tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/professors-20261/articlesProfessors – The Conversation2024-03-15T12:10:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243192024-03-15T12:10:14Z2024-03-15T12:10:14ZThe hostility Black women face in higher education carries dire consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581998/original/file-20240314-24-v5d9s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2110%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Isolation can make opportunities elusive. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-woman-holding-a-highlighter-and-reading-a-royalty-free-image/1446120435?adppopup=true">fotostorm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Isolated. Abused. Overworked. </p>
<p>These are the themes that emerged when I invited nine Black women to chronicle their professional experiences and relationships with colleagues as they earned their Ph.D.s at a public university in the Midwest. I featured their writings in <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3150/AYA_THIS.pdf?1710504520">the dissertation I wrote</a> to get my Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. </p>
<p>The women spoke of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01177.x">being silenced</a>.</p>
<p>“It’s not just the beating me down that is hard,” one participant told me about constantly having her intelligence questioned. “It is the fact that it feels like I’m villainized and made out to be the problem for trying to advocate for myself.”</p>
<p>The women told me they did not feel like they belonged. They spoke of routinely being isolated by peers and potential mentors. </p>
<p>One participant told me she felt that peer community, faculty mentorship and cultural affinity spaces were lacking.</p>
<p>Because of the isolation, participants often felt that they were missing out on various opportunities, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2388">funding and opportunities to get their work published</a>.</p>
<p>Participants also discussed the ways they felt they were duped into taking on more than their fair share of work.</p>
<p>“I realized I had been tricked into handling a two- to four-person job entirely by myself,” one participant said of her paid graduate position. “This happened just about a month before the pandemic occurred so it very quickly got swept under the rug.” </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The hostility that Black women face in higher education can be hazardous to their health. The women in my study told me they were struggling with depression, had thought about suicide and felt physically ill when they had to go to campus.</p>
<p>Other studies have found similar outcomes. For instance, a 2020 study of 220 U.S. Black college women ages 18-48 found that even though being seen as a strong Black woman came with its benefits – such as being thought of as resilient, hardworking, independent and nurturing – it also came at a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01170-w">cost to their mental and physical health</a>. </p>
<p>These kinds of experiences can take a toll on women’s bodies and can result in <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-weeds/24079547/weathering-black-health-outcomes-women-dr-uche-blackstock">poor maternal health, cancer, shorter life expectancy</a> and other symptoms that impair their ability to be well.</p>
<p>I believe my research takes on greater urgency in light of the recent death of <a href="https://www.highereddive.com/news/lincoln-university-candia-bailey-death-investigation/705101/">Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey</a>, who was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/lincoln-university-president-paid-leave-days-vp-student-affairs-dies-s-rcna133723">vice president of student affairs</a> at Lincoln University. Before she <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/education/lincoln-university-students-vp-dies-by-suicide/">died by suicide</a>, she reportedly wrote that she felt she was suffering abuse and that the university <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/28/antoinette-candia-bailey-lincoln-university-death">wasn’t taking her mental health concerns seriously</a>.</p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Several anthologies examine the negative experiences that Black women experience in academia. They include education scholars Venus Evans-Winters and Bettina Love’s edited volume, “<a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1118277">Black Feminism in Education</a>,” which examines how Black women navigate what it means to be a scholar in a “white supremacist patriarchal society.” Gender and sexuality studies scholar <a href="https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813032689">Stephanie Evans</a> analyzes the barriers that Black women faced in accessing higher education from 1850 to 1954. In “<a href="https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506489834/Black-Women-Ivory-Tower">Black Women, Ivory Tower</a>,” African American studies professor Jasmine Harris recounts her own traumatic experiences in the world of higher education.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>In addition to publishing the findings of my research study, I plan to continue exploring the depths of Black women’s experiences in academia, expanding my research to include undergraduate students, as well as faculty and staff. </p>
<p>I believe this research will strengthen this field of study and enable people who work in higher education to develop and implement more comprehensive solutions.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ebony Aya received funding from the Black Collective Foundation in 2022 to support the work of the Aya Collective. </span></em></p>9 Black women who were working on or recently earned their PhDs told a researcher they felt isolated and shut out.Ebony Aya, Program Manager at the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching, Macalester CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220552024-02-08T21:17:53Z2024-02-08T21:17:53ZThe war in Gaza is wiping out Palestine’s education and knowledge systems<p>Gaza’s education system has suffered significantly since Israel’s bombardment and assault on the strip began. Last month, Israel <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68023080">blew up</a> Gaza’s last standing university, Al-Israa University.</p>
<p>In the past four months, all or parts of Gaza’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/24/how-israel-has-destroyed-gazas-schools-and-universities#:%7E:text=Palestinian%20news%20agency%20Wafa%20reported,university%20in%20Gaza%20in%20stages.">12 universities</a> have been bombed and mostly destroyed. </p>
<p>Approximately <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-102-enarhe">378 schools</a> have been destroyed or damaged. The Palestinian Ministry of Education has reported the deaths of over <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/151126/file/State-of-Palestine-Humanitarian-Situation-Report-No.15-(Escalation)-17-January-2024.pdf">4,327 students, 231 teachers</a> and <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6108/Israel-kills-dozens-of-academics,-destroys-every-university-in-the-Gaza-Strip">94 professors.</a></p>
<p>Numerous <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/?fbclid=IwAR1VqwE8t9HEb46IFQDPJhl8ZFReHyyzgCAXjPfMPIGoThfbSXBEsy-Trog">cultural heritage sites</a>, including libraries, archives and museums, have also been destroyed, damaged and plundered.</p>
<p>But the assault on Palestinian educational and cultural institutions did not begin in response to the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has a long record of <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/430540">targeted attacks</a> on Palestinian institutions that produce knowledge and culture. That history includes targeting and <a href="https://yam.ps/page-11801-en.html">assassinating</a> Palestinian intellectuals, <a href="https://www.aaiusa.org/library/i-knew-ghassan-kanafani">cultural producers</a> and political figures. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4cY6H8n0zf0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video clip shared by ‘The New Arab,’ showing the destruction at Al-Israa University in the Gaza Strip.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is scholasticide?</h2>
<p>The destruction of education systems and buildings is known as “scholasticide,” a term first coined by Oxford professor Karma Nabulsi during the 2008-2009 Israeli assault on Gaza. Scholasticide describes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-schools">the systemic destruction of Palestinian education</a> within the context of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2021.1909376">Israel’s decades-long settler colonization and occupation of Palestine</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, a group of scholars working under the name <a href="https://scholarsagainstwar.org/toolkit/">Scholars Against the War on Palestine</a> broadened the definition to include a more comprehensive picture of what is happening during the current war. They outline the intimate relationship between <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/how-israels-scholasticide-denies-palestinians-their-past-present-and-future/article_8f52d77a-b648-11ee-863d-f3411121907b.html">scholasticide and genocide</a>.</p>
<p>They say scholasticide includes the intentional <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/a-cultural-genocide-which-of-gazas-heritage-sites-have-been-destroyed">destruction of cultural heritage</a>: archives, libraries and museums. Scholasticide includes killing, causing bodily or mental harm, incarcerating, or systematically harassing educators, students and administrators. It includes besieging, closing or obstructing access to educational institutions. It can also include using universities or schools as a military base (as was done with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68023080">Al-Israa University</a>).</p>
<p>The magnitude of destruction has led them <a href="https://scholarsagainstwar.org/toolkit/">to conclude:</a> “Israeli colonial policy in Gaza has now shifted from a focus on systematic destruction to total annihilation of education.”</p>
<p>As genocide scholar Douglas Irvin-Erickson says: the original definition of genocide as first drafted by <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781351214100-2/rapha%C3%ABl-lemkin-douglas-irvin-erickson">Raphael Lemkin in 1943</a> included the idea that “attacking a culture was a way of committing genocide, and not a different type of genocide.” </p>
<h2>The International Court of Justice</h2>
<p>During the recent genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa argued that <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf">Palestinian academics were being intentionally assassinated</a>.</p>
<p>Legal representative for South Africa, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f_yoal4gx8">told the court</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Almost 90,000 Palestinian university students cannot attend university in Gaza. Over 60 per cent of schools, almost all universities and countless bookshops and libraries have been damaged and destroyed. Hundreds of teachers and academics have been killed, including deans of universities and leading Palestinian scholars. Obliterating the very future prospects of the future education of Gaza’s children and young people.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-sum-01-00-en.pdf">On Jan. 26, in a landmark ruling, the ICJ</a> ordered Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza.</p>
<h2>Attempting to eliminate Palestinian futures</h2>
<p>Scholasticide is not an event. It’s part of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2021.1975478">colonial continuum</a> of attacking and destroying a people’s educational life, knowledge systems and plundering material culture and cultural heritage.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2017.46.4.75">targeted killing of the educated class</a> is intended to make it difficult for Palestinians to restore the political and socio-economic conditions needed to survive and rebuild Gaza.</p>
<p>This systematic destruction is at the core of the settler colonial “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240">logic of elimination</a>.” It has also been applied to Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2012.10648833">logic</a> drives a settler population to replace Indigenous peoples in their aim to establish a new society. </p>
<p>For example, this logic was exercised <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/palestine-nakba-9781848139718/">during the 1948 Nakba</a>. Thousands of <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/78440">Palestinian books</a>, manuscripts, libraries, archives, photographs, cultural artifacts and cultural property <a href="https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/54">were looted, destroyed or damaged</a> by Zionist militias. In 1948, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine/Ilan-Pappe/9781851685554">Palestinian schools were destroyed or damaged</a> or later appropriated for use by the new Israeli state. </p>
<h2>Resistance: Palestinian history and culture</h2>
<p>Despite the ongoing attempts to erase Palestinian history, culture and memory, Palestinians have found ways to resist their erasure. In the 1960s and ‘70s, <a href="https://palestinianstudies.org/workshops/2023/palestinian-revolutionary-tradition-and-global-anti-colonialism">an anti-colonial revolutionary tradition</a>, produced and influenced by intellectual and political thought, was strengthened. </p>
<p>It helped to create <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1650753">infrastructures</a> for the survival, mobilization and development of the Palestinian people and their national movement. It cultivated transnational relationships of solidarity. It helped displaced Palestinians, separated across geographies, to preserve their identity and reorganize themselves politically.</p>
<p>The intellectual and political thought of this period was <a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/28899">passed onto</a> the generations that followed. It influenced educational and political programs, cultural development and practices of resistance. Especially during the First Intifada from 1987-1993. This enabled Palestinians to stay steadfast in their struggle against colonial violence across time and space. Palestinian education and culture form <a href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/israels-archaeological-war-palestinian-cultural-heritage">the backbone</a> of the right to self-determination. This is why Israel frequently targets Palestinian education and culture. </p>
<p>Palestinians have endured <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n20/karma-nabulsi/diary">several periods of intense attacks</a> on their cultural and educational life. This includes the June 1967 war, Israel’s 1982 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/06/israel7">invasion of Lebanon during which a number of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s institutions were destroyed</a> and the First and Second Intifadas.</p>
<p>Following Israel’s destruction of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44746845">the Palestine Research Center in Lebanon in 1982</a>, Palestinian poet <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/palestinian-identity/">Mahmoud Darwish said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“He who steals land does not surprise us by stealing a library. He who kills thousands of innocent civilians does not surprise us by killing paintings.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man in glasses wears a suit and tie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote about everyday grief. (Photo is from 1980)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Syrian News Agency/Al Sabah)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2022.2114778">colonial theft</a> continues unabashed. Cultural heritage has been <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/?fbclid=IwAR2QpiHfxSB6939yfyipOLY6zVYTED_rQN7JVxTq33UCinF_-3U1xNuQFzE">annihilated, damaged or plundered</a> in this war. During the bombing of Al-Israa University in January, Israel also targeted the National Museum. Licensed by the Ministry of Antiquities, the museum housed over <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-obliterates-gazas-last-university-amid-boycott-calls">3,000 rare artifacts, which were looted</a>. </p>
<p>Most academic institutions around the world remain silent about Israel’s scholasticide. But others are speaking out. Globally, this includes <a href="https://lithub.com/israel-has-damaged-or-destroyed-at-least-13-libraries-in-gaza/">Librarians and Archivists with Palestine</a> and some <a href="https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/destruction-of-palestinian-education-system">academic associations</a> and faculty groups. The ICJ’s recent order to Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza may motivate other scholars and institutions to consider breaking their silence on scholasticide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chandni Desai 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>Scholars say Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s schools, universities and museums are part of an ongoing project to destroy Palestinian people, identity and ideas.Chandni Desai, Assistant professor, Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224452024-02-06T13:30:37Z2024-02-06T13:30:37ZPeer review isn’t perfect − I know because I teach others how to do it and I’ve seen firsthand how it comes up short<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573563/original/file-20240205-21-woj56j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C58%2C6489%2C4251&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quality in academic research can be compromised when diversity of experience is lacking among the reviewers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/middle-aged-men-in-a-library-royalty-free-image/1369631769?phrase=professor+at+computer&adppopup=true">Ika84 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I teach research methods, a major focus is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4975196/">peer review</a>. As a process, peer review evaluates academic papers for their quality, integrity and impact on a field, largely shaping what scientists accept as “knowledge.” By instinct, any academic follows up a new idea with the question, “Was that peer reviewed?”</p>
<p>Although I believe in the importance of peer review – and I help do peer reviews for several academic journals – I know how vulnerable the process can be. Not only have academics questioned <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.1982.10569910">peer review reliability</a> for decades, but the retraction of more than <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03974-8">10,000 research papers in 2023</a> set a new record.</p>
<p>I had my first encounter with the flaws in the peer review process in 2015, during my first year as a Ph.D. student in educational psychology at a large land-grant university in the Pacific Northwest.</p>
<p>My adviser published some of the most widely cited studies in educational research. He served on several editorial boards. Some of the most recognized journals in learning science solicited his review of new studies. One day, I knocked on his office door. He answered without getting up from his chair, a printed manuscript splayed open on his lap, and waved me in.</p>
<p>“Good timing,” he said. “Do you have peer review experience?”</p>
<p>I had served on the editorial staff for literary journals and reviewed poetry and fiction submissions, but I doubted much of that transferred to scientific peer review.</p>
<p>“Fantastic.” He smiled in relief. “This will be real-world learning.” He handed me the manuscript from his lap and told me to have my written review back to him in a week.</p>
<p>I was too embarrassed to ask how one actually does peer review, so I offered an impromptu plan based on my prior experience: “I’ll make editing comments in the margins and then write a summary about the overall quality?”</p>
<p>His smile faded, either because of disappointment or distraction. He began responding to an email.</p>
<p>“Make sure the methods are sound. The results make sense. Don’t worry about the editing.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, I fumbled my way through, saving my adviser time on one less review he had to conduct. Afterward, I did receive good feedback and eventually became a confident peer reviewer. But at the time, I certainly was not a “peer.” I was too new in my field to evaluate methods and results, and I had not yet been exposed to enough studies to identify a surprising observation or to recognize the quality I was supposed to control. Manipulated data or subpar methods could easily have gone undetected.</p>
<h2>Effects of bias</h2>
<p>Knowledge is not self-evident. A survey can be designed with a <a href="https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/research/survey-bias/">problematic amount of bias</a>, even if unintentional.</p>
<p>Observing a phenomenon in one context, such as an intervention helping white middle-class children learn to read, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1086296X19877463">may not necessarily yield insights</a> for how to best teach reading to children in other demographics. Debates over “the science of reading” in general have lasted decades, with researchers arguing over <a href="https://www.vox.com/23815311/science-of-reading-movement-literacy-learning-loss">constantly changing “recommendations</a>,” such as whether to teach phonics or the use of context cues.</p>
<p>A correlation – a student who bullies other students and plays violent video games – <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nmeth.3587">may not be causation</a>. We do not know if the student became a bully because of playing violent video games. Only experts within a field would be able to notice such differences, and even then, experts do not always agree on what they notice.</p>
<p>As individuals, we can very often be limited by our own experiences. Let’s say in my life I only see white swans. I might form the knowledge that only white swans exist. Maybe I write a manuscript about my lifetime of observations, concluding that all swans are white. I submit that manuscript to a journal, and a “peer,” someone who also has observed a lot of swans, says, “Wait a minute, I’ve seen black swans.” That peer would communicate back to me their observations so that I can refine my knowledge.</p>
<p>The peer plays a pivotal role evaluating observations, with the overall goal of advancing knowledge. For example, if the above scenario were reversed, and peer reviewers who all believed that all swans were white came across the first study observing a black swan, the study would receive a lot of attention as researchers scrambled to replicate that observation. So why was a first-year graduate student getting to stand in for an expert? Why would my review count the same as a veteran’s review? One answer: The process relies <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/06/13/peer-review-crisis-creates-problems-journals-and-scholars">almost entirely on unpaid labor</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that peers are professionals, peer review is not a profession. </p>
<p>As a result, the same overworked scholars often receive the bulk of the peer review requests. Besides the labor inequity, a small pool of experts can lead to a narrowed process of what is publishable or what counts as knowledge, directly threatening <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1120938/full">diversity of perspectives and scholars</a>.</p>
<p>Without a large enough reviewer pool, the process can easily fall victim to politics, arising from a small community recognizing each other’s work and compromising conflicts of interest. Many of the issues with peer review can be addressed by professionalizing the field, either through official recognition or compensation.</p>
<h2>Value despite challenges</h2>
<p>Despite these challenges, I still tell my students that peer review offers the best method for evaluating studies and advancing knowledge. Consider the statistical phenomenon suggesting that groups of people are more likely to arrive at “right answers” than individuals.</p>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/175380/the-wisdom-of-crowds-by-james-surowiecki/">The Wisdom of Crowds</a>,” author James Surowiecki tells the story of a county fair in 1906, where fairgoers guessed the weight of an ox. Sir Francis Galton averaged the 787 guesses and arrived at 1,197 pounds. The ox weighed 1,198 pounds.</p>
<p>When it comes to science and the reproduction of ideas, the wisdom of the many can account for individual outliers. Fortunately, and ironically, this is how science discredited Galton’s take on eugenics, which has <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/big-thinkers/francis-galton.htm">overshadowed his contributions to science</a>. </p>
<p>As a process, peer review theoretically works. The question is whether the peer will get the support needed to effectively conduct the review.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>JT Torres 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>Politics and the lack of compensation are among the factors that can undermine the peer review process, which is important to the quality of knowledge in academic journals.JT Torres, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Quinnipiac UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197402024-01-22T14:20:32Z2024-01-22T14:20:32ZKenyan universities are very short of professors: why it matters and what to do about it<p>A Kenyan vice-chancellor recently <a href="https://www.pd.co.ke/news/university-vcs-raise-concern-over-low-number-of-professors-210986/">went public</a> about the scarcity of university professors. There are fewer than 1,000 professors for the country’s 68 universities and 562,925 students. That is an average of around 563 students per professor. South Africa has around <a href="https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/reports/how-many-professors-are-there-sa">4,034 professors</a> and <a href="https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/over-one-million-enrolments-expected-public-universities">1,112,439</a> students – around 275 students per professor. </p>
<p>Professors occupy the highest teaching rank in the university. They reach this rank by distinguishing themselves in teaching, research, scholarship and service. They should publish extensively in renowned journals, generate substantial research grants and conduct community engagement activities that make an impact. </p>
<p>In recent decades, a massive expansion of Kenya’s university system has occurred against a stagnant or declining professorial class. In <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330253514_Redefining_Quality_in_Higher_Education_The_Concept_of_Juakalization">2010</a>, for instance, Kenya had 32 universities with an enrolment of around 177,175 students. Today, the number of universities has more than doubled and enrolment has <a href="https://www.knbs.or.ke/download/economic-survey-2023/">more than tripled</a>. There were only <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20130329101026666">238 professors</a> with an average of 774 students per professor. Thus, while enrolment in universities has surged by over 31%, the average number of student per professor has decreased by a similar amount (27%), suggesting a consistent pattern of low ratio of professors relative to student enrolments.</p>
