Higher education is becoming destabilized in the face of extraordinarily rapid change. The composition of the academy's most valuable asset—the faculty—and the essential nature of faculty work are being transformed. Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein describe the transformation of the American faculty in the most extensive and ambitious analysis of the American academic profession undertaken in a generation.
A century ago the American research university emerged as a new organizational form animated by the professionalized, discipline-based scholar. The research university model persisted through two world wars and greatly varying economic conditions. In recent years, however, a new order has surfaced, organized around a globalized, knowledge-based economy, powerful privatization and market forces, and stunning new information technologies. These developments have transformed the higher education enterprise in ways barely imaginable in generations past.
At the heart of that transformation, but largely invisible, has been a restructuring of academic appointments, academic work, and academic careers—a reconfiguring widely decried but heretofore inadequately described. This volume depicts the scope and depth of the transformation, combing empirical data drawn from three decades of national higher education surveys. The authors' portrait, at once startling and disturbing, provides the context for interpreting these developments as part of a larger structural evolution of the national higher education system. They outline the stakes for the nation and the challenging work to be done.
Jack H. Schuster is a professor of education and public policy emeritus at Claremont Graduate University. Martin J. Finkelstein is a professor of higher education at Seton Hall University.
Jack H. Schuster is professor emeritus of education and public policy and a senior research fellow at Claremont Graduate University. He is a coauthor of The New Academic Generation: A Profession in Transformation and The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers.
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures Preface to the Paperback Edition Preface Acknowledgments Part One: Overview of the American Facultty 1. Establishing the Framework 2. The American Faculty in Perspective 3. The Professoriate in Profile Part Two: The Faculty at Work 4. The Changing Complexion of Faculty Work 5. Academic Culture and Values and the Quality of Work Life Part Three: The Academic Career 6. The Changing Academic Career 7. The Revolution in Academic Appointments: A Closer Look 8. Compensation and Academic Careers: Trends and Issues 9. Pathways to the Professoriate Part Four: Assessing Contemporaray Academic Life 10. American Academic Life Restructured 11. What's Ahead? Agendas for Policy Analysis, Research, and Action on Academic Staffing Appendixes A. The National Faculty Surveys B. Selected National Faculty Surveys: A Concordance of Contents C. Interpreting Faculty Surveys: Challenges and Strategies D. Variables for Classifying Faculty Subgroups E. Definitions of Terms Used in Tables and Figures F. Academic Appointments: Historical Milestones G. Faculty Compensation: Data Sources H. Note on Accessing the Survey Instruments I. Faculty Diversity: Race and Ethnicity Categories J. Appendix Tables Bibliography Index
In-depth, insightful, with a masterful handling of the relevant data, The American Faculty provides the most comprehensive overview of the status of the academic profession that is available.
— Jay Chronister, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
From the Publisher
In-depth, insightful, with a masterful handling of the relevant data, The American Faculty provides the most comprehensive overview of the status of the academic profession that is available.—Jay Chronister, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
