The National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good

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Higher Education for the Public Goodthe public good involves addressing some of the systemic problems in the academy thateffectively discourage faculty engagement. <strong>The</strong>se include the rules governing promotionand tenure, the narrow range of what is considered acceptable scholarly work, thedisconnection between the classroom and the community, and the prevalence of pedagogiesthat work against the broad purposes of citizenship education.A more immediate challenge, however, is the pervasive anxiety and insecurity of purposein the professoriate — especially at large research universities. Reporting on a study heEducating the Whole PersonIn a set of informal remarks, California State Senator John Vasconcellos observed thatwe are living in an age of chaos and uncertainty, a time marked by economic upheaval,demographic change and political instability on the one hand, and technological innovationand breakthrough insights into the nature and complexity of the human mind on theother.“If we are going to prepare people to live in a world of profound change,” he said,“we have to imagine and design an education that recognizes the whole person — body,mind, emotions, spirituality, sexuality, all of it together.”Educating for social responsibility must begin with “a commitment to the full humanbeing,” he said. “That is at the heart of the public good, because the more whole I am inmyself the more I am able to contribute to the public good.”This is what humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow had in mind when he referredto “democratic character structure,” Vasconcellos pointed out. “A person has to integratehis body, mind and emotions so that they are fully valued, appreciated and liberated beforehe is able to realize his democratic character structure. A person who can learn to dothat will spontaneously engage in society and live democratically.”Society needs institutions that allow individuals to integrate the various aspects ofthemselves, he said. “If you don’t find those experiences at home, at school, at church,in the university, then you walk out into the world as nothing more than an economicmachine.”Educating the whole person is best done by example, he added. “We don’t teach bypreaching; we teach by inspiring.”“I want to challenge you as leaders in higher education to help prepare students forthe twenty-first century — to help them become embodied, passionate, full human beings.I want to encourage you to be out there on the frontier helping society find its way in atime of chaos and change.”14
Educating for the Public Goodcarried out at the University of Minnesota in the late 1990s, Harry Boyte noted that manysenior faculty members feel increasingly disengaged from the real problems of society.A generation ago, he said, the University of Minnesota had a vibrant sense of itself asa great public and land-grant institution. Professors routinely took their work out intothe community and there was a lively culture of collaboration and open discussion inthe academic departments. But that public spirit has beengradually hollowed out over the last thirty years, he observed.“<strong>The</strong> big worry I have isthat many early-careerand aspiring faculty aregoing to decide that theacademy is not where theycan live out their passionsand their commitment tothe public good.”— Ann AustinProfessor of Higher EducationMichigan State UniversityOne of the most striking themes in the interviews was how“radically detached” academic culture had become fromsociety at large, Boyte said. “Again and again, we heard aconcern about isolation, about the competitive culture, andabout the spread of marketplace values — the idea of thestudent as customer and the notion that the university’s publicservice mission is largely a commercial one. We found almostuniformly that people wanted more public relevance. But thenorms in our institutions are silencing.”According to Ann Austin, professor of higher education atMichigan State University, this concern is also shared byearly-career and aspiring faculty. Her research shows that graduate students and newlymintedprofessors tend to be impelled by a strong sense of social responsibility. “<strong>The</strong>re isa vibrancy about the kind of work they wish to be able to do,” she said. “In interviews thatcolleagues and I have done, we hear them explicitly saying, ‘I do this out of passion.’ <strong>The</strong>yoften link that to a desire to contribute to the larger good — to address public issues andsocial problems. <strong>The</strong>y also have a desire to be part of a community with other people whoshare these passions. This is happening across disciplines.”What many young professors find, however, is that the academy does not reward themfor the sort of teaching and research they want to do. <strong>The</strong> norms of scholarship and thestructures governing promotion and tenure effectively discourage them from engaging inresearch and teaching that is collaborative, student-centered, community-based, projectoriented,or cross-disciplinary. “<strong>The</strong> big worry I have,” Austin said, “is that many earlycareerand aspiring faculty are going to decide that the academy is not where they can liveout their passions and will simply leave.”A further challenge is that many faculty subscribe to outdated ideas about teaching andlearning. <strong>The</strong> traditional lecture — where the professor plays the role of “sage on stage”— is still the pedagogy of choice in most American classrooms. John O’Connor, visitingscholar at the American Association for Higher Education, spoke about “the gap between15
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