<p>For public universities alone, government data indicates that the student population has surged by 70% while that of professors has grown by only <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220920065018406">11% in the last 10 years</a>. This dearth of professors has implications for academic leadership, knowledge generation, mentorship and university reputation in a competitive global academic environment. </p>
<p>My scholarly interest is in African higher education, with emphasis on finance, privatisation, marketisation, governance, equity and policy. In my view, the main reasons for the shortage of professors in Kenya are well documented. These are the low graduation of PhD degree holders, rapid expansion of the university system, heavy workload, absence of an institutional culture that supports academic scholarship, and departure of prominent academics from the universities.</p>
<p>To remedy the situation, universities could take three immediate actions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>fast track PhD graduation for academic staff on staff development programmes</p></li>
<li><p>reduce part-time academic staff in private universities</p></li>
<li><p>develop a government-supported national research programme that promotes rigorous scholarship.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Causes of professor shortage</h2>
<p>One of the causes of the shortage of professors is rapid expansion of the university system. There are huge <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.11.002">class sizes</a>, sometimes 200-300 students in public universities. This means more time has to be spent on teaching and less on research to <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220221031620524">complete PhD studies</a> or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059318306436#bib0145">publish</a> in journals. </p>
<p>The heavy workload and its impact on career progression has a gender dimension too. A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273308921">study</a> of three Kenyan universities documented the small number of female professors relative to male academics. Women’s career development is constrained by culturally defined domestic expectations coupled with university obligations. </p>
<p>Those joining the academic ranks after their PhDs soon discover that the universities lack a culture that nurtures and rewards rigorous research. A supportive institutional culture is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307599125">missing</a> even for established universities such as the University of Nairobi. Universities lack clear research goals, rigorous criteria for evaluating research, a student involvement strategy, budget guidelines, and incentives. This leads to lower research outcomes. </p>
<p>Several prominent professors have <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36946674/BRAIN_DRAIN_ONE_CONSEQUENCE_OF_MISMANAGING_KENYAN_UNIVERSITIES_What_do_the_following_people_have_in_common">left universities</a> to <a href="http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/37432">pursue careers</a> in the public or private sectors or outside the country. Others have <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220405101935417">joined</a> politics. The triggers of this migration from universities include <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312332208">poor pay and working conditions</a>. Two other <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/rcie.2013.8.4.510">important triggers</a> are the suppression of academic freedom and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312332208">general decline</a> in intellectualism in the universities. </p>
<h2>Impact of scarcity</h2>
<p>As the professor class has shrunk, so has the number of PhD graduates. Kenya <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-low-completion-rate-among-phd-candidates-should-worry-panya">should</a> produce 2,400 PhDs every year to meet demand but is only able to produce 230. </p>
<p>The scarcity of professors translates into lower institutional reputation. Professors exercise <a href="https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v10n1p295">leadership</a> in research, publications, partnerships and grant developments, the key attributes of university reputation. </p>
<p>As measured by reputable index peer-reviewed journals, Kenya ranks in the lower quartile. In the global 2023 <a href="https://www.scimagoir.com/rankings.php?sector=Higher+educ.&country=KEN&year=2017">Scimago Institutional Rankings</a>, the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University, the top universities in Kenya, were ranked 5,065 and 5,231 respectively. </p>
<p>Without a robust reputation, Kenya’s universities <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-023-00994-1">encounter challenges</a> attracting competitive research grants, international partnerships and linkages, and international students and faculty. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>The first step to boost professor numbers is for universities to accelerate the graduation of PhD candidates – especially those destined to join the staff. They should have time to do research and write their theses. After graduating, they would join the teaching ranks and collaborate with professors in research, preparing them for professorship. </p>
<p>Kenya’s private universities employ high numbers of part-time lecturers because they are cost-effective. But this should be limited. Part-timers rarely supervise doctoral students or engage in scholarship and community service. Therefore, they stand little chance of being appointed to the rank of professor. </p>
<p>According to one 2017 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.11.002">study</a> in a private university, 80% of students were taught by part-timers. </p>
<p>Universities, with the support of the government, should develop an environment that promotes rigorous research and scholarship. They should enact policies on sabbatical leave and incentives for securing research grants and publishing in reputable journals. They should have predictable criteria for promotion to professorship. </p>
<p>Kenya can consider the example of South Africa’s <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/education/south-african-universities-boost-reputation-among-worlds-employers-3e75a6fe-5a17-4d5e-b06d-f56dc63f3df3">top universities</a>. With the support of the government, they developed precise models for research, publications, rewards and promotion that allow universities to maintain their international standings. This transformation has also sought to <a href="https://www.che.ac.za/file/6545/download?token=tZoVBtCG">address the inequities</a> created by the racist apartheid policies of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ishmael Munene 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>As the professor class has shrunk, so has the number of PhD graduates.Ishmael Munene, Professor of Research, Foundations & Higher Education, Northern Arizona UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121762023-09-04T12:15:54Z2023-09-04T12:15:54ZShould AI be permitted in college classrooms? 4 scholars weigh in<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545645/original/file-20230830-40577-kz4de8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C35%2C3940%2C2299&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Does AI enhance or cripple a person's analytical skills? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/learn-online-in-digital-futuristic-style-royalty-free-illustration/1414284061?phrase=artificial+intelligence+college&adppopup=true">Yevhen Lahunov/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>One of the most intense discussions taking place among university faculty is whether to permit students to use artificial intelligence in the classroom. To gain perspective on the matter, The Conversation reached out to four scholars for their take on AI as a learning tool and the reasons why they will or won’t be making it a part of their classes.</em></p>
<h2>Nicholas Tampio, professor of political science: Learn to think for yourself</h2>
<p>As a professor, I believe the purpose of a college class is to <a href="https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/teaching-political-theory-9781800373860.html">teach students to think</a>: to read scholarship, ask questions, formulate a thesis, collect and analyze data, draft an essay, take feedback from the instructor and other students, and write a final draft.</p>
<p>One problem with ChatGPT is that it allows students to produce a decent paper without thinking or writing for themselves.</p>
<p>In my American political thought class, I assign speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and ask students to compose an essay on what King and X might say about a current American political debate, such as the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">Supreme Court’s recent decision on affirmative action</a>.</p>
<p>Students could get fine grades if they used ChatGPT to “write” their papers. But they will have missed a chance to enter a dialogue with two profound thinkers about a topic that could reshape American higher education and society. </p>
<p>The point of learning to write is not simply intellectual self-discovery. My students go on to careers in journalism, law, science, academia and business. Their employers often ask them to research and write about a topic. </p>
<p>Few employers will likely hire someone to use large language models that rely on an algorithm scraping databases filled with errors and biases. Already, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/nyregion/lawyer-chatgpt-sanctions.html">lawyer has gotten in trouble</a> for using ChatGPT to craft a motion filled with fabricated cases. Employees succeed when they can research a topic and write intelligently about it. </p>
<p>Artificial intelligence is a tool that defeats a purpose of a college education – to learn how to think, and write, for oneself. </p>
<h2>Patricia A. Young, professor of education: ChatGPT doesn’t promote advanced thinking</h2>
<p>College students who are operating from a convenience or entitlement mentality – one in which they think, “I am entitled to use whatever technology is available to me” – will naturally gravitate toward using ChatGPT with or without their professor’s permission. Using ChatGPT and submitting a course assignment as your own creation is called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/ITHET56107.2022.10031827">AI-assisted plagiarism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman looks straightforward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545998/original/file-20230901-23-orbx53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545998/original/file-20230901-23-orbx53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545998/original/file-20230901-23-orbx53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545998/original/file-20230901-23-orbx53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545998/original/file-20230901-23-orbx53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545998/original/file-20230901-23-orbx53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545998/original/file-20230901-23-orbx53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patricia A. Young.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marlayna Demond for University of Maryland, Baltimore County</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some professors allow the use of ChatGPT as long as students cite ChatGPT as the source. As a researcher who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EUXhTIoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">specializes in the use of technology in education</a>, I believe this practice needs to be thought through. Does this mean that ChatGPT would need to cite its sources, so that students could cite ChatGPT as a type of secondary source according to <a href="https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format">APA style</a>, a standard academic style of citing papers? What Pandora’s box are we opening? Some users report that ChatGPT never reveals its sources anyway.</p>
<p>The proliferation of free AI means students won’t have to think much while writing – just engage in a high level of copy and paste. We used to call that plagiarism. With AI-assisted plagiarism, this brings in the potential for a new era of academic misconduct.</p>
<p>The concern will come when students take higher-level courses or land a job and lack the literacy skills to perform on an exceptional level. We will have created a generation of functionally illiterate adults who lack the capacity to engage in advanced thinking – like critiquing, comparing or contrasting information. </p>
<p>Yes, students can and should use smart tools, but we need to hypothesize and measure the costs to human ingenuity and the future of the human race.</p>
<h2>Asim Ali, instructor of information systems management: AI is another teacher</h2>
<p>I teach information systems management, and in the spring of 2023, I had students use ChatGPT for an essay assignment and then record a video podcast discussing how AI will impact their careers. This semester I am being more intentional by providing guidance on the possibilities and limitations of AI tools for each assignment. For example, students learn that using generative AI on a self-reflection assignment may not help, but using AI to analyze a case study is potentially a great way to find insights they may have overlooked. This emulates their future jobs in which they may use AI tools to enhance the quality of their work product. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man smiles. A brick wall is in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545995/original/file-20230901-15-zv2fts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545995/original/file-20230901-15-zv2fts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545995/original/file-20230901-15-zv2fts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545995/original/file-20230901-15-zv2fts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545995/original/file-20230901-15-zv2fts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545995/original/file-20230901-15-zv2fts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545995/original/file-20230901-15-zv2fts.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asim Ali,</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.auburn.edu/academic/provost/bios/asim-ali.php">Auburn University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My experience with adapting to AI for my own course inspired me to create a resource for all my colleagues. As executive director of the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, I oversee the instructional design and educational development teams at Auburn University. We created a self-paced, online course called <a href="https://aub.ie/teachwithai">Teaching With AI</a>.</p>
<p>Now there are over 600 faculty at Auburn and hundreds of faculty at almost 35 institutions engaging with the content and each other through discussion boards and practical exercises.</p>
<p>I receive messages from faculty sharing ways they are changing their assignments or discussing AI with their students. Some see AI as a threat to humans, but discussing AI with my students and with colleagues across the country has actually helped me develop human connections.</p>
<h2>Shital Thekdi, associate professor of analytics & operations: What can you do that AI can’t?</h2>
<p>This semester, I will ask students in my Statistics for Business and Economics course to discuss the question, “What is your value beyond the AI tools?” I want them to reframe the conversation beyond one of academic integrity and instead as a challenge. I believe students must recognize that the jobs they imagine will exist for them could be eliminated because of these new technologies. So the pressure is on students to understand not only how to use these tools but also how to be better than the tools. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A woman looks straightforward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546209/original/file-20230904-29-f5iq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546209/original/file-20230904-29-f5iq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546209/original/file-20230904-29-f5iq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546209/original/file-20230904-29-f5iq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546209/original/file-20230904-29-f5iq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546209/original/file-20230904-29-f5iq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546209/original/file-20230904-29-f5iq1.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">Shital Thekdi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Richmond</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I hope my students will consider ethical reasoning and the role of human connections. While AI can be trained to make value-based decisions, individuals and groups have their own values that can differ considerably from those used by AI.
And AI tools do not have the capacity to form human connections and experiences.</p>
<p>Students will remain vital contributors to business and society as AI tools develop. I believe it’s our responsibility as educators to prepare our students for a rapidly evolving cultural and technological landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia A. Young has received funding from the Maryland State Department of Education and Maryland Center for Computing Education/University of Maryland System.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asim Ali, Nicholas Tampio, and Shital Thekdi do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scholars differ over whether having students use AI in their assignments will help or hurt their careers after graduation.Nicholas Tampio, Professor of Political Science, Fordham UniversityAsim Ali, Instructor of Information Systems Management, Auburn UniversityPatricia A. Young, Professor of Literacy, Culture and Instructional Design & Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyShital Thekdi, Associate Professor of Analytics and Operations, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2003072023-03-23T13:34:58Z2023-03-23T13:34:58ZWomen occupy very few academic jobs in Ghana. Culture and society’s expectations are to blame<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516646/original/file-20230321-1480-be3c0y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is a dearth of women teaching at institutions of higher education in Ghana</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In many parts of the world, men dominate the higher education sector. A 2022 UNESCO <a href="https://www.iesalc.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SDG5_Gender_Report-2.pdf">report</a> found that, globally, fewer than two out of five senior academics are women. In an earlier report it showed that <a href="http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/women-science">less than 30%</a> of the world’s researchers are women.</p>
<p>Ghana is no exception. The country has made some progress in improving gender parity and inclusion through various <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2017">national policies</a>. But this progress has not extended to jobs in the higher education sector. In 2009, drawing on data from six of the country’s public universities, the regulator for tertiary institutions, National Council for Tertiary Education <a href="https://gtec.edu.gh/download/file/FINAL-STATISTICAL-REPORT-ON-TERTIARY-EDUCATION16.pdf">reported</a> that just 19.5% of academic staff were women. </p>
<p>Our recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2048636">research</a> suggests these figures have not improved in the past few years. We set out to understand why so few women occupy academic positions in Ghanaian universities. We did this because understanding the reasons will help efforts at developing appropriate policy responses. </p>
<p>Our findings showed that traditional gender norms were the main barrier to Ghanaian women pursuing academic careers. There are set ideas in Ghanaian society about what women can and should do. Examples include the fact that women are seen primarily as caregivers and mothers rather than as professionals seeking careers. Entrenched ideas about what women can or should do is a major issue because it evokes negative gender stereotypes. Many women have in many circumstances internalised these stereotypes and shared them. In turn, this has contributed to the low numbers of women academics in Ghanaian universities. </p>
<h2>Low representation</h2>
<p>The gender composition from nine Ghanaian universities based on <a href="https://gtec.edu.gh/download/file/Tertiary%20Education%20Statistics%20Report%202018.pdf">data</a> from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission showed that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Only 10.2% of all full professors – the most senior academic level – were women</p></li>
<li><p>Women accounted for just 14.2% of those ranked as Associate Professors</p></li>
<li><p>Only 13.4% of senior lecturers were women; the figure was 22.8% for lecturers and 26.4% for assistant lecturers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These numbers reflect similar numerical trends elsewhere in the world. <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/staff-data">For example</a>, in Australia, women held 54.7% of lecturer ranks, 46.8% of senior lecturer ranks, and only 33.9% of women held ranks above senior lecturer. In Nigeria, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1261106/female-staff-in-nigerian-universities/">women represented </a> only 23.7% of academic staff in universities in the 2018/2019 academic year. In Sierra Leone, out of the 1779 full time academic staff only 267 were women <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/857591468302730070/pdf/ACS43930PNT0P10x0379833B00PUBLIC00.pdf#page=23">representing only 18%</a> of the total academic staff . </p>
<h2>What women told us</h2>
<p>We interviewed 43 female academics who represented a variety of academic disciplines categorised into three academic domains. These were biological/agriculture sciences, humanities and social sciences, and engineering/Information Technology. </p>
<p>Respondents included 3 professors/associate professors, 4 senior lecturers, 29 lecturers and 7 assistant lecturers. The interview questions were centred on participants’ own experiences and events within their work environment and the wider society. We also asked about female employment participation in higher education.</p>
<p>A number of respondents said that society expected them to have children while they were still young and that there was a perceived age limit for getting married. Education was only valued up to a point, as one respondent explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everybody would want to see their child complete (a) first degree and once you are done with that you are virtually on your own. A lot of us would want to get married right after and that’s when you are lucky to have been grabbed whilst you were in school. And the next thing you have in society is that you get married and settle. And once you get married, in the first year everybody is expecting you to have a child. If you are deferring your childbearing to pursue education, society will raise a lot of concerns.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others said that being highly educated limited their prospects of marriage. Ghanaian society felt men should care for women rather than women having a career of their own or being more successful than their husbands.</p>
<p>An interviewee told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… usually (in families) the man is known as the bread winner, so it is just normal that they will sacrifice the woman’s education for the man to improve and to be more economically secure to be able to take care of the family.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cultural and societal norms meant that men were viewed as being better suited to teaching at a university level and forging careers in academia. Women, on the other hand were considered to be better teachers at the basic education level. </p>
<p>The interviewees also told us that, in their experience, academic institutions were unaware of the bias against them. </p>
<p>An interviewee told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… Many of our institutions are gender-blind in the distribution of PhD scholarships and other career development opportunities. They do not even know that the small number of women lecturers in the departments and faculties is a problem and that they need to do something urgently to address it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is known as <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gender-blindness-5204197">gender blindness</a>. It shows that, even with the rise and widespread dissemination of national policy actions on gender equality, inclusion and grassroots activism, changes in behaviour and attitudes have not reached all institutions.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>There is a great opportunity to alter social structures to improve employment outcomes of women in the higher education sector – starting from societal norms, where attitudes and behaviour need to change. </p>
<p>This requires a multidimensional approach including social reconstruction through advocacy, social change activism and legislation. While the state should be driving legislation and social change advocacy, gender-based civil society organisations, universities, families and individuals also have a role to play. </p>
<p>The limited number of women occupying academic positions in Ghanaian universities undermines government efforts and national policy actions designed to improve gender equality in the workforce across the different sectors of the economy. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity">Research</a> has shown that there is significant value in a diverse gender mix in employment. It can help to achieve social justice and social inclusion with major economic benefits to the economy.</p>
<p>Changing society’s expectations is crucial. But Ghanaian universities should establish transparent gender-neutral policies towards recruitment and promotion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Desmond Tutu Ayentimi 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>Ghanaian traditional gender norms are the main barrier to Ghanaian women pursuing academic careers.Desmond Tutu Ayentimi, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2002482023-02-27T16:57:21Z2023-02-27T16:57:21ZChatGPT and cheating: 5 ways to change how students are graded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511716/original/file-20230222-14-ufch1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C65%2C5472%2C3112&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers and university professors have relied heavily on 'one and done' essay assignments for decades. Requiring students to submit drafts of their work is one needed shift.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities and schools have entered a new phase in how they need to address academic integrity as our society navigates a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2020/03/04/letter-to-toronto-how-profound-innovations-are-making-our-city-a-leader-in-the-digital-age.html">second era of digital technologies</a>, which include publicly available generative artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT.
