helps students develop their competencies in active, critical, empathetic and committed citizenship. These are essential aspects of 21st-century higher education. </p>
<p>In practice, this means continuing to create better pathways of access and participation for underrepresented students. Tutorials, labs and studios must become <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-tips-on-how-unis-can-do-more-to-design-online-learning-that-works-for-all-students-144803">inclusive learning environments</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-tips-on-how-unis-can-do-more-to-design-online-learning-that-works-for-all-students-144803">5 tips on how unis can do more to design online learning that works for all students</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All these measures will help improve opportunities for students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and for women in professions and disciplines where they are underrepresented. </p>
<h2>Diversity and inclusion underpin vitality</h2>
<p>A fundamental challenge universities face as we recover from the pandemic is to create and sustain organisational strategies that support and celebrate the investments of energy by women (and men) of diverse backgrounds. This applies both to their own careers and to realising the university’s mission. </p>
<p>At the core of the strategy is a deep understanding of the connection between gender and other identities for staff and students. We need to hear women’s voices from diverse backgrounds and experiences. In this way we can educate ourselves and improve our policies, practices and ways of leading. </p>
<p>This process of transformation is essential for universities to be safe, vital and innovative places of learning, work and research for all. Rising to this challenge means we will be well prepared for a more sustainable, equitable and just society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leisa Sargent has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eileen Baldry receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. She is affiliated with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. </span></em></p>On International Women’s Day, universities should resolve to lead the way in reshaping workplace rituals, rules and routines to advance gender equality and ensure safe workplaces.Leisa Sargent, Senior Deputy Dean, UNSW Business School, Co-DVC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UNSW SydneyEileen Baldry, Deputy Vice Chancellor Equity Diversity and Inclusion, Professor of Criminology, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1545562021-03-07T19:09:42Z2021-03-07T19:09:42ZNo change at the top for university leaders as men outnumber women 3 to 1<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387629/original/file-20210304-17-ox49i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=109%2C7%2C2157%2C1402&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Cotton_statue,_Liverpool_-_DSC00850.JPG">Rept0n1x/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian university leaders are nearly three times more likely to be a man than a woman. </p>
<p>Of 37 public university chancellors, just 10 are women (27%) and 27 (73%) are men. It’s exactly the same for vice-chancellors: 10 are women and 27 are men. </p>
<p>Together, this means men hold 54 of the 74 top jobs in Australian higher education.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-of-australias-uni-leaders-are-white-male-and-grey-this-lack-of-diversity-could-be-a-handicap-150952">Most of Australia's uni leaders are white, male and grey. This lack of diversity could be a handicap</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Last year presented a big opportunity for progress towards gender equity among university leaders. During 2020, vice-chancellors at 15 of Australia’s 37 public universities either announced their departure from the role, or actually left. This move of 41% of the vice-chancellors in a single year provided the best opportunity for improving gender equity in living memory. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, Australian university councils, which appoint vice-chancellors, did not take up the opportunity. The gender ratio didn’t change at all. </p>
<p>To date, women have been appointed in just four of the 15 (27%) interim or ongoing replacements made. Two of these four women moved from one vice-chancellor position to another. In 11 of the 15 announced vice-chancellor replacements – 73% of cases – a man won the role.</p>
<p>Men also dominate the upper levels of Australian academia. The <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/uncategorised/resources/2019-staff-numbers">latest available figures</a> (from 2019) show:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>86% more men than women at associate professor and professor levels D and E (10,363 men, 5,562 women)</p></li>
<li><p>11% more men than women at senior lecturer level C (6,355 men, 5,724 women)</p></li>
<li><p>25% more women than men at lecturer level B (7,428 men, 9,253 women)</p></li>
<li><p>15% more women than men at associate lecturer level A (4,426 men and 5,093 women).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Overall, the numbers of men and women employed as academics aren’t very different. In 2019, Australian universities <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/uncategorised/resources/2019-staff-numbers">employed 54,204</a> full-time and fractional full-time academics: 28,572 men (53%) and 25,632 (47%) women. It’s the seniority of the positions they hold that differs starkly. </p>
<p>These figures do not include casual staff. </p>
<h2>Isn’t the gender balance improving?</h2>
<p>Optimists often assure me leadership gender equity is improving. Granted, the percentage of female chancellors in Australian has increased in the past five years. In 2016, <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/101841">WomenCount</a> reported 15% of Australian university chancellors were women. While the increase is positive, it remains disappointing that women occupy only about one-quarter of these increasingly powerful and important roles.</p>
<p>The shift in senior academic ranks has also been slow. In 2009, <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/staff-data/selected-higher-education-statistics-2009-staff-data">73.5% of professors were men</a>. Between 2009 and 2019, the proportion of female professors has risen from 26.5% to 35%. That’s an improvement of less than one percentage point per year on average. </p>
