Issue
26(2)
Featured
Review
Faculty
Priorities Reconsidered: Rewarding Multiple Forms of Scholarship.
(2005). K.
O'Meara &R. E. Rice. Jossey-Bass, 368pp., Price: $36.00.
ISBN # 0-7879-7920-1
Review
by: Justine Hernandez
Levine
Aresty
Research Center for Undergraduates and Dean's Office
Rutgers University
During an
era of perceived disconnect between the university and American
society, Boyer (1990) challenged us to reframe academic work in
terms of four kinds of scholarship: discovery, teaching, integration,
and engagement. His 1990 Carnegie report, Scholarship Reconsidered:
Priorities of the Professoriate, sought to reintegrate personal
and institutional priorities, to create a more holistic vision
of scholarly activity, and to respond to society's changing educational
needs. The report explained that all four aspects of scholarship
were interdependent and indispensable; it asked academics to become
reflective practitioners, and to make scholarship a way of life,
rather than one of its duties.
Like
the report it revisits, Faculty Priorities Reconsidered: Rewarding
Multiple Forms of Scholarship addresses questions at the
heart of contemporary higher education: what role should the creation
of knowledge play in higher education? How should we reward differential
contributions? Though the book somewhat narrowly considers issues
as they relate to the tenure track, it is equally relevant for
advising staff and student personnel administrators, who increasingly
"produce scholarship." Important reading for any advising professional
seeking balance between "greater personal/professional fulfillment"
and institutional mission (p. 12), Faculty Priorities Reconsidered
assesses institutional and national responses to the challenges
set forth by Boyer and provides an agenda for reform.
The result
of a nationwide AAHE survey of chief academic officers and campus
studies of best practices, the study draws on perspectives of
leading thinkers and practitioners, providing in-depth case studies
of a wide variety of campuses that have attempted to redefine
scholarship and reward faculty contributions.
Not surprisingly,
though all four aspects of scholarship have been institutionalized,
the scholarship of discovery has been most successfully integrated
into campus culture. And yet, with the upsurge of collaborative,
experiential, and technologically assisted learning models and
calls for accountability, the authors find that the scholarship
of teaching is on the rise. At small campuses (and perhaps for
many academic advisors), the challenge is to promote contributions
beyond "effective teaching, advising, and service" (p. 7); at
research and comprehensive universities, the challenge is to "give
greater legitimacy to the scholarships of teaching, application,
and integration, and to challenge the trend toward ever higher
research expectations at the expense of other kinds of scholarly
work" (p. 8).
The authors
identify, through discussion of national trends and the case studies,
barriers to change: lack of leadership, overwhelming workloads,
resistance to research or teaching models, budget cuts. They suggest
best practices to overcome barriers: define scholarship in terms
of institutional identity (rather than in terms of research),
secure support from leadership, institutionalize the four forms
of scholarship through policy change, allow policies to evolve
organically, ensure that stakeholders participate in shaping policy
through open communication, provide unambiguous expectations,
share resources.
The case studies
would be useful to anyone seeking to realign faculty and staff
work more closely with institutional mission while creating more
effective learning environments. Faculty Priorities Reconsidered
might also help academic advisors explore ways to promote
the scholarships of teaching, discovery, engagement, and integration
in the advising profession. As the professional legitimacy of
academic advising increases, it will need to incorporate the Boyer
scholarship model. In doing so it should consider advising analogous
to Boyer's teaching, and it should consider scholarship to be
a critical part of its mission. In doing so it will redefine scholarship
as it takes a "transformative" approach to change (p. 305).
References
Boyer,
E.L. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate
. Princeton , New Jersey : Princeton University Press, The
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