Such platforms allow students to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/chatgpt-student-benefits-1.6731105">generate novel text for written assignments</a>. </p>
<p>While many worry these advanced AI technologies are ushering in a <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10031827">new age of plagiarism and cheating</a>, these technologies also introduce opportunities for educators to rethink assessment practices and engage students in deeper and more meaningful learning that can promote critical thinking skills. </p>
<p>We believe the emergence of ChatGPT creates an opportunity for schools and post-secondary institutions to reform traditional approaches to assessing students that rely heavily on testing and written tasks focused on students’ recall, remembering and basic synthesis of content. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hands seen on a keyboard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511720/original/file-20230222-26-7qud13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511720/original/file-20230222-26-7qud13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511720/original/file-20230222-26-7qud13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511720/original/file-20230222-26-7qud13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511720/original/file-20230222-26-7qud13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511720/original/file-20230222-26-7qud13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511720/original/file-20230222-26-7qud13.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">Schools and post-secondary institutions should revisit testing and written assignments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cheating and ChatGPT</h2>
<p>Estimates of cheating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83255-1_4">vary widely across national contexts and sectors</a>. </p>
<p>Sarah Elaine Eaton, an expert who studies academic integrity, cautions cheating <a href="https://theconversation.com/cheating-may-be-under-reported-across-canadas-universities-and-colleges-129292">may be under-reported</a>: she has estimated that at Canadian universities, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-university-students-cheating-exams/">70,000 students</a> buy cheating services every year.</p>
<p>How the recent launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI will impact cheating in both compulsory and higher education settings is unknown, but how this evolves may depend on whether or not institutions retain or reform traditional assessment practices.</p>
<h2>Evading plagiarism detection software?</h2>
<p>The ability of popular plagiarism detection tools to identify cheating using ChatGPT to generate assignments remains a challenge. </p>
<p><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.04335">A recent study</a>, not yet peer reviewed, found that 50 essays generated using ChatGPT produced sophisticated texts that were able to evade the traditional plagiarism check software. </p>
<p>Given that ChatGPT reached <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/">an estimated 100 million monthly active users</a> in January, just two months after its launch, it is understandable why some have argued AI applications such as ChatGPT will spur <a href="https://repositorio.grial.eu/handle/grial/2838">enormous changes</a> in contemporary schooling.</p>
<h2>Policy responses to AI and ChatGPT</h2>
<p>Not surprisingly, there are opposing views on how to respond to ChatGPT and other AI language models. </p>
<p>Some argue educators should embrace AI as a valuable technological tool, provided <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4334162">applications are cited correctly</a>. </p>
<p>Others believe <a href="https://aaee.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/AAEE2019_Annual_Conference_paper_180.pdf">more resources and training</a> are required so educators are better able to catch instances of cheating. </p>
<p>Still others, such as New York City’s Department of Education, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/01/30/chatgpt-going-banned-teachers-sound-alarm-new-ai-tech/11069593002">have resorted to blocking AI applications such as ChatGPT from devices and networks</a>.</p>
<h2>Forward-thinking assessment</h2>
<p>The figure below depicts three critical elements of a forward-thinking assessment system. Although each element could be elaborated, our focus is in offering educators a series of strategies that will allow them to maintain academic standards and promote authentic learning and assessment in the face of current and future AI applications.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three circles are seen overlapping in the middle; the circles say AI, student assessment and academic integrity." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510970/original/file-20230219-4224-9widvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510970/original/file-20230219-4224-9widvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510970/original/file-20230219-4224-9widvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510970/original/file-20230219-4224-9widvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510970/original/file-20230219-4224-9widvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510970/original/file-20230219-4224-9widvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510970/original/file-20230219-4224-9widvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Institutions and educators must examine the intersection of AI, academic integrity and how we assess students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Louis Volante)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Teachers and university professors have relied heavily on “one and done” essay assignments for decades. Essentially, a student is assigned or asked to pick a generic essay topic from a list and submit their final assignment on a specific date. </p>
<p>Such assignments are particularly susceptible to new AI applications, as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83255-1_9">contract cheating</a> — whereby a student buys a completed essay. Educators now need to rethink such assignments. Here are some strategies.</p>
<p><strong>1. Consider ways to incorporate AI in valid assessment.</strong></p>
<p>It’s not useful or practical for institutions to outright ban AI and applications like ChatGPT. </p>
<p>AI has already been incorporated into some <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-using-ai-tools-like-chatgpt-in-my-mba-innovation-course-is-expected-and-not-cheating-198957">university classrooms</a>. We believe AI technologies must be selectively integrated so that students are able to reflect on appropriate uses and connect their reflections to learning competencies. </p>
<p>For example, Paul Fyfe, an English professor <a href="https://news.dasa.ncsu.edu/professor-paul-fyfe-brings-a-humanistic-approach-to-data/">who teaches about how humans interact with data</a> describes a “pedagogical experiment” in which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01397-z">he required students to take content from text-generating AI software and weave this content</a> into their final essay.</p>
<p>Students were then asked to confront the availability of AI as a writing tool and reflect on the ethical use and evaluation of language modes.</p>
<p><strong>2. Engage students in setting learning goals.</strong></p>
<p>Ensuring students understand how they will be graded is key to any good assessment system. </p>
<p>Inviting students to collaboratively establish learning goals and criteria for the task, with consideration for the role of AI software, would help students to evaluate and judge appropriate contexts in which AI can work as a learning tool. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unlike-with-academics-and-reporters-you-cant-check-when-chatgpts-telling-the-truth-198463">Unlike with academics and reporters, you can't check when ChatGPT's telling the truth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>3. Require students to submit drafts for feedback.</strong></p>
<p>Although students should still complete essay assignments, research into academic integrity policy in response to generative AI suggests students should be required to <a href="https://edarxiv.org/mrz8h?trk=public_post_main-feed-card_reshare-text">submit drafts of their work for review</a> and feedback. Apart from helping to detect plagiarism, this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/emip.12382">kind of “formative assessment” practice is positive for guiding student learning</a>.</p>
<p>Feedback can be offered by the teacher or by students themselves. Peer- and self-feedback can serve to critically evaluate work in progress (or work generated by AI software). </p>
<p><strong>4. Grade subcomponents of the task.</strong></p>
<p>Students could receive a grade for each subcomponent — including their involvement in feedback processes. They would also be evaluated in relation to how well they incorporated and attended to the specific feedback provided. </p>
<p>The assignment becomes bigger than a final essay, it becomes a product of learning, where students’ ideas are evaluated from development to final submission. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen sitting with a teacher." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511717/original/file-20230222-21-mo6jbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511717/original/file-20230222-21-mo6jbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511717/original/file-20230222-21-mo6jbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511717/original/file-20230222-21-mo6jbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511717/original/file-20230222-21-mo6jbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511717/original/file-20230222-21-mo6jbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511717/original/file-20230222-21-mo6jbn.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">Engaging students in establishing learning goals is part of creating meaningful assessment practices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>5. Move to more authentic assessments or include performance elements.</strong></p>
<p>Good assessment practice involves an educator observing student learning across multiple contexts. </p>
<p>For example, educators can invite students to present their work, discuss an essay in a conference format or share a video articulation or an artistic representation. The aim here is to encourage students to share their learning through an alternative format. An important question to ask is whether or not you need the essay component at all? Is there a more authentic way to effectively assess student learning? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A educator seen in a library with students." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511713/original/file-20230222-14-61sitj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511713/original/file-20230222-14-61sitj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511713/original/file-20230222-14-61sitj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511713/original/file-20230222-14-61sitj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511713/original/file-20230222-14-61sitj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511713/original/file-20230222-14-61sitj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511713/original/file-20230222-14-61sitj.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">Encouraging students to present their work is a way educators can observe student learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Kampus Production)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Authentic assessments are those that relate content to context. When students are asked to do this, they must apply knowledge in more practical settings, often making AI tools less helpful. </p>
<p>For help in rethinking assessment practices towards more authentic and alternative approaches, educators can consider taking the free course, <a href="https://queens-aeg.ca/transforming-assessment/">Transforming Assessment: Strategies for Higher Education</a>.</p>
<h2>Improve benefits for students</h2>
<p>Collectively, these suggestions may be more time-consuming, particularly in larger undergraduate classes. </p>
<p>But they do provide greater learning and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/emip.12382">synergy between forms of assessment</a> that benefit students: formative assessment to guide teaching and learning, and “summative assessment,” primarily used for grading and evaluation purposes. </p>
<p>AI is here and here to stay, and we must embrace it as part of our learning environment. Incorporating AI into how we assess student learning will yield more reliable assessment processes and valid and valued assessment outcomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Volante receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Don A. Klinger receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher DeLuca 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>Educators need to carefully consider ChatGPT and issues of academic integrity to move toward an assessment system that leverages AI tools.Louis Volante, Professor of Education Governance and Policy Analysis, Brock UniversityChristopher DeLuca, Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies & Professor, Faculty of Education, Queen's University, OntarioDon A. Klinger, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Te Wānanga Toi Tangata Division of Education; Professor of Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984842023-02-23T13:33:02Z2023-02-23T13:33:02ZNovelist, academic and tattoo artist Samuel Steward’s plight shows that ‘cancel culture’ was alive and well in the 1930s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511802/original/file-20230222-20-4w67dr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C10%2C1201%2C890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Outside of teaching and writing, Samuel Steward took up tattooing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2010/07/26/books/0726SECRET2/0726SECRET2-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp">The Estate of Samuel M. Steward</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, Hamline University <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/us/hamline-university-islam-prophet-muhammad.html">opted not to renew the contract</a> of an art professor who showed a 14th-century depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in class. Hamline labeled the incident “Islamophobic” and released a statement, co-signed by the university’s president, saying that respect for “Muslim students … should have superseded academic freedom.” </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/01/hamline-university-adjunct-professor-freedom/672713/">widespread backlash</a>, the university walked back that statement. However, the lecturer was still not rehired.</p>
<p>Concerns about academic freedom are nothing new. Rather than being a product of recent “<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-cancel-cancel-culture-164666">cancel culture</a>,” tension has long existed over the ability of professors to freely teach and write about controversial topics without fear of retribution.</p>
<p>More than 80 years ago, an English professor named <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html">Samuel Steward</a> was dismissed from his teaching position after publishing what his college’s president deemed a “racy” novel.</p>
<p><a href="https://works.bepress.com/alessandro-meregaglia/">As an archivist and scholar</a> studying publishing in the American West, I’ve located published and unpublished archival sources detailing the controversy surrounding Steward after he published his first novel, which ultimately cost him his job.</p>
<h2>A book met with backlash</h2>
<p>A native of the Midwest, Steward earned his Ph.D. in English in 1934 from Ohio State University. The following year, Washington State College – now Washington State University – hired Steward to teach classes on a one-year contract.</p>
<p>An aspiring writer, Steward drafted his first novel while still a graduate student. He worked to find a publisher and contacted a small firm in rural Idaho. After an editorial review, Caxton Printers agreed to publish Steward’s novel, “Angels on the Bough,” which told the story of a small group of characters and their intertwined lives in a college town.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black and white portrait of man wearing small glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caxton Printers founder James H. Gipson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lehigh University Special Collections</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Founded in 1907, <a href="https://www.caxtonpress.com/">Caxton Printers</a> has earned national attention for its fierce defense of freedom of expression and unique publishing philosophy. Caxton’s founder, James H. Gipson, understood the transformative power of books and sought to give a voice to deserving writers when other firms rejected them. Profit was not a motivator. As Gipson <a href="https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv02075">explained</a> to Steward, “We are interested not in making money out of any author for whom we may publish, but in helping him.”</p>
<p>Caxton published “Angels on the Bough” in May 1936. </p>
<p>The book immediately received reviews, almost entirely positive, in dozens of newspapers across the country. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1936/05/31/archives/trouble-in-academe-angels-on-the-bough-sm-steward-317-pp-caldwell.html">The New York Times</a> wrote favorably about the novel, describing Steward as possessing “a very distinct gift above the usual.”</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gertrude-stein">Gertrude Stein</a>, the American writer and expatriate who lived most of her life in France, lauded “Angels on the Bough” in a letter she penned to Steward.</p>
<p>“I like it I like it a lot, you have really created a piece of something,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dear_Sammy/A1dbAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22quite%20definitely%22">Stein wrote</a>. “It quite definitely did something to me.”</p>
<h2>Steward loses his job</h2>
<p>Despite the favorable reception, the book started causing trouble for Steward before it was even published. Review copies reached campus in early May 1936. Steward soon began hearing rumors that college administrators found his book distasteful for its sympathetic portrayal of a prostitute, one of the main characters.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A yellow book cover." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The publication of ‘Angels on the Bough’ prompted Washington State College to not renew Steward’s contract.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alessandro Meregaglia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, as Steward <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gay_Sunshine_Interviews/T8wYAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22little%20women%22">noted in an interview</a> during the 1970s, the book was “very tame – reading like ‘Little Women’ by today’s standards.”</p>
<p>Steward sent an urgent telegram to Gipson asking him to stop selling the book on campus: “A young poor man with only one job asks that you withdraw his novel … because his departmental head and dean hint at his discharge.”</p>
<p>Caxton had advertised the book as “not appeal[ing] to the less liberal mind.” This “alarmed several people,” <a href="https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv02075">according to Steward</a>. The head of the English department told Steward his book contained “unsavory material” and that Steward’s position “would undoubtedly prove very embarrassing” to the college.</p>
<p>Despite this, Steward still planned to return to teach classes the following autumn. Earlier that spring, he had been verbally assured that he would receive another one-year contract. Three weeks later, however – and just hours before he left campus for the summer – Washington State’s president, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100308091433/http:/president.wsu.edu/office/university-governance/past-presidents/holland.html">Ernest O. Holland</a>, summoned Steward to a meeting.</p>
<p>Holland informed Steward his contract would not be renewed. He accused Steward of writing a “racy” novel and of being sympathetic with a <a href="https://content.libraries.wsu.edu/digital/collection/clipping/id/110709/rec/3">student strike</a> a month earlier.</p>
<p>Angered, Steward immediately dashed off a telegram to Gipson: “Discharged by God Holland for writing a racy novel … I have no regrets whatsoever despite the fact his methods were those of Hitler but think I will take up stenography.”</p>
<p>Steward and Gipson both set to work to widely publicize Steward’s dismissal. Steward appealed to the <a href="https://www.aaup.org/">Association of American University Professors</a> for assistance. Founded in 1915, the association’s primary purpose is “to advance academic freedom.” The organization still regularly investigates violations of academic freedom, <a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-launches-inquiry-hamline-university#.Y_U3HHbMKUk">including what happened at Hamline University</a>.</p>
<p>After months of investigation, the AAUP published <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40219810">its report</a>. It determined that Steward had been unjustly let go and concluded that “President Holland’s handling of the Steward case has been most ill-judged, and indicates … improper restriction of literary freedom.”</p>
<h2>From teaching to tattooing</h2>
<p>After leaving Washington State, Steward promptly found a position at Loyola, a Catholic university in Chicago. Before hiring him, Loyola’s dean read Steward’s book and apparently had no objections. An AAUP member <a href="https://searcharchives.library.gwu.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/374014">noted the irony</a>: “Apparently our Catholic brethren are much more tolerant than a state institution in Washington.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Shirtless tattooed man smoking a cigarette." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samuel Steward worked as a tattoo artist under the alias Phil Sparrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Samuel_Morris_Steward_1957.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Outside of teaching, Steward, who was gay, published gay erotica under the pseudonym Phil Andros and took up tattooing. By 1956, Steward permanently left academia to ply his trade as a tattoo artist full time on Chicago’s South State Street under another alias, Philip Sparrow.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, he moved to California and opened up a tattoo parlor in Oakland, where he became the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secret_Historian/cl9kgQmqj54C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22official%22%20%22hells%20angels%22">“official” tattoo artist</a> for the Hells Angels motorcycle club.</p>
<p>After retiring from tattooing, Steward lived a quiet life in Berkeley. He still wrote frequently, producing a handful of <a href="https://worldcat.org/search?q=au%3D%22Steward%2C+Samuel+M.%22&itemSubType=book-printbook&orderBy=publicationDateDesc&itemSubTypeModified=book-printbook&datePublished=1950-1993">fiction and nonfiction books</a>. Steward <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/20/obituaries/samuel-steward-84-a-writer-about-stein.html">died in California in 1993</a> at the age of 84.</p>
<p>Despite his prolific and varied career, Steward’s legacy as a “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gay_American_Autobiography/6Frgs5iRL4YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22remarkable%20figure%22">remarkable figure in gay literary history</a>” was not widely known until the publication of Justin Spring’s meticulously researched 2010 book, “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secret_Historian/cl9kgQmqj54C?hl=en&gbpv=0">Secret Historian</a>.”</p>
<p>Interest in Steward continues. Performance artist John Kelly recently staged a show, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/theater/john-kelly-underneath-the-skin.html">Underneath the Skin</a>,” in December 2022 that examined Steward’s life.</p>
<p>It is impossible, of course, to know the trajectory of Samuel Steward’s career if he had been reappointed to Washington State for another year. But a prescient comment Steward made just before his dismissal suggests that he sensed he couldn’t stay in academia forever: “I am afraid I will have to get out of the teaching profession in order to be able to write the way I want to.”</p>
<p>Academic freedom is <a href="https://www.aaup.org/our-work/protecting-academic-freedom/academic-freedom-and-first-amendment-2007">related to free speech</a>. A <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/For_the_Common_Good/y6ozEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">long-standing tradition</a> afforded to college faculty, it shields professors from retribution – from both internal and external sources – for teaching controversial topics within their area of expertise. <a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure">According to the AAUP</a>, academic freedom is based on the premise that higher education promotes “the common good (which) depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.” </p>
<p>This protection covers both classroom lectures and publications.</p>
<p>With debates about academic freedom lately making headlines – from <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hrw-harvard-israel-kennedy-school/">outside interests influencing appointments</a>, to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/01/hamline-university-adjunct-professor-freedom/672713/">administrators kowtowing to vocal students</a>, to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/11/desantis-seeks-overhaul-small-liberal-arts-college">politicians changing oversight of public universities</a> – Steward’s plight some 87 years ago is a reminder that this freedom requires constant defense.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandro Meregaglia 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 ability of professors to freely teach and write about controversial topics without fear of retribution is nothing new.Alessandro Meregaglia, Associate Professor and Archivist, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925612022-10-19T12:39:33Z2022-10-19T12:39:33ZHow college in prison is leading professors to rethink how they teach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490184/original/file-20221017-11-apu2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C5991%2C3835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Programs that offer college in prison are becoming more prevalent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/192561/edit#">Scott Shymko via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to education in prison, policy and research often focus on <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/08/20/the-societal-benefits-of-postsecondary-prison-education/">how it benefits society</a> or improves the <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">life circumstances</a> of those who are serving time.</p>
<p>But as I point out in my new edited volume, “<a href="https://brandeisuniversitypress.com/title/9781684581061/">Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison</a>,” education in prison is doing more than changing the lives of those who have been locked up as punishment for crimes – it is also changing the lives of those doing the teaching.</p>
<p>As director of a <a href="https://emerson.edu/epi">college program in prisons</a> and as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=R00JOgwAAAAJ&view_op=list_works">researcher</a> and <a href="https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/mneesha-gellman">professor</a> who teaches in both colleges and prisons, I know that the experience of teaching in a correctional facility makes educators question and reexamine much of what we do.</p>
<p>My book collects experiences of college professors who teach in prison. A common thread is that we all went into education behind the wall thinking about ourselves to some extent as experts but have since critically reflected on what we know through interactions with incarcerated students and the institutions that hold them.</p>
<h2>Rewriting the book</h2>
<p>One semester in 2020, I volunteered to tutor for a class on something that occurs frequently behind prison walls: conflict and negotiation. The class featured two books that are considered essential to the field. The first is “<a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/interpersonal-conflict-hocker-berry/M9781260836950.html">Interpersonal Conflict</a>,” a 2014 text that invites readers to reflect on how conflict has played out in their personal lives. The second is “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/324551/getting-to-yes-by-roger-fisher-and-william-ury/">Getting to Yes</a>,” a 2011 text described by its publisher as a “universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting angry – or getting taken.”</p>
<p>“You know, I know these are very important books and all, but this isn’t really what would work in here,” one incarcerated student said after a few class meetings, gesturing to the prison walls. “Here, you can’t talk openly about your feelings like the authors want us to, and the rules of relating to people are different.”</p>
<p>I responded that his observation was astute, and that knowing both sets of rules – and how to switch between them – could be profoundly useful. For example, I theorized, I imagine he behaves differently during yard time than on a phone call with a family member on the outside. If the textbooks about conflict on the outside didn’t adequately address how to handle conflict in prison, I suggested he write an equivalent book for conflict negotiation in prison.</p>
<p>“Maybe I should,” he chuckled, and looked around to his classmates. “Maybe we should.”</p>
<p>The experience showed me how even though there are textbooks that are considered “universal,” that universality may not always extend itself to correctional institutions.</p>
<h2>A new understanding of status</h2>
<p>As a full professor and chair of the sociology department at Clark University, a small, private university in Worcester, Massachusetts, <a href="https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=162">Shelly Tenenbaum</a> is used to being accorded a certain degree of respect for her professional accomplishments and credentials. But none of those things mattered once she passed through the gates of medium-security prisons for men located in Massachusetts. </p>
<p>“Status that I might have as a scholar, full professor, department chair … is rendered invisible as we enter prison,” Tenenbaum writes. When passing through security, “I have been abruptly instructed to obey commands and my questions are ignored.” </p>
<p>Encounters with correctional officers are frequently unnerving for educators, particularly at the entrance gates.</p>
<p>“I find myself in the position of needing to second-guess what I may (or may not) have done wrong and defer to people who are considerably younger than I am,” Tenenbaum continues. “There were times that I followed rules only to be scolded when the rules appeared to be differently interpreted from one day to the next. To be in the subordinate role of a power dynamic is a humbling experience. … It takes having expectations defied to realize that they even existed.” </p>
<p>Whether the rules are about clothing faculty members are allowed to wear or the number of pieces of paper we can carry in, the decisions are frequently about power. In her chapter, Tenenbaum writes that having had her status questioned has led to a new sense of humility and altered the power dynamics in her professional world. She does not take it for granted that her expertise is currency for respect.</p>
<h2>Modeling apology</h2>
<p>When an incarcerated student told Bill Littlefield, a retired English professor, that the novel “Frankenstein” had no relevance to his experience or life, Littlefield’s first reaction was to push back.</p>