<p>At this rate, it will be the late 2030s before women make up half of the professoriate in Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/female-leaders-are-missing-in-academia-27996">Female leaders are missing in academia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why does gender inequity persist?</h2>
<p>The most common reason put forward for gender inequity is related to women’s role in childbearing. But the fact that only women can grow, birth and breastfeed babies does not, on its own, explain why there are 86% more male associate professors and professors than women in these roles, nor why there are nearly three times more male than female vice-chancellors and chancellors. After all, these womanly activities take a relatively short amount of time and most women I know can skilfully multi-task while pregnant and breastfeeding. </p>
<p>However, the fact that women take on the bulk of child-raising duties might help explain the inequities. Of course, people of every gender can equally well raise children. But they don’t – it’s mostly left to the women. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/flexible-work-arrangements-help-women-but-only-if-they-are-also-offered-to-men-155882">Flexible work arrangements help women, but only if they are also offered to men</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother opens car door for girl going home after school" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387620/original/file-20210303-19-16ppgkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387620/original/file-20210303-19-16ppgkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387620/original/file-20210303-19-16ppgkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387620/original/file-20210303-19-16ppgkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387620/original/file-20210303-19-16ppgkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387620/original/file-20210303-19-16ppgkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387620/original/file-20210303-19-16ppgkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men are no less capable of picking up children from school but typically it falls to women to do the school run.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/back-school-concept-beautiful-young-asian-1084814675">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For women, the results of this unequal sharing of responsibility include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>less time and energy for academic pursuits</p></li>
<li><p>more teaching (often) and less time for research and publishing</p></li>
<li><p>lower academic and leadership profiles (usually)</p></li>
<li><p>fewer opportunities to engage in activities that count for promotion and for senior leadership roles.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Of course, not all women have children. And those that do find that they grow up, learn to feed, dress and eventually support themselves and move out of home. Is it also possible that Australian university culture and practices privilege men’s careers and hold back women’s advancement?</p>
<p>University decision-makers, including promotion committees, might well favour men because of: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>relatively uninterrupted and neat career trajectories </p></li>
<li><p>relatively greater freedom to engage in research and publishing without the disadvantages of part-time employment, never mind the mid-afternoon school run</p></li>
<li><p>more easily quantified outputs</p></li>
<li><p>more frequent opportunities to lead</p></li>
<li><p>the cumulative achievements, profile and trajectory that come with all of the above.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing male and female academics' ratings of constraints on research" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387632/original/file-20210304-13-1k4sc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-is-widening-the-academic-gender-divide-146007">The Conversation. Data: T. Khan & P. Siriwardhane (2020)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-is-widening-the-academic-gender-divide-146007">How COVID is widening the academic gender divide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Let’s shake up the status quo</h2>
<p>Most universities try to redress gender inequity. Committees, agenda items, plans, targets and mentoring programs abound. But evidently these efforts aren’t working.</p>
<p>After many years in executive and governance leadership, I continue to observe decision-makers often thinking of men first, or only of men, when searching for suitable leadership candidates. </p>
<p>On the rarer occasions that women are offered leadership opportunities, they have to adopt the “right” style and carefully balance gravitas and humility. They must learn how to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/why-must-women-leaders-learn-gender-judo-to-stay-likeable-at-work-20190904-p52nzj.html">perform gender judo</a> and ensure they don’t fall into the <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/lean-in-9780753541647">success versus likeability conundrum</a> that Facebook chief operating officer and author Sheryl Sandberg made famous. </p>
<p>In short, to become academic leaders, women must skilfully navigate the unconscious bias and sexism that permeate universities.</p>
<p>While shifts are occurring, they are painfully slow, as the gender data over the past decade and predicted trajectories show. Might it be time for women (and enlightened men) to take matters into their own hands to begin to undermine the status quo? I think so – so I’ve written <a href="https://www.marciadevlin.com.au/contact-me/">a book that proposes techniques to adopt to these ends</a>. </p>
<p>What will you do to contribute to greater gender equity?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcia Devlin AM does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>International Women’s Day is a time to take stock of what has been achieved and what remains to be done. 2020 was a massive missed opportunity to improve gender equity among university leaders.Marcia Devlin AM, Adjunct Professor, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.