<p>“‘Good writing is always relevant,’ I said, ever the professor,” writes Littlefield. Littlefield tutors and teaches at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Concord and Northeastern Correctional Center. He is also author of the newly released book “<a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/08/03/mercy-bill-littlefield">Mercy</a>,” as well as popular host of WBUR’s sports radio show “<a href="https://www.wbur.org/radio/programs/onlyagame">Only A Game</a>.”</p>
<p>“He said he would read it, certainly … even though he knew that the story of the lonely, ultimately vengeful monster created by the gentleman scientist’s preposterous, insane overreach would have nothing to say to him,” Littlefield writes. “I argued that he was wrong.”</p>
<p>But in the week that followed, Littlefield said he came to see his own reaction as a mistake and an act of arrogance.</p>
<p>“When we met again, I made a point of apologizing to the student, in front of his classmates,” Littlefield writes. “I told him that I’d realized it was no business of mine to tell him what was relevant to his life. If he did the reading, he’d decide for himself.” The student thanked him.</p>
<h2>More college in prison</h2>
<p>As college programs in prison <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/05/18/new-moment-prison-education">become more prevalent</a>, I fully expect that in the coming years there will be more and more college professors being transformed by the powerful experience of teaching behind bars. This is especially so given that Congress has <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/27/pell-grants-restored-people-prison-eyes-turn-assuring-quality">lifted a long-standing ban</a> on federal financial aid, namely, Pell Grants, for people who are incarcerated. </p>
<p>In 2022, there are 374 prison education programs run by 420 institutions of higher education operating in 520 facilities, according to the <a href="https://www.higheredinprison.org/national-directory/stats-view">National Directory</a> maintained by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison.</p>
<p>Collectively, college programs in prison have been shown to <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">lower the odds</a> that a person who participates in them will return to prison after being released. But as I show in my book, the programs are also dramatically changing the perspective of the college professors who teach them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mneesha Gellman is affiliated with the Emerson Prison Initiative. </span></em></p>The author of a book collecting the experiences of college professors who teach in prisons explains how they are changed by the experience.Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891732022-09-07T18:13:22Z2022-09-07T18:13:22ZChoosing university or college courses? 5 questions for students to consider<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483055/original/file-20220906-16-vkvxrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C29%2C4446%2C2492&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why are you taking the course? Knowing the answer will help you choose a balanced courseload. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2020.1823864">sudden shift</a> from on-campus teaching to remote learning in March 2020 changed the ways university and college faculty taught courses. </p>
<p>While some professors reverted to old ways after returning to campus, others sought new approaches. The result is a mixture of different types of courses available <a href="https://theconversation.com/professor-flexibility-recorded-lectures-some-positive-university-legacies-of-the-pandemic-187652">to university and college students</a>.</p>
<p>It’s no longer just a question of whether a course fits a student’s program and schedule. Students need to ask additional questions. Yet, times are changing rapidly and information can quickly become out of date.</p>
<h2>1. How much time does the course require?</h2>
<p>The online pivot encouraged some professors to either add or drop course material. The result is that the amount of time students spend on a course may vary greatly from one professor to another. This may especially be an issue for students who have heavy course loads while balancing other professional and personal responsibilities. </p>
<p>Aside from practicums and field classes, most universities and colleges have few standards on how much time students should spend outside the classroom. </p>
<p>Ask, how much reading is required? Are there heavy writing requirements in papers and online discussions? A course with weekly assignments is easier to manage than a course with just one major assignment due at the end. Course advisors may have copies of syllabi or an instructor’s course syllabus may be available online.</p>
<p>While students should not take only “easy” courses, it is important to appropriately manage workloads. Stress is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09552-y">contributor to students’ mental health challenges</a>. It’s good to be challenged, but don’t take on too much. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A backpack seen with notebook, glasses, a clock." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483053/original/file-20220906-16-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C58%2C3650%2C2587&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483053/original/file-20220906-16-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483053/original/file-20220906-16-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483053/original/file-20220906-16-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483053/original/file-20220906-16-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483053/original/file-20220906-16-he753.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483053/original/file-20220906-16-he753.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">Having a good sense of the time a course will require and how you can meet its demands amid other commitments matters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Do I need to attend classes? Can I work remotely?</h2>
<p>Many students are now combining <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2022.2081225">online and face-to-face courses into their programs.</a></p>
<p>The difference between online and face-to-face courses has blurred. Many face-to-face classes now have significant online components. If instructors record lectures, provide comprehensive lecture materials and allow assignments or tests to be submitted online, the class grading structure may make it possible to take a face-to-face course and rarely show up for classes. </p>
<p>This may benefit students juggling family or professional commitments with college or university. </p>
<p>But be aware of how missing lectures could affect your grades, experience and learning. Teachers work hard in the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Creating+Significant+Learning+Experiences:+An+Integrated+Approach+to+Designing+College+Courses,+Revised+and+Updated-p-9781118124253">classroom to engage and inspire.</a> Lectures can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260802276771">entertaining, interesting and can open new possibilities for learning.</a> Professors’ body language communicates additional information. They may edit out parts of a recorded lecture they feel are too spontaneous to be preserved.</p>
<p>Whether or not learning outcomes depend on peer collaboration, many students find it motivating to be surrounded by their peers. At the same time, the creation of learning communities can also take place in online environments.</p>
<p>It’s also easy to spend more time than anticipated replaying recorded lectures.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen sitting in a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483054/original/file-20220906-5322-2ouar1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483054/original/file-20220906-5322-2ouar1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483054/original/file-20220906-5322-2ouar1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483054/original/file-20220906-5322-2ouar1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483054/original/file-20220906-5322-2ouar1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483054/original/file-20220906-5322-2ouar1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483054/original/file-20220906-5322-2ouar1.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">Some professors became more understanding and sympathetic to student needs during COVID-19 chaos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Is the professor approachable and flexible?</h2>
<p>Some professors became <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2022.2081225">more understanding and sympathetic to student needs during COVID-19 chaos.</a> Others less so. Faculty are typically required to describe how students can reach them, including preferred communication method and email or online message system response time in the syllabi. This will also describe any flexibility built into their course.</p>
<p>Students often share their experiences with different courses and instructors with one another, and this can be helpful. Bear in mind, however, that such experiences may have changed through the pandemic.</p>
<p>Another way to gain information is to ask the professor directly. Their reply (or lack thereof) may be useful. Just respect the work-life boundaries most professors have established concerning digital communication outside regular work hours as they are also juggling commitments amid increasing workloads, <a href="https://theconversation.com/survey-of-academics-finds-widespread-feelings-of-stress-and-overwork-130715">all while attempting to mitigate burnout during the pandemic.</a> </p>
<h2>4. Will I need special equipment and materials?</h2>
<p>It became clear during the pandemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-learning-during-covid-19-8-ways-universities-can-improve-equity-and-access-145286">that some students struggled with internet connections, under-powered devices and equitable access.</a> </p>
<p>Operating systems may be an issue when installing specialist software (such as ArcGISPro GIS software used in our field of geography). Campus computer labs are commonly set up for specific software, but it’s worth investigating how responsive IT support is for students using their own devices.</p>
<p>Students should also ensure they will be able to access textbooks. Anecdotally, we have seen situations where copyright constraints affect how international students can access digital textbooks, or deliveries are delayed or held up by customs.</p>
<h2>5. Does the grading scheme show off my capabilities?</h2>
<p>Many professors had to rethink traditional grading. Some are now more flexible with respect to deadlines and formats.</p>
<p>Some professors offer the opportunity for students to resubmit. Open book exams became more common during COVID-19. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-may-have-changed-university-teaching-and-testing-for-good-158342">How the COVID-19 pandemic may have changed university teaching and testing for good</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Find out: How many quizzes and exams are included in a course? What type of questions are on a test? How are tests administered and graded? What are the assignments? Do grading rubrics clearly show how the professor will grade assignments?</p>
<p>And ask yourself why you’re taking the course? Do the assignments help you learn, or do they simply allow you to prove you already know something? What matters most to you for this particular course?</p>
<p>Different professors teach differently. If you’re a student with choices in a program, it makes sense to find out what you’re getting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189173/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>Different professors teach differently. If you’re a student with choices in a program, it makes sense to find out what you’re getting.Terence Day, Adjunct Professor of Geography, Simon Fraser UniversityPaul N. McDaniel, Associate Professor of Geography, Kennesaw State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1849212022-06-27T12:25:23Z2022-06-27T12:25:23ZBusiness schools get a bad rap – but a closer look shows they’re often a force for good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468492/original/file-20220613-19-9yinfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5123%2C3405&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Business schools are starting to emphasize societal impact.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/student-listening-in-college-classroom-royalty-free-image/591404157?adppopup=true">JGI/Tom Grill / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is no shortage of books critical of business schools. The titles leave little doubt about how much disdain the authors have for the schools meant to prepare future leaders in business. </p>
<p>Consider books like “<a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/9781786802408/shut-down-the-business-school/">Shut Down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management Education</a>,” or “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501742071/nothing-succeeds-like-failure/">Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools</a>.”</p>
<p>For criticisms of a specific school, there is “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-golden-passport-duff-mcdonald?variant=32121685671970">The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite</a>.”</p>
<p>These books lament the failure of business schools to develop ethical business leaders and to address societal concerns.</p>
<p>In a February 2022 address to business school deans, Dartmouth management professor Sydney Finkelstein piled on by <a href="https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2022/02/whats-wrong-with-business-schools-today">criticizing schools for not producing research</a> that has an impact on society.</p>
<p>The title of his talk spared no one: “Big Scam? What’s Wrong with Business Schools, Business School Faculty, and the Study of Management.”</p>
<p>My recent field study of legendary business school professors, published in “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Seven-Essentials-for-Business-Success-Lessons-from-Legendary-Professors/Siedel/p/book/9781032034447">Seven Essentials for Business Success: Lessons from Legendary Professors</a>,” tells quite a different story. </p>
<p>In my effort to identify the best teaching practices, I also found that the star professors profiled in the book are deeply involved in activities outside their traditional classrooms that have a positive impact on their students and society.</p>
<h2>Beyond the traditional classroom</h2>
<p>Stanford emeritus accounting professor Charles Lee, for example, has helped bring the <a href="https://www.veritas.org/">Veritas Forum</a> to campus. This organization encourages students to address fundamental questions, such as “Who are you?” “What are you doing here?” and “Where are you going?”</p>
<p>In talks to students at universities around the country, he stresses that “<a href="https://www.dailyuw.com/news/cauce-students-aim-to-redefine-happiness/article_33564340-e270-11e4-935b-af384c76cb3e.html">you are not your resume</a>.” Instead of their obsession with educational and professional accomplishments, Lee encourages the students to use other metrics, such as virtue, to define success and happiness in life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FH-d3HeNVgc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Stanford professor Charles Lee urges students to reexamine notions of professional success.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a similar vein, business law professor Richard Shell co-founded the “Purpose, Passion, and Principles Program” at Wharton, the business school at the University of Pennsylvania. The program seeks to encourage students to reflect on how they define success and happiness. One student observed that the <a href="https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/story/p3-purpose-passion-principles-wharton/">program has motivated her</a> to develop a “better understanding of how I define both happiness and success in my personal and professional lives.” </p>
<p>The profiled professors are also involved in activities that benefit society at large.</p>
<p>Strategy professor Jan Rivkin is a leader of Harvard Business School’s <a href="https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/09/the-strategic-context">U.S. Competitiveness Project</a>. He is active in <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=7182">training the next generation of civic leaders</a> through an offshoot of the project called the Young American Leaders Program.</p>
<p>The program inspired a work-based learning program in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Through the program, high school students get paid US$9 an hour to help make car parts at a local manufacturer. The hands-on job experience also counts toward their graduation. A program coordinator calls the program a “win-win for the students and the company.”</p>
<p>Management professor Gretchen Spreitzer is a leader at the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations, which encourages <a href="https://positiveorgs.bus.umich.edu/people/gretchen-m-spreitzer/">positive work environments</a> for employees. Organizations as varied as the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, General Motors and Google <a href="https://positiveorgs.bus.umich.edu/about/impact/">use research produced by the center</a>, according to Wayne Baker, a University of Michigan business and sociology professor who serves as faculty co-director at the center.</p>
<p>And when it comes to impact, I believe Steve Kaplan’s record is hard to match. A finance professor at the University of Chicago, he started a <a href="https://polsky.uchicago.edu/programs-events/new-venture-challenge/nvc/">new venture program</a> that enables student teams in his special projects course to win cash prizes for their business plans. The program has <a href="https://polsky.uchicago.edu/programs-events/new-venture-challenge/">launched over 370 companies</a> that are still in existence and created thousands of jobs.</p>
<h2>Improving lives around the world</h2>
<p>Examples of the positive effects that business schools have on their students and society extend far beyond legendary teachers at leading schools in the United States. </p>
<p>Through a crowdsourcing experiment, the Financial Times identified business school projects that were <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b6bcfa02-ef37-11e9-ad1e-4367d8281195">making a difference in people’s lives worldwide</a>. One of the many examples they found was a student project at China’s Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Students stayed in a Gobi Desert village and helped the villagers market their goji berries. Their efforts increased the villagers’ income by a third, according to the publication.</p>
<p>My research and the crowdsourcing experiment illustrate the increased focus by business schools on societal concerns that will likely accelerate in coming years. Business schools will also be expected to show social impact in order to meet
<a href="https://www.aacsb.edu/-/media/documents/accreditation/2020-aacsb-business-accreditation-standards-july-2021.pdf?rev=7f4c2893dc1e47eb91c472d9fc59b238&hash=833E7A4A1E094BADDACDAAB60CF2CD69">accreditation standards</a> put forth by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which accredits business schools around the world.</p>
<p>Business school rankings have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00076503211016783">criticized for focusing too much on individual achievement</a>, such as their graduates’ salaries, instead of community-based results like sustainability and social purpose. An association of business experts from around the world have created a new measure called Positive Impact Rating – deliberately not a ranking – to <a href="https://www.positiveimpactrating.org/_files/ugd/d46c06_3f6a1bfcc0f746d7bf7565150ce7394e.pdf">highlight</a> a school’s sustainability and societal engagement, as assessed by students. </p>
<h2>Futures at stake</h2>
<p>Should business schools be “<a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/9781786802408/shut-down-the-business-school/">shut down</a>,” as business professor <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/martin-parker">Martin Parker</a> has said? Do they have a “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501742071/nothing-succeeds-like-failure/">sad history</a>,” as stated by history professor <a href="https://miamioh.edu/cas/academics/departments/history/about/faculty/conn/index.html">Steven Conn</a>? Are they really a “<a href="https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2022/02/whats-wrong-with-business-schools-today">big scam</a>,” a question raised by Dartmouth management professor <a href="https://faculty.tuck.dartmouth.edu/sydney-finkelstein/">Sydney Finkelstein</a>?</p>
<p>Business schools, like any other set of institutions, have substantial room for growth and improvement. And some business schools do end up in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. </p>
<p>For instance, a former Temple Business School dean was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-temple-business-school-dean-gets-prison-term-in-rankings-scandal-11647053211">sentenced to 14 months in prison</a> in March 2022, for submitting false information about the business school’s programs to U.S. News & World Report to inflate the school’s rankings in the magazine. The <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/former-temple-business-school-dean-sentenced-over-one-year-prison-rankings-fraud-scheme">idea behind the scheme</a>, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, was to get more students to enroll and more donors to donate money to the school. Such cases do nothing to help the reputation of business schools.</p>
<p>But when you consider the many ways that business schools are involved in the improvement of the lives of others, as my book, the Financial Times and others have shown, in my view the criticism that has been leveled against business schools comes across as one-sided and overstated at best.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Siedel 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>Despite being the subject of criticism and negative news, business schools do a lot of good for society, a veteran business professor explains in a new book.George Siedel, Emeritus Professor of Business, University of MichiganLicensed 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>
<figure class="align-center ">
<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">
<figcaption>
<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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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/1745902022-02-15T15:13:39Z2022-02-15T15:13:39ZEarly-career professors want changes in how tenure is evaluated in wake of pandemic effects on productivity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444430/original/file-20220203-17-o0yk0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1182%2C616&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers in a survey said they don't want to delay their tenure review but have the criteria for it shift.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Piqxels)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/early-career-professors-want-changes-in-how-tenure-is-evaluated-in-wake-of-pandemic-effects-on-productivity" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>After two years of living through a pandemic, thoughts of returning to normal have shifted to focus on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.626197">establishing</a> a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.24282">“new normal.”</a> </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic yielded <a href="https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI138646">profound changes</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.12.008">research activities</a> and operations at universities. These have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2503">had impacts</a> on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00795-4">career progression</a>, productivity, health and well-being of faculty members.</p>
<p>With colleagues, I conducted a national Canadian survey of tenured and tenure-track faculty members at Canadian public universities. Our data showed how the COVID-19 pandemic is <a href="https://theconversation.com/university-survey-shows-how-covid-19-pandemic-is-hampering-career-progress-for-women-and-racialized-faculty-153169">hampering career progress for women and racialized faculty</a>. In a second phase of our research, gathered one year after our earlier survey, we identified insights faculty have about creating a new normal to support their research and career progression.</p>
<p>Seven-hundred and fifty faculty completed the survey. Ninety percent of respondents were assistant (24 per cent), associate (36 per cent), or full professors (33 per cent) while seven per cent comprised senior leadership positions. The mean age of participants was 48 years and 68 per cent were married. </p>
<p>We compared results among women, men, as well as individuals identifying as racialized and/or Indigenous. Fifty-two percent of participants were women, 44 per cent were men and one per cent were transgender. Two people self-identified as “gender-diverse” and 12 people “preferred not to say.” Eleven per cent identified as racialized and three per cent as Indigenous in response to questions: “Do you identify as racialized?” or “Do you identify as Indigenous?”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An empty hallway of open doors." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444429/original/file-20220203-17-g9ojkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C132%2C4208%2C2450&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444429/original/file-20220203-17-g9ojkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444429/original/file-20220203-17-g9ojkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444429/original/file-20220203-17-g9ojkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444429/original/file-20220203-17-g9ojkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444429/original/file-20220203-17-g9ojkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444429/original/file-20220203-17-g9ojkh.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">The pandemic has affected how much research professors can accomplish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Impacts on career progression & productivity</h2>
<p>Respondents associated negative impacts of the pandemic on their research, with factors like lack of energy, reduced ability to collect data, increased administrative workload and teaching online and increased caregiving and health challenges.</p>
<p>One racialized woman said she was having 80-hour work weeks, so was finding “less time for research and writing.” She added: “It is hard on my body sitting in front of a screen 12-14 hours a day in my makeshift office.”</p>
<p>Emergent impacts unique to faculty members identifying as racialized and/or Indigenous included lack of research support, opportunities for collaboration and sense of collegiality. One Indigenous respondent said that “academic leadership for research here has been invisible during the pandemic.” </p>
<p>Another racialized woman reported experiencing “reduced collaboration” because colleagues “perceive me to be less productive,” and that she also “missed opportunities for field work due to travel restrictions and safety risks.”</p>
<p>Faculty with Indigenous or racialized identities also highlighted recommendations for improved communications with their universities. Some comments shared were:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They tried to appear proactive for students’ welfare, but not for us.”</p>
<p>“Most of the communication were from the university administration. Faculty association could work closely with a wider group of members to support struggled faculty and staff.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Key recommendations</h2>
<p>We captured key recommendations by coding participant responses according to the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-02001-000">three stages of qualitative analysis</a> and then generated a final list of higher-level themes and associated categories that captured the main ideas provided by participants’ responses.</p>
<p>Key recommendations for administrators of higher education institutions included: changing the tenure and promotion evaluation criteria, increasing research support and modifying metrics used to gauge productivity to account for the differential impacts of the pandemic on women and racialized faculty. </p>
<p>A recurrent answer that came up was early career researchers desire not to delay tenure, but rather revise how promotion and tenure are evaluated. </p>
<p>Faculty members recommended that tenure requirements, as well as other performance evaluations, be adapted alongside the changing research landscape. They stressed that non-traditional metrics beyond publication and how many grants a person has should be integrated into these evaluations. </p>
<p>For example, they felt that those responsible for evaluating their work should also consider a verbal or written account of how they adapted during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Respondents also recommended that evaluations be based on peers at the same career stage and similarly-resourced institutions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a blurry instructor seen from the doorway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444423/original/file-20220203-15-wt5er1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444423/original/file-20220203-15-wt5er1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444423/original/file-20220203-15-wt5er1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444423/original/file-20220203-15-wt5er1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444423/original/file-20220203-15-wt5er1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444423/original/file-20220203-15-wt5er1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444423/original/file-20220203-15-wt5er1.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">Survey respondents suggested that career evaluations should be done by peers at the same career stage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Faculty identifying as racialized emphasized the importance of infusing equity, inclusion and diversity (EDI) into tenure expectations. One racialized woman said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Include EDI initiatives in your tenure expectations because COVID-19 was much harder for under-represented minorities, provide more admin/grant support by creating new grants and give us help in completing the mountains of paperwork we have to do for every single grant.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Respondents highlighted several factors to better support faculty with research progression. Early career researchers suggested that their universities make available weekly information and help sessions about grants, similarly to how teaching supports are available. The importance of having a mentor was also stressed — as was the amount of time that mentoring students takes. </p>
<p>Some other faculty also mentioned they were doing less mentoring because of fewer opportunities to collaborate and interact with other students and colleagues.</p>
<p>In conclusion, this research provides tangible recommendations based on the impact of COVID-19 experienced by faculty. We observed a profound ripple effect where reduced productivity from increased workload impacted researchers’ progress. There are concerns that unless this is taken into account, faculty will experience delayed career progression, tenure and job security.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174590/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Davis is employed by The University of British Columbia. Jennifer Davis is a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Applied Health Economics and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Scholar. Jennifer Davis received funding for this research from The University of British Columbia - Okanagan VPR Office.
Co-investigators include Dr. Eric Li, Dr. Mary Butterfield, Dr. Gino DiLabio and Dr. Barbara Marcolin. Research team members include Hardikaa Balasubramaniam, Josie Leung, Shuhui Wu.</span></em></p>Faculty in a cross-country survey recommended modifying metrics used to gauge productivity to account for the differential impacts of the pandemic on women and racialized faculty.Jennifer Davis, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613252021-05-30T11:17:43Z2021-05-30T11:17:43ZPost-secondary workplace harassment policies need to adapt to digital life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402721/original/file-20210525-21-15ce8a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C89%2C4962%2C2986&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What hapens when someone outside of the university community co-ordinates a mass email campaign demanding the firing of a faculty member? University policies need to cover this. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital tools <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-scientists-get-vocal-about-top-billing-on-twitter-31906">have been part of the scholarly trade for some time</a>, but the COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated pre-existing trends towards the digitization of higher education. Many experts expect that various technologies adopted over the past year <a href="https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/10-lessons-post-pandemic-world">will continue to be used</a> <a href="https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/10-lessons-post-pandemic-world">long after the pandemic ends</a>.</p>
<p>The use of technologies such as video conferencing, social media platforms and virtual discussion groups have heightened scholars’ online visibility. Unfortunately it’s also opened the door to new experiences of abuse and harassment, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/zoom-bombings-disrupt-online-events-with-racist-and-misogynist-attacks-138389">zoom bombing</a> <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/03/02/college-basketball-analyst-allegedly-doxxed-professors">and doxxing</a> — sharing someone’s personal information online without their consent.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-doxxing-and-why-is-it-so-scary-95848">What is doxxing, and why is it so scary?</a>
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<p>Most universities and colleges have policies designed to protect their community members from harassment and discrimination. However, these policies have limitations that restrict their usefulness when abuse or harassment occurs online.</p>
<p>We examined harassment and discrimination policies at Canadian universities and colleges to identify areas that require updating for research and education that is increasingly online. This <a href="https://harassment.thedlrgroup.com/">examination was informed by our work</a> speaking to and surveying <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818781324">women scholars to identify</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i8.9136">the kinds of support they need</a> so that we can better understand how existing policies fall short. </p>
<p>We’ve found that where policies do address online abuse and harassment, they are largely ineffective in a world where higher education institutions are integrated in society’s fabric and engage with people beyond the halls of academia in a variety of public platforms and through social media. An update is overdue.</p>
<h2>Analog policies, digital environment</h2>
<p>We searched the public websites of 232 universities and colleges across Canada for their workplace harassment and discrimination policies.</p>
<p>We identified policies at 129 institutions (56 per cent). Of these, only 41 institutions acknowledged online abuse and harassment in some way. Next, we analyzed those 41 policies to understand how university and college community members might be protected from online abuse and harassment within the context of their institution’s policy. </p>
<p>The scope of these 41 policies fell short in two ways.</p>
<p>First, the main objective of many policies is to protect people from abuse and harassment from other members of the same institution. While this stipulation is reasonable in the context of a post-secondary institution, it precludes perpetrators of online abuse and harassment that are unknown, anonymous or not part of the university or college. This limited scope poses serious problems because the online abuse and harassment that academics receive <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/right-wing-trolls-attacked-me-my-administration-buckled">often involves people outside of or unknown to the institution</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An empty campus hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402736/original/file-20210525-19-1pm5on8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402736/original/file-20210525-19-1pm5on8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402736/original/file-20210525-19-1pm5on8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402736/original/file-20210525-19-1pm5on8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402736/original/file-20210525-19-1pm5on8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402736/original/file-20210525-19-1pm5on8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402736/original/file-20210525-19-1pm5on8.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">The main objective of many policies is to protect people from abuse and harassment from others at the same institution, but online abuse often goes beyond this.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, policies that define their scope in relation to place typically limit harassment to spaces such as university-sanctioned events, events related to work and study or any other place needed to fulfil duties to the institution.</p>
<p>This provision opens up the possibility for policies to cover individuals who aren’t related to the campus community but ignores the fact that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2021.1878218">scholars’ online abuse and harassment doesn’t always occur on official university online platforms</a>. Examples include media appearances or receiving harassing messages on personal social media accounts (as opposed to, say, receiving harassing messages on an institution’s learning management system).</p>
<p>Defining harassment and discrimination policies in terms of institutional personnel and people who are physically on campus or engaged in official university business excludes acts of harassment that occur outside of institutionally-sanctioned platforms. While some policies might cover email, online classrooms or video conferencing apps for teaching, there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818781324">many other platforms that scholars use for teaching, learning and research that fall outside the scope of current harassment policies</a>.</p>
<p>When faculty appear on radio or TV, produce TikTok videos or write for mass media to engage broader audiences, they go beyond university campuses and official institutional digital platforms. Without finding ways to address the multi-platform nature of academic work, harassment policies risk leaving scholars unprotected from online harassment.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bB8rtjCxK98?wmode=transparent&start=17" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video about support women scholars seek and need after online harassment.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reconsider boundaries</h2>
<p>We were glad to see that there were mentions of the fact that abuse and harassment can occur online in the policies for 41 post-secondary institutions, but we see further room for development and growth.</p>
<p>Harassment policies should aim to consider, for example, what happens when a perpetrator outside of the university community co-ordinates a mass email campaign to a <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/the-growing-problem-of-online-harassment-in-academe/">dean or department chair demanding the expulsion of a student or the firing of a faculty member</a>. These policies need to adopt frameworks that reconsider rigid boundaries of work and non-work life both on and offline.</p>
<p>Institutions need to ensure the safety and well-being of their members when members are online as much when they are in physical classrooms and lecture halls. Acknowledging that work sometimes necessarily occurs outside of university campuses and on public virtual platforms that are not officially tied to the university would be a great step.</p>
<p>Additionally, to truly address online abuse and harassment, policy and procedures will need to account for the presence of online harassment and devise ways to respond that go beyond predominantly disciplining offenders. Such policies need to protect and support scholars. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Abstract floating icons of various connected devices floating over a city scape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402733/original/file-20210525-17-83eskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402733/original/file-20210525-17-83eskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402733/original/file-20210525-17-83eskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402733/original/file-20210525-17-83eskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402733/original/file-20210525-17-83eskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402733/original/file-20210525-17-83eskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402733/original/file-20210525-17-83eskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Acknowledging that work sometimes necessarily occurs outside of university campuses and on public virtual platforms would be a great step towards more effective harassment policies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What should change</h2>
<p>When we <a href="https://harassment.thedlrgroup.com/peer-reviewed-publications/">interviewed scholars who experienced harassment</a>, they suggested they could benefit from support from their institution’s IT department or human resources. Policies for these departments which enable support for those experiencing harassment would be helpful in situations where the perpetrator of harassment isn’t connected to the university. </p>
<p>This change in focus will help create a safer work environment for scholars whose abusers cannot be identified and whose abuse stems from off-campus harassment or virtual harassment on public platforms.</p>
<p>Creating or revising harassment policies to account for digital environments is no easy task. However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1883086">given the wide variety of adverse negative effects that harassment has on scholars</a>, it is important to foster safe work environments that are conducive to students and faculty thriving. </p>
<p>We recommend universities and colleges develop procedural frameworks for working through the inevitable challenges created by new technologies and modes of work and learning. We cannot know what risks new technologies will bring, but we can create policies that allow for more flexibility in scope and definition to accommodate multiple modes of work and education.</p>
<p><em>This is adapted from an article originally published by <a href="https://academicmatters.ca/analog-policies-in-a-digital-world-how-workplace-harassment-policies-need-to-adapt-to-an-increasingly-digital-education-environment">Academic Matters</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161325/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaigris Hodson receives funding from the Canada Research Chairs program, SSHRC, and CIHR.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chandell Gosse receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Veletsianos receives funding from the Canada Research Chairs program, SSHRC, and CIHR.</span></em></p>Where policies do address online abuse and harassment, they’re largely ineffective in a world where academics engage with people in a variety of public platforms and through social media.Jaigris Hodson, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads UniversityChandell Gosse, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads UniversityGeorge Veletsianos, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1569172021-05-10T12:31:45Z2021-05-10T12:31:45ZWhy business school efforts to recruit more diverse faculties are failing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395800/original/file-20210419-19-bq9evx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6699%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black and Hispanic business school professors are few in number.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/diverse-group-of-people-during-pandemic-on-a-royalty-free-image/1307742707?adppopup=true">nortonrsx/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the <a href="https://www.equityinhighered.org/resources/report-downloads/race-and-ethnicity-in-higher-education-2020-supplement/">increasing diversity</a> among America’s college students, business school professors remain overwhelmingly white.</p>
<p>In U.S. business schools, Black and Hispanic individuals make up <a href="https://bized.aacsb.edu/articles/2019/may/aacsb-2019-business-school-data-guide">23.2%</a> of students, yet only <a href="https://bized.aacsb.edu/articles/2019/may/aacsb-2019-business-school-data-guide">6.7%</a> of the faculty.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=DWg5VK4AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researcher</a> with a long-standing interest in the reasons business schools lack diverse faculty, I – along with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OZE_dYUAAAAJ&hl=en">marketing professor Sonja Martin Poole</a> – set out to examine <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1800796">how business schools select their faculty</a>. We did this by talking to 21 Black and Hispanic professors who have served on search committees at business schools throughout the U.S. We discovered four major reasons professors of color often get screened out of the process.</p>
<h2>1. Race is unmentionable</h2>
<p>Search committees rarely have open conversations about race as they search to diversify their faculty, the professors in our study told us. They described conversations about race as “anemic” and “uncomfortable,” which in turn led people to avoid the topic.</p>
<p>As one professor in our study stated regarding race, “If we don’t talk about it we don’t have a problem.”</p>
<p>The faculty members in our study described a variety of reasons they believed search committees avoided talking about race. These include different beliefs about fairness and fear of saying something that could lead them to be seen as racist. The silence on race ended up creating a perception among the Black and Hispanic faculty members in our study that the search committees were not concerned with racial justice.</p>
<p>When discussions about race are hampered, we believe it makes it more difficult to recruit diverse faculty.</p>
<h2>2. ‘Diversity’ is poorly understood</h2>
<p>Faculty members told us that many of their colleagues thought their school was already diverse since the schools had business professors from around the world.</p>
<p>This view is at odds with most <a href="https://www.equityinhighered.org/resources/ideas-and-insights/redoubling-our-efforts-how-institutions-can-affect-faculty-diversity/">diversity efforts</a> in American higher education, which aim to increase Black and Hispanic faculty members from the U.S. because of historical disadvantages that both groups have faced in this country.</p>
<p>Others discussed broad views of diversity, which included sexual preference, gender orientation and diversity of thought as important criteria.</p>
<p>The absence of a clear definition of diversity enables individual search committee members to define or interpret diversity as they see fit. It also makes it difficult to assess whether diversity goals are actually being met.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.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">Efforts to increase faculty diversity in U.S. business schools are often lackluster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/professor-wearing-a-mask-while-teaching-a-lecture-royalty-free-image/1282751568">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Blind faith in ‘colorblind’ criteria</h2>
<p>Even though search committees were using supposedly merit-based or “colorblind” criteria, Black and Hispanic candidates still got screened out of the process.</p>
<p>For instance, search committees might consider the number of times a candidate has been published in an academic journal. But this ignores the fact that many Black and Hispanic scholars may study race-related topics, which are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11711-5_10">largely absent from and marginalized</a> at top-ranked marketing journals. The rank of a journal where an article is published is used to assess faculty members for tenure and promotion. Publication at top-ranked journals is typically a requirement for tenure at most universities. </p>
<p>Search committees also consider the status of the school from which the candidate received their doctorate, as well as who was their adviser. Historically, <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED450619">elite schools</a> have had limited racial diversity among their faculty. Even potential Black and Hispanic doctoral students face biases and are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000022">least likely to receive responses from faculty</a> as they seek academic mentors and support.</p>
<p>Search committee members also told us that hiring committees often do not value the extra work that many Black and Hispanic doctoral students perform. This extra work includes mentoring students of color, consulting with administrators on issues related to Black and Hispanic populations and serving as what the study participants viewed as being “token members” on various committees.</p>
<h2>4. Hierarchy and gatekeepers matter</h2>
<p>Faculty members in our study felt they were invited to be on search committees to be the token “diversity voice.” But the presence of Black and Hispanic faculty members on search committees does not necessarily lead to the hiring of diverse candidates. The reason is that powerful committee members – such as the department chair and full professors – often determine whom is eventually hired.</p>
<p>Given Black and Hispanic faculty members were often “the only one” from their group on these search committees, and rarely at the full professor level, typically they felt they had to go against the grain to disrupt any observed bias.</p>
<p>At business schools that had more racially diverse faculty, some participants told us that there were strong diversity advocates in senior administration or on the faculty. This suggests that strong diversity advocates – not the hiring practices these schools have in place – are what’s yielding a diverse faculty. Once those advocates leave, future hires may not be as diverse.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/2019/October/faculty-diversity-in-business-schools-25-years-in-the-making">improvements in faculty diversity</a>, many students leave college without ever having learned from a Black or Hispanic business professor. The absence of racially diverse faculty cheats students out of a high-quality education by limiting their exposure to the views of educators from diverse racial backgrounds.</p>
<p>In order to bring about more diversity among business school faculty, I believe colleges and universities must acknowledge the various ways race influences faculty hiring in order to find ways to make hiring more inclusive.</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><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sonya A. Grier 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>Professors of color are few and far between at America’s business schools. Hidden obstacles in the search process help explain why.Sonya A. Grier, Professor of Marketing, American University Kogod School of BusinessLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1581562021-04-05T11:01:20Z2021-04-05T11:01:20ZThe way Nigeria selects vice-chancellors is deeply flawed. But it can be fixed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392565/original/file-20210330-23-dfouvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Appointment of vice-chancellors is problematic in some Nigerian universities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-and-lecturers-of-lagos-state-university-wait-out-news-photo/1228521028?adppopup=true">Nur Photo/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Some universities in Nigeria are in crisis over the selection of vice-chancellors. From <a href="https://guardian.ng/features/unending-crisis-in-premier-varsity-over-appointment-of-new-vc/">Ibadan</a> to <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/446613-exclusive-fresh-crisis-looms-as-lasu-shortlists-candidates-without-phd-for-vc-position.html">Lagos</a>, <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-west/434502-inside-the-crisis-rocking-federal-university-oye-ekiti-over-vc-appointment.html">Oye Ekiti</a> and <a href="https://leadership.ng/fud-staff-accuses-badaru-of-interfering-in-vc-selection-process/">Dutse</a>, things have not been running smoothly. While others like <a href="https://thenationonlineng.net/federal-university-lokoja-announces-new-vc/">Lokoja</a> and <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-east/437389-alex-ekwueme-university-gets-new-vc.html">Ndufe Alike</a> have been resolved, there were problems as well. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade asks Ayodeji Olukoju, <a href="https://universityoflagos.academia.edu/AyodejiOlukoju">former vice-chancellor</a> of <a href="https://calebuniversity.edu.ng/">Caleb University</a>, why this is so and what should be done to tackle it.</em></p>
<h2>How are vice-chancellors chosen in Nigerian universities?</h2>
<p>This depends on the type of university – federal, state or private – as well as the type of private university – secular, faith-based and hybrid. Another factor is whether the appointment is for a pioneer vice-chancellor or a successor.</p>
<p>The standard in federal and state universities is that pioneer vice-chancellors are appointed by fiat by the Visitor. The Visitor is usually the president of Nigeria or the governor of a state for public universities. It is the Proprietor for private universities. For subsequent appointments, a vacancy is declared – in a newspaper advertisement – six months before the end of the tenure of the incumbent. Conditions are stated in the advertisement which include number of years of post-professorial qualification, academic and administrative qualifications, and experience in various other capacities. </p>
<p>At the close of the deadline for submission, candidates are shortlisted. Interviews can take place in different formats, depending on tradition or the preference of the Visitor, board of trustees or governing council.</p>
<p>Although this system worked seamlessly in previous years, it has come under strain in recent times. The problem is that the corrupt hand of operators can disrupt any system.</p>
<h2>Why are some universities in crisis over appointments?</h2>
<p>The intrusion of vested interests is the fundamental cause. </p>
<p>Take the role of state governors. There are <a href="https://www.nounportal.org/list-of-the-36-states-of-nigeria-and-their-capitals/">36 states</a> in Nigeria. In most cases the governors regard the post as another political appointment preserved for family, friends, loyalists or their surrogates. </p>
<p>Another consideration for governors is that to win – or retain – power they must nurture the support of particular communities. This means that considerations such as ethnicity, sub-ethnicity, senatorial zone balancing, home town of origin, nepotism and religion are at work. </p>
<p>On another level, chairmen and influential members of a university’s governing council could favour a particular candidate, and not always the best, as a form of patronage (as dictated by their appointing authorities) or as a reward for the highest bidder. </p>
<p>And then there’s the more direct corruption – some vice-chancellors are said to have <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2020/07/15/is-unical-vice-chancellorship-for-sale/">literally bought the position</a> with considerable sums of money. </p>
<p>Staff unions also play a role. They sponsor candidates supposedly to advance the cause of the staff. But in most cases, other disruptive factors are at play. These include political interference as well as other considerations, such as clamours for a ‘son of the soil’ (host state or community) or member of a religious group. </p>
<h2>What makes the position so attractive these days?</h2>
<p>The obvious reason is the concentration of power and access to wealth in the position. Vice-chancellors have the power of patronage as they interface with – and are courted by – powerful people such as politicians, traditional rulers and religious leaders. Many might have helped them into office in the first instance. </p>
<p>Vice-chancellors are also well remunerated. The consolidated salary, perks and allowances of a public university vice-chancellor is many times that of the highest paid professor. </p>
<p>In addition, gifts and patronage flow into the office throughout the tenure of the incumbent, especially during religious and commemorative occasions. </p>
<p>Then there’s the exercise of power. Vice-chancellors could make – or mar – the careers of friends or foes. They too dispense patronage within the system as they nominate or appoint the chair and members of powerful boards or committees; they chair the appointments and promotions committee, which also entitles them to determine external assessors of professorial candidates. In other words, they determine the career progression of their non-professorial colleagues. </p>
<p>Lastly, in many cases they also influence the choice of their successors as they nominate their deputies, who are often groomed to succeed them in office.</p>
<h2>What would be a better way of making the appointments?</h2>
<p>The only solution is to make the process of appointment transparent by giving each candidate a fair shot at the position. There should be no preferred or anointed candidates, sponsored by external or internal vested interests. </p>
<p>A few changes might help. </p>
<p>First, sitting vice-chancellors should leave their posts in the last three months of the selection exercise. This is to ensure that they don’t rig the system in favour of certain candidates. In their place, the oldest serving professor, if found above board, should oversee the transition.</p>
<p>Second, sitting deputy vice-chancellors who are interested in the office should also step aside for the process to be fair to all. </p>
<p>Third, the composition of the selection panel should be done with emphasis on character, diversity of representation – within the institution as well as outside – such as disciplines and gender. </p>
<p>Fourth, the criteria for selection and scoring should focus on the academic and administrative abilities and character of the candidates. Certain criteria give undue advantage to candidates at the expense of others. For example, candidates in the sciences have an edge in the number and size of research grants won for the obvious reason that scientific research is heavily funded all over the world. Since the job is not primarily to win grants, that should not be a criterion for selection. </p>
<p>Candidates should be judged fairly under the rubric of contribution to knowledge in their various disciplines.</p>
<h2>How did you become a vice-chancellor, and are there lessons to be learnt?</h2>
<p>I responded to a newspaper advertisement, was shortlisted and was interviewed with other candidates. The university hired the famous boardroom guru, <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/09/politicians-priority-is-citizens-welfare-not-next-election-pa-omolayole/">Dr Michael Omolayole</a>, as a consultant to lead the exercise. The panel comprised the chair, who was also the pro-chancellor and chairman of the university council, a former <a href="https://unaab.edu.ng/2013/02/the-untold-genesis-of-funaab-by-pioneer-vice-chancellor-prof-nurudeennimbe-adedipe/">pioneer vice-chancellor</a> as well as members of the board of trustees and council. </p>
<p>We were interviewed in three stages, two of which were in group format (all candidates together) and the final one featuring one candidate at a time. Practical questions were asked to test our knowledge of university administration and ability to handle hypothetical problems. The panel also cleverly asked us to recommend our top three candidates. </p>
<p>The result of the exercise, in which I topped all three sections and was the preferred candidate of the others, was relayed to the Senate when I was presented on October 18, 2010. It was meant to show the transparency of the system that produced me. That gave the system and the candidate legitimacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158156/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>Transparent selection processes and merit should be emphasised more in appointing vice-chancellors in Nigerian universities.Ayodeji Olukoju, Distinguished Professor of History and Strategic Studies, University of LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1531692021-03-02T22:01:43Z2021-03-02T22:01:43ZUniversity survey shows how COVID-19 pandemic is hampering career progress for women and racialized faculty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386818/original/file-20210227-21-1gnuw1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C289%2C6048%2C3666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A cross-Canada survey of university faculty found 68 per cent of females, compared with 32 per cent of males, reported family caregiver challenges in the pandemic. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, university faculty across <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-halted-years-of-research-and-canada-needs-a-strategy-to-fight-back-135805">Canada have been looking for ways to keep doing high-quality research</a> and adapt to online teaching. The uncertainty of what a new normal will resemble, and the restrictions it imposes, underscore the importance of data to inform university responses.</p>
<p>For many university faculty, new pandemic guidelines resulted in immediate loss of access to research facilities, research participants, community partners, research-related travel, personnel or equipment. These changes came to a sector operating in an environment of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1828326">finite and constrained resources with faculty experiencing occupational health impacts such as high stress</a>. </p>
<p>With colleagues, I conducted a nation-wide survey that aimed to understand the broader health, social, well-being and research-related effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on tenured and tenure-track faculty in public Canadian universities. </p>
<p>One of the early stories of the COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-leveller-trfn-idUSKCN21R30P">was that it was a leveller</a>, ignoring social status, ethnic status, biological sex- or gender- identity. </p>
<p>But our study found that the COVID-19 pandemic has differentially impacted the health, social well-being and research activity of faculty employed by public Canadian universities. Our research found the pandemic has had a disproportionately negative effect on women and racialized faculty. We think universities should urgently take measures to ensure they are not unfairly disadvantaged in their career progression.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A closed university building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387095/original/file-20210301-17-1gknwpc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387095/original/file-20210301-17-1gknwpc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387095/original/file-20210301-17-1gknwpc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387095/original/file-20210301-17-1gknwpc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387095/original/file-20210301-17-1gknwpc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387095/original/file-20210301-17-1gknwpc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387095/original/file-20210301-17-1gknwpc.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">With campus and facility closures, and changing schedules due to the pandemic, many researchers have had to adapt their research plans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Respondents from all provinces</h2>
<p>We recruited survey participants via direct emails to public Canadian universities, and through snowball sampling using social media such as Twitter. Six-hundred and ninety-six faculty completed the survey. Fifty-two per cent of participants identified their biological sex as female, 45 per cent as male and three per cent reported: “prefer not to say / other.” Fifteen per cent (105 people) reported minority status based on race. All provinces in Canada were represented in the survey. </p>
<p>The average age of participants was 48 years and 58 per cent were married. Ten per cent of respondents held senior leadership positions. Ninety per cent were professors: assistant (29 per cent), associate (31 per cent) or full (30 per cent). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/humanities-phd-grads-working-in-non-academic-jobs-could-shake-up-university-culture-127298">Humanities PhD grads working in non-academic jobs could shake up university culture</a>
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<p>We asked faculty to classify physical activity changes during the pandemic as decreased, no change or increased. Almost half (47 per cent) reported decreases in physical activity. Similarly, 56 per cent felt socially supported and 50 per cent felt supported in their health and wellness.</p>
<p>We ran statistical analyses comparing men and women as well as individuals who were racialized and non-racialized. Substantially fewer women felt supported for their health and wellness from their university. Women and racialized faculty reported higher levels of stress and social isolation, and lower well-being. </p>
<h2>Increased productivity among men</h2>
<p>The majority of faculty (79 per cent) reported a pandemic-related disruption to balancing usual work demands with those outside of work. </p>
<p>We asked faculty how the pandemic had affected their research productivity by reporting decreased, no change or increased. Approximately half (53 per cent) of faculty reported less research productivity, with a greater proportion (64 per cent) of racialized faculty reporting reduced research productivity. </p>
<p>Most (73.3 per cent) faculty who reported increased productivity during the pandemic were men. </p>
<p>These data emphasize a disproportionate toll on women and racialized people. Women and racialized people experienced a higher proportion of negative impacts on health, social well-being, research activity and loss of productivity. </p>
<h2>Caregiving, funding discrepancies</h2>
<p>There were also gender-based discrepancies with funding and caregiving. Specifically, 71 to 75 per cent of women, compared with 25 to 29 per cent of men, reported limited access to external or internal funding. Sixty-eight per cent of women, compared with 32 per cent of men, reported family caregiver challenges.</p>
<p>Some faculty underscored the significant exhaustion, burnout and burden associated with caregiving:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted trying to keep the same level of productivity, while caring for and schooling two elementary school aged boys … and being a single parent.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our data point to a call for urgent and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010636117">equitable action</a> by faculty, leaders in universities and governments. Action to rectify inequity requires equitable representation at all levels of the university community to provide additional support to faculty research infrastructure and research capacity.</p>
<h2>Recommendations to universities</h2>
<p>We recommend a collaboration between HR, faculty associations and faculty at all stages of careers. They could work together to create a database that is updated in real-time to assess and monitor ongoing pandemic impacts on faculty conducting research. </p>
<p>The idea would be for Canadian universities to collect longitudinal data about their faculty on the effects of COVID-19 on fields of research, career progress, health and wellness. This database could serve as a monitoring tool to improve areas devoid of support. In turn, this evidence may allow universities evaluate and refine their policies and supports. </p>
<p>We recommend that universities pay attention to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1389878">fairness and equity issues pertaining to faculty career progression and bear in mind pandemic effects</a>. Faculty experience less burnout when processes overseeing their performance review are perceived as fair.</p>
<p>Annual reviews as well as tenure and promotion processes may need to be adjusted to account for the loss of productivity. Adjustments may not be as simple as extending the tenure-clock for junior faculty. Universities may need to consider new evaluation frameworks. </p>
<p>We recommend universities take an active approach to optimize working conditions by supporting faculty health and well-being. This could include HR departments overseeing the regular confidential monitoring of health and social wellness using online surveys on a quarterly basis, with the responses anonymized. HR could identify those not doing well and offer access to the appropriate supports.</p>
<p>At universities, supporting mental health and social well-being of individuals requires an individualized approach. A “one size fits all” approach will likely be insufficient within each university. Therefore, we suggest every university consider a multidisciplinary approach to address all employees’ needs equitably. </p>
<p>This could include dedicated professionals that are equipped to provide individualized intervention strategies that may include counselling, health care professional referrals, <a href="https://www.selfmanagementbc.ca/briefactionplanning">personal goal setting</a> and/or health coaching.</p>
<p>Together, through proactive, evidence-informed decision-making and active collaboration, universities have an opportunity to ensure that faculty members’ career progression is equitable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Davis receives funding from the University of British Columbia- Okanagan. She is affiliated with the University of British Columbia-Okanagan and is a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Scholar.
Eric Li, Gino DiLabio, Mary Butterfield, Barbara Marcolin and Nithi Sangunthunam were collaborators in this research.</span></em></p>The pandemic has negatively affected female and racialized faculty. Universities need to make sure their career advancement doesn’t suffer.Jennifer Davis, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1409882020-08-16T12:12:30Z2020-08-16T12:12:30ZPhD students can benefit from non-academic mentors’ outside perspectives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352269/original/file-20200811-24-141ydpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C211%2C5215%2C3265&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Non-academic mentors, especially those familiar with the culture of academia, can offer empathy, validation and healthy perspectives.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Brooke Cagle/Unsplash)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A mentor is a professional who acclimates a protégé into a profession. In the <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Geography-of-Genius/Eric-Weiner/9781451691672">Bottegas of Renaissance Florence</a>, upstart Leonardo Da Vinci pulverized Tuscan stone and collected eggs <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tempera-painting">to make tempera</a> for mentor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrea-del-Verrocchio">Andrea del Verrocchio</a>, who might allow Da Vinci to assist Michelangelo with his paintings.</p>
<p>Although this model was adopted by the research laboratories of the Enlightenment through to postmodernism, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03535-y">it is now faltering</a>. </p>
<p>With less than <a href="https://www.conferenceboard.ca/edu/research/valuing-preparing-phds-for-careers">20 per cent of PhD students</a> being able to transition into academia, the PhD is no longer a foremost career entree into the professoriate. Most PhD students no longer work alongside people whose career paths they will follow. In light of this, universities must do more to support non-academic mentorships for PhD students. </p>
<h2>Career confidence</h2>
<p>Some of my research focuses on the value of students <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/pplt/article/view/68677">procuring non-academic mentors through informational interviews</a>. By embedding informational interviewing into curriculum, I have studied how students can learn to explore non-academic careers, connect with working professionals, seek advice and cultivate professional, mentor-protégé relationships. Through this process, students learn the tacit knowledge they often are missing, showing substantial improvements in their career confidence and well-being. </p>
<p>Because linear career progression is ending, forcing people to change jobs frequently, students should be taught skills to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845317727616">adapt to uncertain labour markets</a>. Hence, it is important to teach students how to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1080569910376533">investigate, reflect on and test potential careers</a>. </p>
<p>The concept of a “future professional self” helps expand a student’s aspirations. Career reflection fosters innovative thinking about prospects, helping to build strategies and expectations that make ambitions real. Once students know what they want to do, they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026423">more inspired to work towards reaching their goals</a>. </p>
<p>My daughter, Kate, also recently shared with me her experience as a non-academic mentor in Dalhousie University’s clinical psychology PhD program. She has also shaped my perspectives on how non-academic mentors offer PhD students the opportunity to develop meaningful perspectives and connections. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women sit in an office with laptops having a discussion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352264/original/file-20200811-24-offub0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352264/original/file-20200811-24-offub0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352264/original/file-20200811-24-offub0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352264/original/file-20200811-24-offub0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352264/original/file-20200811-24-offub0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352264/original/file-20200811-24-offub0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352264/original/file-20200811-24-offub0.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">Career reflection fosters innovative thinking about prospects, helping to build strategies and expectations that make ambitions real.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Christina Wocintechchat/Unsplash)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Competitive ethic</h2>
<p>PhD students who perceive a narrowing scope of opportunities as they advance may become disillusioned with their thesis work, thus limiting their productivity and <a href="https://cags.ca/documents/publications/working/completion_grad_studies_2004.pdf">increasing their completion time</a>. </p>
<p>PhD students are among the highest-achieving individuals in our society, which can be both a blessing and a curse. A focus on achievement is generally a necessary academic quality, as culture establishes researchers (and trainees by default) as “entrepreneurs” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404094111">responsible for their own survival</a>. A survival-of-the-fittest mentality has arisen in academia with the tremendous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/upshot/so-many-research-scientists-so-few-openings-as-professors.html">surplus of talent in the professor pool</a>. </p>
<p>While competition helps to drive the university research agenda forward, we have found when we talk with current and recent PhD students and professors that this competition undermines the well-being of graduate students and faculty alike. </p>
<p>For many, the PhD becomes a bad deal because they do not see (and are not shown) <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/ph-d-attrition-how-much-is-too-much/">a way out of a horrible situation</a> — or they fear <a href="https://community.chronicle.com/news/417-adjuncts-and-the-sunk-cost-fallacy">the sunk cost</a>. PhD students often struggle to know how to navigate these situations, as the philosophy that guides their approach is often “work harder, and you will succeed.”</p>
<h2>Strain on professor-protégé relationship</h2>
<p>Yet, since the bare facts of the job market mean that even if PhD students demonstrate an outstanding work ethic, many will have to leave academia in search of other careers. This places tremendous stress upon the mentor-protégé relationship between PhD students and professors. </p>
<p>Because our universities have not systematically embedded entrepreneurship and career planning into doctoral studies, it’s not surprising if most professors believe they cannot acclimate their trainees into a profession outside of academia, like industry or government. Worse yet, some professors <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2020/02/26/should-professors-be-responsible-their-students-workplace">believe it’s not their responsibility</a>.</p>
<p>A professor’s very survival may be dependent on the productivity of their PhD students. Many professors buffer their own careers by securing students’ research help with their own publications, while de-emphasizing pursuits that can better prepare students for their own futures such as entrepreneurship, teaching, outreach or internships.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young man and an older man chat in front of a bookcase with a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352279/original/file-20200811-20-axo2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352279/original/file-20200811-20-axo2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352279/original/file-20200811-20-axo2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352279/original/file-20200811-20-axo2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352279/original/file-20200811-20-axo2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352279/original/file-20200811-20-axo2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352279/original/file-20200811-20-axo2l.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">Working harder is not the answer to securing future employment for PhD students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Perfect storm for frustration, health issues</h2>
<p>The above factors generate a perfect storm for the development and/or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4089">exacerbation of mental health problems among graduate students</a>. Students with a propensity for achievement find themselves in a culture that narrowly defines success, a career landscape that makes it nearly impossible to achieve this success and a profound lack of support given the challenges of navigating new opportunities after graduate school. </p>
<p>Combined with concerns of not knowing how to transition to the non-academic workforce, supervisor criticism and/or neglect may contribute to “locus of control” problems wherein students <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/moments-matter/201708/locus-control">do not feel they have control over the events that influence their lives</a>. Research shows that such perceptions of loss of control in students can contribute to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01430">onset of mental health issues</a>.</p>
<p>The primary consequence of this mentorship approach is that it undermines students’ self-confidence, leaving many to question their self worth, as though the inability to secure work as a professor is a personal failure. Non-academic mentors may be a means of mitigating the effects of this problem.</p>
<h2>Empathy, healthy perspectives</h2>
<p>In addition to providing mentorship around envisioning and navigating the transition, non-academic mentors are uniquely positioned to offset the potentially damaging effects of academic mentorship on students’ self-confidence. This may be especially true of non-academic mentors who themselves completed a PhD and transitioned into successful careers beyond academia.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/humanities-phd-grads-working-in-non-academic-jobs-could-shake-up-university-culture-127298">Humanities PhD grads working in non-academic jobs could shake up university culture</a>
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<p>Non-academic mentors, especially those familiar with university culture, can provide empathy, validation and healthy perspectives. Such experiences can protect students by showing them that self-worth is not contingent on achievement, self-care is not a sign of laziness and new experiences add value to one’s life. </p>
<p>They can also offer alternative points of view: that success is broadly defined, academic expectations are unrealistic and failure is necessary for development. These can act as a balm for times when students’ confidence or self-worth is otherwise challenged or bruised by academia. </p>
<p><em>Kate Rancourt co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derrick Rancourt receives funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Natural Sciences & Engineering Council and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The realities of the job market mean most PhD students no longer work alongside people whose professional paths they will follow. Universities must do more to support non-academic mentorships.Derrick Rancourt, Professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1307152020-02-28T14:01:04Z2020-02-28T14:01:04ZSurvey of academics finds widespread feelings of stress and overwork<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317619/original/file-20200227-24651-1f5xhxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1478%2C0%2C5231%2C4476&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/exhausted-stressed-research-scientists-feeling-tired-1569876997">shutterstock/tuaindeed</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people imagine universities to be calm and relaxed places of work, populated by academics who have long holidays, small workloads and obsessions with obscure subjects. But our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2020.1712693">new research</a> paints a very different picture. Together with a <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/reports/what-researchers-think-about-research-culture">recent report</a> from the Wellcome Trust, our work reveals that academics feel incredible amounts of stress, and report harassment, bullying and widespread job insecurity. </p>
<p>We conducted a survey to assess university staff’s satisfaction with their senior managers. We had more than 5,500 responses and the results highlight many of the issues academics are currently facing.</p>
<p>In the main, academics expressed their discontentment at how in recent years, more and more metrics – measures of performance, productivity and quality – have been introduced in UK universities, and how these are then used as supposed evidence for the need to change academic practices. Academics in our survey felt this had generated an audit culture where many things are measured, but few things are valued. </p>
<p>Our survey also asked university staff for their thoughts on how senior management actions impact students, university values, performance, work pressure and the wellbeing and treatment of staff. We used this data to produce a national <a href="https://smsproject.wordpress.com/national-senior-management-league-table/">league table of senior management teams</a>. </p>
<p>It showed a mean satisfaction score across UK higher education institutions of 11%. The highest ranking institution, the University of Oxford, scored 37%, while three institutions scored 0%. Such consistently low scores across the sector suggest that many teaching and research staff are unhappy and have lost confidence in the way their institutions are being run.</p>
<h2>Job dissatisfaction</h2>
<p>As well as collecting data to construct the league table, we offered participants the opportunity to provide comments on their experiences. We collected and analysed more than 2,400 written comments and a number of major themes emerged.</p>
<p>The comments highlighted how staff felt they had an excessive workload and a lack of voice. Academics also highlighted a perceived lack of senior management accountability and priority given to what were seen as vanity projects, such as new buildings or international campuses outside the UK. Senior management was repeatedly described as “distant”, “uncaring” and even “inhumane”. </p>
<p>A large number of academics also reported that the actions of senior managers were having a negative effect on their, and their colleagues’, mental health. </p>
<h2>Research culture taking toll</h2>
<p>Many of the findings from our survey echo what was also highlighted in the latest Wellcome Trust report, <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/reports/what-researchers-think-about-research-culture">What Researchers Think About The Culture They Work In</a>, published in January 2020. This report specifically focused on the research sector, the vast majority of which is located inside universities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317620/original/file-20200227-24659-atvvjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317620/original/file-20200227-24659-atvvjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317620/original/file-20200227-24659-atvvjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317620/original/file-20200227-24659-atvvjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317620/original/file-20200227-24659-atvvjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317620/original/file-20200227-24659-atvvjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317620/original/file-20200227-24659-atvvjq.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">Academics report feeling overworked and isolated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/scientist+stressed">rawpixels/shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The report found that 78% of researchers think that high levels of competition have created unkind and aggressive conditions. It also found that 61% of researchers have witnessed bullying or harassment and 43% have experienced it themselves. Just 37% said they felt comfortable speaking up, with many doubting appropriate action would be taken. And 57% of researchers that responded said they had sought, or wanted to seek, professional help for depression or anxiety.</p>
<p>Senior managers of universities have a duty of care to their staff, but our results highlight how many academics working in universities feel this care is absent. This must be addressed urgently, particularly given that other research has found academics and students are reporting <a href="https://theconversation.com/overworked-and-isolated-the-rising-epidemic-of-loneliness-in-academia-110009">more mental health problems</a> and that many academics feel <a href="https://theconversation.com/overworked-and-isolated-the-rising-epidemic-of-loneliness-in-academia-110009">overworked and isolated</a>. This is important because, as centres of learning, universities set examples for the rest of society – and happy academics help to set the stage for happy students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130715/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>Academics report feeling unhappy and isolated in their current work culture.Mark Erickson, Reader in Sociology, University of BrightonCarl Walker, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of BrightonPaul Hanna, Research Director, Clinical Psychology, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1211702019-08-25T11:31:23Z2019-08-25T11:31:23ZThe ‘slow professor’ could bring back creativity to our universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288414/original/file-20190817-192215-y388eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Creative, social and family life should not be banished from the knowledge economy. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last summer, a friend gave me a copy of <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-slow-professor-3"><em>The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy</em> by Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber</a>, professors of English language and literature respectively at Queen’s University and Brock University. It gave me lots of food for thought. Working at a university, after several years of postdoctoral fellowships, I wondered why, indeed, not slow down? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/slow-professor-revisited/">The book advocates the benefits of a generalized slowdown at universities</a>, with the authors pondering how to reform these institutions from the inside. That would take the form of fighting against the race for performance — and the culture of speed that characterizes it. </p>
<p>How can we reverse the strong trend that commodifies the value of education and brings educational objectives into line with market standards?</p>
<p>The authors question both the individual responsibility of professors to act in accordance with the noble ideals of the institution of the university, and the possible collective mobilizations to safeguard its independence.</p>
<p>The book poses a difficult question: To what extent do professors themselves bend to the ideology of growth without their knowledge? </p>
<h2>In praise of slowness</h2>
<p>Berg and Seeber thus slowly open up the possibility of practising a certain dissent within the university itself, of having divergent thoughts — and practices — and of making the university a place for sustainable living.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIG33QtLRyA">The idea of degrowth </a> in the economics universe is based on the idea that an ecological disaster is inevitable as long as the exploitation of (finite) resources is subjected to growth – and therefore to infinite exploitation.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283719/original/file-20190711-173360-1rwaqcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283719/original/file-20190711-173360-1rwaqcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283719/original/file-20190711-173360-1rwaqcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283719/original/file-20190711-173360-1rwaqcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283719/original/file-20190711-173360-1rwaqcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283719/original/file-20190711-173360-1rwaqcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283719/original/file-20190711-173360-1rwaqcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In ‘The Slow Professor,’ Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber discuss the need to reintroduce into university life the notion of a kind of timelessness that is at the heart of inventiveness and creativity.</span>
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</figure>
<p>It seems to me that a professor’s ideas are not renewable at the same rate as the exploitation of minds induced by the university system, particularly when ideas and minds are subject to constant pressure. </p>
<p>Teachers are being asked to produce more and more, ignoring the challenges of life — fatigue, depression, pregnancy and aging, for example. This dichotomy between creativity and intellectual overproduction sometimes creates dissonance and gives the impression that some people display impoverished ideas. </p>
<p>Similar phenomena can be observed in the artistic fields, where artists have transformed themselves into “cultural producers.” I remember one <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/agnesmartin/7127385">interview with the painter Agnes Martin</a>, who justified throwing away all her attempts until she was 40 years old by saying: “It takes time to create something new.” </p>
<h2>The myth of the civil servant</h2>
<p>Being in tune with one’s interior mind without being constantly threatened by the outside world is a requirement that is just as valid for a chemist as it is for a painter. You can’t produce something new without giving time for ideas to regenerate. </p>
<p>But before even tackling speed itself head on, it’s necessary to criticize the discourse on time that contaminates the discussion. It is enough to have set foot in a university to know that everyone claims not to have any time. It’s a universal scourge, but it reaches a delirious level for university professors, with several months’ delay in replying to emails, in evaluating theses and dissertations, etc. </p>
<p>Lack of knowledge of the variety of teachers’ tasks can sometimes lead to prejudice against them. It is said they work little, are passively idle, earn a generous salary and travel at public expense. </p>
<p>These prejudices are not necessarily false, on the condition that they are in line with private enterprise. But that’s perhaps not desirable when you think about it for a second: because why would you want all workers to be poorly paid and not entitled to any intellectual enrichment? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283756/original/file-20190711-173360-p6d9m5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283756/original/file-20190711-173360-p6d9m5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283756/original/file-20190711-173360-p6d9m5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283756/original/file-20190711-173360-p6d9m5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283756/original/file-20190711-173360-p6d9m5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283756/original/file-20190711-173360-p6d9m5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283756/original/file-20190711-173360-p6d9m5.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">In a university, everyone claims not to have any time.</span>
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<p>These prejudices broadly affect the entire public sector. The governments of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in Québec and the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party don’t help the situation: Ontario, for example, has stated it wants to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-doug-ford-university-college-post-secondary-grants-1.5121844">accelerate the adaptation of universities to labour market needs</a>.</p>
<p>Berg and Seeber focus on the need to reintroduce into university life the notion of a kind of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/19/book-argues-faculty-members-should-actively-resist-culture-speed-modern-academe">timelessness</a> that they believe is at the very heart of inventiveness and creativity. They submit that it is virtually impossible to read and write (activities that are at the very heart of university life) with too much awareness of the passage of time.</p>
<h2>Never working hard enough</h2>
<p>On this point, it seems that everyone must be impacted. It’s obvious that everyone’s concentration time is strongly affected by increasingly frequent external demands. </p>
<p>Without pleading for the abolition of Facebook or texting, Berg and Seeber nevertheless believe we must learn to cut ourselves off from the world again, even if only for a few hours, in order to be able to read and write correctly. Transforming knowledge and letting oneself be transformed by the knowledge of others requires slowness, almost an asceticism.</p>
<p>The principle of the slow professor also implies a way of prioritizing intellectual and material life differently, of finding a way to put everyday everyday invasions in their place. </p>
<p>This guilt of never working hard enough is invading all spheres of immaterial labour. I wrote an <a href="https://edition.atelier10.ca/nouveau-projet/magazine/nouveau-projet-12/le-rire-jaune-de-l-universite%5D">article</a> in the journal <em>Nouveau Projet</em> on this issue, and more particularly on the “academic humour” that derides this obsession with work and the resulting alienation.</p>
<p>Needless to say, the time management style now demanded by universities is contrary to that of parenting, particularly motherhood, or any other form of investment in the care of relatives (this is certainly a way to go if we want to understand <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/women-academics-are-still-outnumbered-at-the-higher-ranks/">systemic gender inequalities in universities</a>). </p>
<p>Knowing how to put family, social and creative life back at the very heart of the knowledge economy is perhaps the only way to save a university from the discomfort that it has imposed on itself in a desire to imitate private enterprise. </p>
<p>To what extent are the teachers themselves accomplices in this imprisonment, as if they are afraid of being accused of being lazy, under the pressure of implied adversarial criticisms they have integrated? This is a classic case of hegemony, where adherence to dominant values becomes so powerful that it is indistinguishable, like the (stale) air we breathe.</p>
<h2>Intellectual availability</h2>
<p>The intellectual availability I am talking about is particularly important at a time when the university is the place to re-elaborate the very notion of culture in relation to power struggles — related to cultural diversity, gender concepts, male domination — and to know how to hear what students have to say about these fundamental shifts. </p>
<p>To put it simply, universities cannot afford to be a sanitized technocratic universe at this time. It would simply be politically irresponsible.</p>
<p>It is time to do less and better, to transmit to students something like power, even a critical joy. Reinstall camaraderie, mutual aid, real encounters, free exchanges, break isolation. It is true that this also implies accepting a form of vulnerability of one’s word, to not armour oneself against the opinions of others, not to be afraid of being caught in the wrong. </p>
<p>This is true for universities, but also for all areas of knowledge, creativity and community work. To be slow teachers, slow journalists, slow nurses, is not to be stopped - it is simply to find the luxury of playing with one’s ideas and energy so that values such as creativity, invention and solicitude, are never subjected to speculative one-upmanship.</p>
<p>(This text was previously published, in a long version, in issue 323 of <em>Liberté</em> magazine, under the title <a href="https://revueliberte.ca/article/1349/D%C3%A9taler_comme_un_lapin">“Détaler comme un lapin</a>” (Running like a rabbit).)</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121170/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julien Lefort-Favreau has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (CRSH)</span></em></p>Transforming knowledge and letting oneself be transformed by the knowledge of others requires slowness, almost an asceticism.Julien Lefort-Favreau, Assistant Professor, French Studies & Cultural Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143832019-04-15T09:32:48Z2019-04-15T09:32:48ZWhat robots and AI may mean for university lecturers and students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269008/original/file-20190412-76843-gjsiz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&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 number of robots around the world is increasing rapidly. And it’s said that automation will threatening <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42170100">more than 800m jobs worldwide by 2030</a>. In the UK, it’s claimed robots will replace 3.6m workers by this date, which means <a href="https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2018/01/one-in-five-uk-jobs-threatened-by-automation-by-2030-report-warns/">one in five British jobs</a>
would be performed by an intelligent machine. </p>
<p>Jobs in higher education are no exception – with <a href="https://telrp.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41039-017-0062-8">recent studies</a> showing a rapid advancement in the use of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/09/26/academics-push-expand-use-ai-higher-ed-teaching-and-learning">these technologies in universities</a>. The full potential of these disruptive technologies is yet to be discovered, but their impact on teaching and learning is expected to be huge. This means that higher education might be affected by these technologies earlier than other sectors. </p>
<p>Artificial intelligence is set to have a significant impact. And not just on teaching and learning, but also on the whole student experience – innovation infused with <a href="https://education.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/artificial-intelligence-in-highereducation-nid-25668-cid-27.html">traditional academic processes</a>. This will change the classroom experience and how universities communicate with students, with lectures and marking potentially done by robots. </p>
<h2>Robot teachers</h2>
<p>For academics, this rise in artificial intelligence, robotics and intelligent tutoring systems, may well mean that having the required experience and teaching skills are no longer enough. <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-pay-gap-at-universities-could-get-even-worse-heres-why-107456">And the already apparent lack of digital skills</a> among some academics may make it easier for universities to look to robots as an alternative.</p>
<p>“Yuki”, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amfrm2V_KO0">the first robot lecturer</a>, was introduced in Germany in 2019 and has already started delivering lectures to university students at The Philipps University of Marburg. The robot acts as a teaching assistant during lectures. He can get a sense of how students are doing academically, and what kind of support they need. He can also have them take tests. Some students have found Yuki useful – despite the fact he still requires some significant improvements to be fully functional.</p>
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<p>Robots, combined with artificial intelligence, are expected to improve teaching by providing greater levels of individualised learning, objective and timely grading, as well as having the ability to identify areas of improvements in degree programmes. This may very well leave less room for actual humans to carry out the job – and will no doubt have a major impact on the job description of academics in universities.</p>
<p>It may also mean that when the robots move in, conducting research and contributing to knowledge creation might be the only way for academics to sustain their jobs and increase the chances of employability, retention and career development. </p>
<h2>Research of the future</h2>
<p>According to the latest Research Futures report from <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/research-futures-drivers-and-scenarios-next-decade">Elsevier and Ipsos MORI</a>, the research ecosystem will have significant changes in the future thanks to new technologies – in terms of open access publishing, funding opportunities and links to the technology industry. The report also suggests that Eastern countries such as China will have an increased focus on research and development. </p>
<p>The speed and volume of research will also change massively. Big data analytics and artificial intelligence will be able to present large amount of findings directly to researchers at a very fast pace. <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/research-futures-drivers-and-scenarios-next-decade">And it is predicted</a> there will also be a move towards a more open system in terms of funding, data collection and publishing open access articles. </p>
<p>So for academics, it may well be that a move towards knowledge creation through research rather than teaching might be the best way for job sustainability in higher education in the near future. This could mean that for academics, it will become more important than ever to focus on research. And while this could free academics up to use their expertise for the benefit of society, it remains to be seen whether robots can inspire the next generation in the same way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nisreen Ameen 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>Conducting research and contributing to knowledge creation might be the only way for academics to sustain their jobs.Nisreen Ameen, Lecturer in Information Technology Management, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/971602018-09-21T10:41:05Z2018-09-21T10:41:05ZI acted like a complete jerk to my students just to prove a point<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220479/original/file-20180525-117628-1womp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Antagonistic professors hurt student learning, research shows.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-handsome-bearded-angry-man-scientist-480070597?src=xHQNmiCVm5Z5hQiJtOhPEg-1-0">Volodymyr Tverdokhlib/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During a recent lecture, I purposefully antagonized students.</p>
<p>I belittled one student by criticizing him in front of others. I favored another student by telling other students they should be more like her. I responded impatiently to questions. I told one student his contribution to class was incompetent.</p>
<p>Yes, I felt like a jerk by doing this. But don’t worry, this was not a real college class. Fortunately, this was a video lecture. The “students” I antagonized in the video were actually actors. No students’ grades were harmed and no feelings were hurt.</p>
<p>So what’s the point?</p>
<p>As a communication studies professor who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MylOReMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">researches effective teaching</a>, my colleagues and I <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03634523.2018.1465192">purposefully antagonized</a> the students in the video lecture to see how it affected other students’ ability to learn. Our acts were meant to be what is known as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01463379109369808">“instructor misbehavior</a>.” We had student participants attend this prerecorded video lecture, then share their thoughts and take a test on the lecture material. We wanted to determine if being hostile to students caused them to learn less.</p>
<h2>Levels of misbehavior</h2>
<p>Not every bad thing that an instructor does is as bad as the ones I did for our study. Some are relatively minor, such as showing up a few minutes late to office hours. These types of things may detract from a learning environment, but students can recover easily from a few simple mistakes or inconveniences caused by a professor.</p>
<p>But some types of serious misbehavior can hurt the learning environment. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03634523.2014.978798">These include</a> taking four weeks to return graded assignments, not responding to student emails, deviating substantially from a syllabus or showing up ill-prepared.</p>
<p>The worst thing an instructor can do, from my perspective, is antagonize their students. It may be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08824096.2017.1366305">rare</a>, but students regularly identify antagonism as the most <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01463379109369808">significant misbehavior</a>.</p>
<p>So what happened to those “students” who had the misfortune of having me as their antagonistic professor?</p>
<h2>Impact on grades</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03634523.2018.1465192">experiment</a>, college students were randomly assigned to one lecture taught by me without antagonism or the same lecture taught with antagonizing remarks. We found that students disliked the course content more in the lecture where I was antagonistic. Those students also scored between 3 and 5 percent lower on a quiz of the material. </p>
<p>One of the most surprising findings is that the “best” students’ learning was compromised the most. Those who <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/may/shape-achievement-goals-051012.html">most valued their learning opportunities</a> and who <a href="http://www.lde-studentsuccess.com/news/what-are-the-self-regulated-learning-strategies-used-by-online-and-blended-learners">worked the hardest in the face of distraction</a> lost an average of 5 percent on the quiz.</p>
<h2>Mindful communication</h2>
<p>College professors have choices about how they communicate with students in the classroom, even if they subscribe to a “tell-it-like-it-is” philosophy. It’s not just about the quality of the content. It’s also about how that content is communicated. Students deserve to be taught in optimal learning environments, and for that to happen, professors need to lay off the antagonism. When they don’t, it could drag down the entire class.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Goodboy 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>A communication studies professor purposefully antagonizes students to show how putdowns and other forms of negative criticism can impact student learning.Alan Goodboy, Professor, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/959842018-05-07T10:42:16Z2018-05-07T10:42:16ZDon’t expect professors to get fired when they say something you don’t like<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217571/original/file-20180503-153881-4d8zcy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public university professors enjoy great protections when it comes to free speech.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/communication-concept-person-open-mouth-voicing-374868469?src=8ylNhbr0qCrh4nAFSAtcgg-2-14">Lightspring/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A college professor lashes out on social media with a caustic political opinion. Online commentators explode with outrage and demand firings. </p>
<p>Does the university stand behind the instructor and accept a reputational beating? It depends both on the law and the fortitude of campus administrators. </p>
<p>Fresno State University’s Randa Jarrar is the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fresno-professor-barbara-bush-20180424-story.html">latest</a> to incite condemnation with her stream of celebratory Twitter posts marking the April 17 passing of Barbara Bush. Jarrar denounced the former first lady as a “witch” and an “amazing racist.” For good measure, the English professor taunted her critics by boasting that tenure protected her from being fired.</p>
<p>Jarrar’s situation isn’t uncommon. Professors from <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/09/23/u-kansas-professor-suspended-after-anti-nra-tweet">Kansas</a> to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/27/trinity-college-connecticut-puts-johnny-eric-williams-leave-over-controversial">Connecticut</a> have provoked online outcry with incendiary posts about touchy social or political topics. </p>
<p>What’s noteworthy is that Jarrar has toughed out the criticism and remained on the job. Social media firestorms often end professors’ careers.</p>
<p>Last year, a Drexel University political scientist <a href="http://www.phillyvoice.com/controversial-professor-resigns-drexel-university/">resigned</a> after a flippant tweet that stated all he wanted for Christmas was “white genocide.” The tweet followed other comments in which the professor expressed disgust with the military and called white people “inhuman” for mistreating minorities. </p>
<p>Around the same time, a visiting professor at the University of Tampa <a href="http://wlrn.org/post/university-tampa-professor-fired-over-hurricane-tweet">lost his job</a> after tweeting that Hurricane Harvey, which killed more than 100 people, was payback for Texas’ support of Republicans.</p>
<p>One difference is that, unlike Drexel or Tampa, Fresno State is a public university. And at public universities, the First Amendment limits the ability of supervisors to penalize distasteful speech.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gJRByGQAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers</a> with the University of Florida’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, we’ve spent months digging into the rights of public employees when they speak with the news media. While Jarrar was publishing directly and not through a journalistic intermediary, the same constitutional principles protect her speech and that of all state employees – within limits.</p>
<h2>The workplace and the First Amendment</h2>
<p>It’s well-established by decades of case law that the First Amendment prevents government agencies – including states that run many universities and community colleges – from restricting the content of citizens’ speech, or punishing them after the fact for what they say. When a private employer, including a private college, fires someone over a social media post, there’s no constitutional violation.</p>
<p>At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the government has valid interests in being able to provide services efficiently. As a result, employee speech that interferes with workplace harmony can be restricted or even penalized with a firing.</p>
<p>So is a professor at a state-run college more of a citizen – or more of an employee?</p>
<p>In a 2006 case, <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/547/410.html">the Supreme Court upheld disciplinary action</a> against a government employee who wrote a memo undermining his supervisor, a California prosecutor. The justices said employees give up their First Amendment protection when they speak “pursuant to official duties.”</p>
<p>But more recently, the Supreme Court backpedaled. In 2014, the justices unanimously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/supreme-court-rules-public-employees-are-protected-from-retaliation-for-testimony/2014/06/19/cd9df368-f7bf-11e3-a606-946fd632f9f1_story.html?utm_term=.075b5b512d1e">overturned</a> the firing of an Alabama community college employee who blew the whistle on misspending at his state agency. Speech doesn’t lose protection, the court ruled, just because it is about information learned on the job.</p>
<p>The First Amendment especially applies to comments about prominent political figures and political issues. To the relief of bloggers and talk show hosts everywhere, speech <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/06/mark">does not lose protection</a> merely because it is insulting or mean-spirited. So even uncivil name-calling about the Bush family is difficult for a state agency to restrict. </p>
<p>If Jarrar was tweeting as part of her job duties, she’d have no First Amendment protection; the speech would belong to her employer. But political commentary is probably beyond the job description for an English literature professor. So her tweets are entitled to at least some constitutional protection.</p>
<p>And the First Amendment may apply even more forcefully when the speaker is a college instructor.</p>
<h2>Do professors represent a ‘special’ class?</h2>
<p>Outside of higher education, it’s become <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/officers-fired-for-anti-black-lives-matter-social-media">common</a> to see public employees fired for caustic social media posts. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/143264921/friendly-advice-for-teachers-beware-of-facebook">Teachers</a>, <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article23616994.html">principals</a>, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/27/officer-racist-tweets-ape_n_7453458.html">police officers</a> and <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article89619567.html">firefighters</a> have all lost their jobs for thoughtless excesses – whether real or perceived – on Facebook or Twitter. </p>
<p>Even for employees of state or local government, legal challenges often fail. Employers can prevail by producing enough complaints to show that the speech upset workplace morale or undermined public trust. </p>
<p>But in higher education, academic freedom is a cherished value. The term refers to the latitude that college educators are given to explore provocative ideas in the classroom, even unorthodox ones.</p>
<p>In cases brought by professors in <a href="http://www.splc.org/blog/splc/2011/04/appeals-court-delivers-favorable-affirmation-of-college-faculty-free-expression-rights">North Carolina</a> and <a href="http://www.splc.org/blog/splc/2013/09/ninth-circuit-latest-to-exempt-publicly-employed-teachers-from-garcetti-speech-restrictions">Washington</a>, federal courts have given greater free speech protection to college faculty than ordinary government employees would enjoy.</p>
<p>Stephen Salaita, a professor of American Indian studies, <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/U-of-Illinois-Settles-the/234187">obtained an US$875,000 settlement</a> in a lawsuit against the University of Illinois, when his job offer was withdrawn following outrage over his Twitter posts criticizing Israel. Salaita’s case shows how limited a public university’s options are in responding to indecorous speech by faculty members, particularly posts made on personal time about political concerns. </p>
<h2>Tweet and counter-tweet</h2>
<p>Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis <a href="http://firstamendmentwatch.org/2018/01/27/history-speaks-brandeis-concurring-holmes-whitney-v-california-1927/">famously wrote</a> in 1927 that the proper response to “evil” speech is “more speech,” not suppression or punishment. Like all government executives, college presidents can freely voice disapproval of obnoxious speech to distance their institutions from it.</p>
<p>That’s just what Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro did. In informing the public that Jarrar wouldn’t be disciplined for her off-duty tweets, Castro <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/fresno-state-randa-jarrar-barbara-bush-twitter-amazing-racist-war-criminal-891194">disavowed</a> the speech as “contrary to the core values of our University.” Castro is also holding two <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article210186154.html">forums</a> to air public sentiments about the Jarrar controversy. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court has <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15934266528750676067&q=keyishian&hl=en&as_sdt=40006">described</a> college campuses as a “marketplace for ideas,” and the marketplace has largely <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-calpoly-racism-20180501-story.html">disdained</a> Jarrar’s choice of words. </p>
<p>Social media speech is easily avoided, and remarks like Jarrar’s quickly dissipate if ignored. If the marketplace greets the next professorial online rant with a yawn and a click of the “unfollow” button, then the message will fail to find an audience – and the market will have spoken.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95984/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 organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite calls for their ouster, public university professors who utter offensive things enjoy free speech protection. But a scholar argues for another way to respond to what those professors say.Frank LoMonte, Director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, University of FloridaDavid Jadon, Law ClerkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/811572017-07-25T19:01:55Z2017-07-25T19:01:55ZLearning disabilities do not define us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179518/original/file-20170724-11166-1dhg9w2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Though challenges like dyslexia can make learning difficult, these disabilities shouldn't define who you are – or what you can do.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/pdkvf1">Tim Kwee</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am an educator of educators. I teach others how to be the best teachers. But, I’m also different. </p>
<p>I have learning challenges.</p>
<p>As we celebrate the <a href="http://www.adaanniversary.org/">anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)</a>, I’m reminded of my personal journey. </p>
<p>My disabilities could have defined me. But they did not. I don’t consider myself dyslexic or learning-disabled. </p>
<p>I am Jim. And here’s the story of how I overcame my challenges and found my life’s calling – and of the dedicated educators who helped me along the way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178906/original/file-20170719-13593-fm4oo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178906/original/file-20170719-13593-fm4oo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178906/original/file-20170719-13593-fm4oo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178906/original/file-20170719-13593-fm4oo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178906/original/file-20170719-13593-fm4oo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178906/original/file-20170719-13593-fm4oo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178906/original/file-20170719-13593-fm4oo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This year the Americans with Disabilities Act celebrates its 27th anniversary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/PGroup-Rainmaker-Photo-MediaPunch-MediaPunch-IP-/ce87a1b0e6db4dc9b217445f7d7f6718/1/0">Rainmaker Photo/MediaPunch/IPX/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>My disability</h2>
<p>Born in 1970, I suffered a head injury as a young boy while roughhousing with friends. Maybe that led to my learning problems. Maybe it didn’t. Doctors aren’t really sure. </p>
<p>What I do know for sure is that in kindergarten, I couldn’t spell my name: James. That’s when I became Jim. Over a period of time, I turned Jim into Mij. </p>
<p>I didn’t like school. I decided it was about one thing: learning to read and write. I was poor at both.</p>
<p>I didn’t like myself. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89574/original/image-20150723-22852-x5bwpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89574/original/image-20150723-22852-x5bwpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89574/original/image-20150723-22852-x5bwpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89574/original/image-20150723-22852-x5bwpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89574/original/image-20150723-22852-x5bwpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89574/original/image-20150723-22852-x5bwpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89574/original/image-20150723-22852-x5bwpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James Gentry, the author, in second grade.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the age of six, I was diagnosed with dyslexia or a minimal brain dysfunction with learning disabilities. At the time, awareness about dyslexia was so poor that my mother asked, “Is it contagious?” </p>
<p>Then something changed. </p>
<p>In 1975, Congress passed <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/idea35/history/index_pg10.html">Public Law 94-142</a>, now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This law provided special education services for all students with disabilities.</p>
<p>A breed of new educators – called special education teachers – came to my school in East Texas. They developed a curriculum tailored just for kids like me. The curriculum provided reading and writing experiences using specialized learning strategies. My teachers helped me learn to read books by looking at pictures, acting out stories and reading text.</p>
<h2>Left, right, tar</h2>
<p>A crucial event occurred in my second year of first grade that helped crystallize the visual cues I was being trained to see.</p>
<p>It was the summer of 1977. The roads of my small town were being resurfaced with asphalt and tar and I did what any inquisitive young boy would do: I stepped right into the middle of the warm, gooey stuff.</p>
<p>Predictably, it stuck to the side of one of my shoes. </p>
<p>The next morning, I lined up the shoes so they stuck together perfectly. Next, I slid my feet into the correct left and right shoes.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179503/original/file-20170724-16930-1tbvdop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the ‘70’s, they didn’t have cute stickers to help me figure out which shoe was which.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://shoezooz.com/">Shoezooz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I was elated.</p>
<p>For the first time, I was able to place my shoes on the right feet using that sticky tar as visual and <a href="http://vark-learn.com/strategies/kinesthetic-strategies/">kinesthetic</a> cues that my teachers had taught me. I was independent.</p>
<p>This was the beginning of understanding visual cues to learn to read, write and tell left from right. Even though it still took a while, I learned to make the connections.</p>
<p>For instance, when one of my teachers told me I needed to write on the correct side, I still didn’t understand. I asked, “What’s the correct side?” She said, “Write from left to right.” </p>
<p>I asked what are left and right. She took my paper, moved the holes of the paper to one side of my desk and said, “The holes face this way, left.”</p>
<p>I looked in that direction and saw these huge windows. </p>
<p>I still remember thinking, “This is like my shoes and that tar.” I knew it was unlikely the windows would move, so every time I began to write, I moved the holes of my paper toward the windows. </p>
<p>I learned to adjust to my visual landmarks if my desk moved by asking people what was my left. </p>
<p>I never wrote on the wrong side again.</p>
<h2>Legs, loops, letters</h2>
<p>Once I understood spatial relationships, I made new discoveries with letters and numbers, finding that some have “legs” and “loops” that faced the holes in the notebook paper while others faced in the opposite direction. </p>
<p>For instance, letters and numbers like a, d, 7, 3, and Jj faced the holes, while Bb, L, Ee, Ff, and Cc faced away from the holes. There were confusing ones like Zz, 5, Ss, and 2 that had loops and legs that faced toward and faced away from the holes on the notebook paper. I had to memorize or review them each time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178908/original/file-20170719-13534-1i865tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178908/original/file-20170719-13534-1i865tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178908/original/file-20170719-13534-1i865tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178908/original/file-20170719-13534-1i865tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178908/original/file-20170719-13534-1i865tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178908/original/file-20170719-13534-1i865tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178908/original/file-20170719-13534-1i865tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For people with dyslexia, learning letters and numbers can require special strategies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/learning-write-abc-384722392?src=qzm6n2uoLBzOgEteMvslJQ-1-4">Cmspic/shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As I learned to write, I learned to read better too. I could call some words out orally and use pictures to fill in the missing parts. </p>
<p>Using visual cues and working with my peers and teachers were the solutions to learning, reading and writing. Also, I could persuade peers to read to me, and piece the meaning together like a puzzle.</p>
<p>Later, using visual cues helped me play football and drive a car. And it all started with tar and some teachers holding my hand.</p>
<h2>College and beyond</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89577/original/image-20150723-22816-1gu63wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89577/original/image-20150723-22816-1gu63wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89577/original/image-20150723-22816-1gu63wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89577/original/image-20150723-22816-1gu63wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89577/original/image-20150723-22816-1gu63wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89577/original/image-20150723-22816-1gu63wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89577/original/image-20150723-22816-1gu63wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author, James Gentry, in his college graduation photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Learning with learning challenges is never easy. But higher education proved to be an even greater challenge. </p>
<p>Spelling often seemed to me to be an insurmountable challenge. Professors required me to type my papers, but the end result resembled patchwork drywall thanks to the amount of white correction tape I used to correct misspelled words. </p>
<p>That’s when I found something that was as life-changing as the tar-on-my-shoes experience: the invention and availability of the personal computer.</p>
<p>I purchased an IBM clone with a word processing program that would review and check spelling. Once I used the word processor to complete various written assignments for college, I was like a caveman who discovered fire. I could turn in clean documents without worrying about handwriting legibility or the letters facing the wrong direction. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178910/original/file-20170719-26705-18bgi53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178910/original/file-20170719-26705-18bgi53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178910/original/file-20170719-26705-18bgi53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178910/original/file-20170719-26705-18bgi53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178910/original/file-20170719-26705-18bgi53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178910/original/file-20170719-26705-18bgi53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178910/original/file-20170719-26705-18bgi53.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">A personal computer – with word processing and spellchecking software – helped me overcome dyslexia and become a writer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stiefkind/6981093960/">Wolfgang Stief</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I was free. I could be a writer.</p>
<p>I completed my bachelor of science degree in psychology with a 4.0 grade point average. Later, while working as a schoolteacher, I completed my master’s degree in special education and my doctor of education degree in curriculum and instruction, again with a 4.0 grade point average.</p>
<h2>Making a difference</h2>
<p>I’m now a teacher. And as an associate professor at Tarleton State University, I work with students and their parents to focus on their abilities and not their disabilities – just like my teachers did.</p>
<p>And I still face the same learning challenges that I did as a young boy.</p>
<p>My experiences and challenges have enabled me to listen to my students more. I model every day the value of building relationships and collaborative learning. My school days taught me that learning occurs best when done together.</p>
<p>In 2016, the students at my university selected me as a speaker for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyC-7e4MbJE">Tarleton’s “Last Lecture” speaker series</a>. I shared my story. I wanted our students with disabilities to know, “You are not alone!”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179517/original/file-20170724-24759-y54zds.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>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2016, James Gentry was asked to deliver a lecture about his experiences as a disabled professor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tarleton State University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since this speech, I’ve had numerous students and professors come up to me to describe various learning challenges they’ve endured for most of their lives. Many of them are still working to overcome these challenges today.</p>
<p>This experience has helped me to discover that we’re all working to do our best with the challenges we face. Hiding or ignoring learning challenges is lonely and sad. We all – humans, I mean – have challenges in common. If anything, sharing and overcoming them together is the new reality.</p>
<p>We’re all different, and that’s a good thing. Remember that you have something to offer the world: a thought, a story, a new way to do something or some creation that may change the world for the better. Please be brave and overcome that challenge. We need you. You belong. You’re not alone.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://dredf.org/advocacy/comparison.html">Americans with Disabilities Act</a> and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act before it have given me and others like me the opportunity to thrive.</p>
<p>And what a difference that has made in our worlds.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cyC-7e4MbJE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-disabilities-do-not-define-me-i-am-jim-45081">article</a> originally published on July 24, 2015.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81157/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Gentry 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 story of a six-year-old boy with dyslexia who, with support from friends and teachers, became a successful professor. Now he teaches teachers how to help children like him.James Gentry, Associate Professor, Tarleton State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/583872016-05-12T21:18:21Z2016-05-12T21:18:21ZHow political interference keeps hurting Africa’s universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122272/original/image-20160512-16422-re3xpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When politics interferes in universities -- overtly or discreetly -- it makes higher education less autonomous.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Mukoya/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Political interference in Africa’s universities is not new. Universities’ governance was seen as “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/g/general/general.913/general913full.pdf">captured</a>” for narrow political rather than academic ends during the 1980s and 1990s. Politics shaped <a href="http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/academic-freedom-in-africa">everything</a>: patterns of student access, curriculum content and teaching methods. Vice-chancellors’ political affiliations mattered far more than their academic standing or vision.</p>
<p>The continent’s universities started changing from the middle of the 1990s. Strong governance structures were prioritised. Governments promised to help steady institutions so they could focus on their academic missions. They also handed over the financial reins, supposedly allowing universities more freedom to generate new income streams.</p>
<p>But studies funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and conducted by the Council for the Development of Social Sciences in Africa <a href="http://www.codesria.org/">(CODESRIA)</a> suggest that <a href="http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article2296">not much has changed</a>. The governance and leadership of universities in several countries remains troubled. The same tensions and crises associated with the old political order – student disturbances, harassment of academic staff and widespread academic corruption – <a href="http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article1705&lang=en">persist</a>. Our research suggests there hasn’t been much more than cosmetic autonomy at most African universities.</p>
<h2>Political interests rule</h2>
<p>We found some deeply worrying trends.</p>
<p>First, Africa’s politicians still see universities as critical outposts for building political clients. They have a deep interest in who becomes a university vice-chancellor. They want to manage who ascends the academic ranks and who serves in student leadership. They also try to assess which academics can be conscripted to offer positive political commentary in the popular media. On the surface, universities’ governance organs appear free to make decisions about academic and leadership appointments. But our data suggests that opaque networks rather than merit determine such appointments at all levels. </p>
<p>It goes further. Universities have money to spend on procuring goods and services. This attracts businesspeople. Politicians, our studies showed, encourage university leaders to employ service providers from their own networks. These practices have turned some vice-chancellors’ offices into bureaucracies that are more interested in business than in academic advancement.</p>
<p>Vice-chancellors also appear to have become more autocratic. This is in reaction to the internal dissent caused by the political meddling described above. Staff and students are routinely subjected to unfair disciplinary processes. Vice-chancellors apply the lessons they learn from becoming bureaucrats to manage academic appointments. Some extend favours to certain internal “clients” – academics – by appointing them to lucrative administrative positions or promoting them without merit. Such positions are highly sought after because they pay better than most teaching posts.</p>
<p>Our research found that many African universities rely on younger academics to occupy senior teaching, research and administrative posts. They do not have the courage or experience to confront a university management gone astray. </p>
<p>Finally, and crucially, African universities lack data. There is little information collated about governance and leadership. This includes such basic statistics as student enrolments and staff numbers. Minutes related to critical governance and management issues, including those involving budgetary processes, remain classified. They can’t be scrutinised by the public – let alone by staff and students at the university.</p>
<p>So what’s gone wrong?</p>
<h2>Shortcomings of the ‘reforms’</h2>
<p>Part of the problem stems from how “politics” was conceptualised and defined as a problem in university governance. If a country’s president was also a public university’s chancellor, this was seen as political interference. Logically, then, people thought that cutting such visible political links would settle governance issues.</p>
<p>But political interests run far beyond the presidency. Most of Africa’s political and economic elites retain a keen interest in determining how universities’ leadership is constituted. More and more student activities at universities are being organised along political party lines, which attests to <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/manja_klemencic/files/2016_luescher_-_klemencic_-_chapter_for_r_brooks_final1_0.pdf?m=1454077927">new forms of politicisation</a>.</p>
<p>As I explained earlier, universities make good business sense for the elite. These people create networks that extend into universities’ governance structures. Political interference persists. It sets institutions up as little more than business outposts.</p>
<p>There was also an assumption that academics – once freed from narrowly defined political interference – would meaningfully and responsibly utilise their new autonomy. The hope was that they’d emerge as protectors and promoters of the greater public good in higher education. This hasn’t been the case. CODESRIA’s <a href="http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article2531&lang=en">research</a> found that many senior academics have embraced post-1990s reforms only if these offer a stream of extra income. Most academics, we found, prefer administrative to academic appointments because these are more lucrative. This has left most institutions without an experienced professoriate. A senior layer of academics is a critical body for any institution. It can stand up against management’s excesses and act as a vanguard for the institution’s academic mission. </p>
<p>Here the continent’s older institutions – like the universities of Ibadan, Legon, Nairobi, Makerere and Dar es Salaam – have fared better than newcomers. Older universities tend to have a greater number of highly trained academics still in their service. Institutions that were established during the 1980s, 1990s and more recently haven’t been able to build a robust professoriate. These younger institutions tend to be battling most with governance and management issues, as well as the attendant erosion of academic reputations.</p>
<h2>Tackling the problem</h2>
<p>There are several ways to start making universities’ “autonomy” from politics more than cosmetic.</p>
<p>University managers must be required by law to open up their systems to broad public scrutiny. For example, they should conduct some aspects of their affairs through public hearings. Most countries’ constitutional provisions already insist on public participation around budgetary and policy issues. Parliamentary committees undertake their work in public, but most African universities seem reluctant to embrace such aspects of accountability.</p>
<p>This sort of transparency would tackle claims of bias in academic appointments and financial improprieties that are emerging as the “new face” of corruption in most universities. Imagine if prospective vice-chancellors and senior professors were interviewed publicly? Ordinary citizens could also be called on to make suggestions about a public university’s development and direction. These institutions are, after all, funded from the public purse.</p>
<p>Another area that needs attention is data governance: the collection, storage and dissemination of data for decision-making. Our research has found that most African universities are strangely casual about data. There’s no accurate record of admissions, so no plans are made about building infrastructure to keep up with student numbers. </p>
<p>This comes at a time when the use of open data is being encouraged as a benchmark for university quality. Studies have pointed out how open data can open opportunities for improving higher education’s governance and provide evidence that <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130830152021193">improves policy</a>. </p>
<p>Africa is lagging behind. Universities claim, for instance, that they’re producing graduates ready for the job market. But we couldn’t find a single credible graduate tracer study or labour market survey to back such claims. Better data governance structures would lessen the chances of backroom deals and political interference in the running of Africa’s universities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ibrahim Oanda receives funding from his organisation.
The content reported in this article benefited from funding from the Carnegie Corporation of new York for CODESRIA's Higher education in Africa leadership program,HELP.</span></em></p>Africa’s universities supposedly became more independent after the early 1990s. But it appears they haven’t achieved much more than cosmetic autonomy from political interference.Ibrahim Oanda, Programme Officer for Research (Higher Education), Council for the Development of Social Science Research in AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.