Resources

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: The case for a flexible work schedule for faculty has been repeatedly made, with one policy recommendation being part-time positions for tenure-track/tenured faculty (PTTT). Despite some of the benefits of this approach for both faculty and institutions, the PTTT concept is the least implemented policy for faculty flexibility and is poorly understood. This report offers the first comprehensive treatment of PTTT, suggesting that this mode of flexibility enhances recruitment, retention, and engagement of faculty, while offering value-added productivity, planning potential, and faculty loyalty for the institution. Herbers provides data that explore how a PTTT policy can lead to faculty success and satisfaction across the lifespan of a career, and likewise offers analogies and examples of well-established practices that administrators across institution types can adapt to create their own policies. Administrators and faculty will find the author’s policy recommendations, best practices, and solutions to common challenges to be a roadmap for stimulating change in their institutions. This is the 5th issue of the 40th volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education issue, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication. (From the Publisher)

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: Teaching across Cultures: Building Pedagogical Relationships in Diverse Contexts captures the tensions and complexities, as well as the transformational potentials, of teaching across multiple cultural contexts. The book evolved from cumulative self-studies that examined one teacher educator’s teaching practice, the cultural impact on that practice, and how she facilitated transformative teaching and learning. While every act of teaching occurs across cultures, such as institutional culture, invisible cultures, and classroom cultures, among others, educators who teach as cultural outsiders have to navigate the tensions, complexities, and contradictory realities of cross-cultural teaching. The tensions can be reduced or managed through responsive pedagogy, relationship building, and teaching in the third space. These transformational approaches not only help to identify and close the perpetual gaps in teaching and learning, but they also position effective teaching within a pedagogical common ground that values student voices, facilitates pedagogical flexibility, and uses diversity as a teaching tool. In a world of ubiquitous and interactive learning environments, both the physical and virtual spaces play a vital role in teaching and teacher-student relationships. The book points to the necessity of teacher educators’ learning through diverse, professional networks and, more importantly, through self-study. It is only through this introspective examination of one’s teaching and students’ learning, as well as taking an ontological attitude toward teaching, can educators achieve success in diverse contexts. (From the Publisher)

Higher education systems around the world are undergoing fundamental change and reform due to external pressures—including internationalization of higher education, increased international competition for students, less reliance on public funding, and calls to create greater access opportunities for citizens. How are higher education systems evolving structurally as a result of these and other pressures? In light of these changes, how can higher education be a positive force for democratizing societies? This book examines the emerging trends taking place in higher education systems around the world, focusing on the most salient political and social forces that underlie these trends. Each chapter provides a case study of a country, exploring its cultural and political history, the political and social developments that have affected its higher education system, and the result of these changes on the higher education system. In a fast-changing, knowledge-intensive, democratic society, Democratizing Higher Education explores how higher education systems can be developed to provide access, affordability, participation, and quality life-long learning for all. (From the Publisher)

Collaborative Futures places graduate education at the center of ongoing efforts to legitimize publicly engaged scholarship within the academic profession. It is indispensable reading not only for graduate students seeking inspiration, resources, and usable frameworks for their engaged scholarship, but for the faculty who are called upon to mentor them and for university administrators seeking encouraging answers to questions about the future of graduate education. Given the erosion of the tenure system and the casualization of teaching labor, graduate programs and professional organizations in many fields now recognize the imperative to prepare doctoral students for careers wholly or partially outside academe. This book powerfully indicates both the need and the means to change institutional cultures and forge a publicly active path for graduate education. (From the Publisher)

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: Reflective Teaching in Higher Education is the definitive textbook for reflective teachers in higher education. Informed by the latest research in this area, the book offers extensive support for those at the start of an academic career and career-long professionalism for those teaching in higher education. Written by an international collaborative author team of higher education experts led by Paul Ashwin, Reflective Teaching in Higher Education offers two levels of support: - practical guidance for day-to-day teaching, covering key issues such as strategies for improving learning, teaching and assessment, curriculum design, relationships, communication, and inclusion; and - evidence-informed 'principles' to aid understanding of how theories can effectively inform teaching practices, offering ways to develop a deeper understanding of teaching and learning in higher education. Case studies, activities, research briefings and annotated key readings are provided throughout. (From the Publisher)

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: A timeless book of lessons on mentorship, teaching, and learning from New York Times bestselling author Tim Gunn, host of the Emmy Award–nominated Project Runway and the reality show Under the Gunn. Tim Gunn, America’s favorite reality TV cohost, is known for his kind but firm approach in providing wisdom, guidance, and support to the scores of design hopefuls on Project Runway. Having begun his fashion career as a teacher at Parsons The New School for Design, Tim knows more than a thing or two about mentorship and how to convey invaluable pearls of wisdom in an approachable, accessible manner. While Gunn’s Golden Rules showcased Tim “as life coach,” imparting lessons based on his personal experiences, Tim Gunn: The Natty Professor will focus on Tim “as teacher.” Divided into sections on common themes—leadership, curiosity, diversity, understanding, empathy—this practical, timely book takes us on a journey through life lessons and uses Tim’s own personal experiences, from the classroom to the therapist’s office, to illustrate larger concepts. Each chapter will end with a “life assignment,” where Tim challenges you to apply the lessons you’ve learned in practical mentoring or teaching situations. (From the Publisher)

Journal Issue.

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: In this volume, the culmination of a lifetime's work as an educator, Marshall Gregory lays out a pedagogical theory and ethical vision for teaching. He argues that teachers across the arts and sciences can reach for teaching excellence by relying on more than good will, good intentions, sincerity, enthusiasm, and trial and error. They can think, individually and collectively, about the educable capacities of the students they teach and about the ultimate aim of their teaching: not to merely impart information or train their students in a discipline, but to develop their students' abilities for thought, reflection, questioning, and engagement to their fullest extent. Drawing on over forty-five years of teaching and thirty-five years of training teachers to think about pedagogy, Gregory speaks to any teacher wanting to more fully ground the what of teaching in the how and why. (From the Publisher)

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: How world-class research makes its way into lecture halls and seminar rooms Major research universities expect faculty to conduct significant research but also to excel as teachers. Too often those outside the classroom assume that these two functions have little in common when in fact the best teachers conduct exciting and innovative research that provides students the opportunity to learn by doing. An Illinois Sampler presents personal accounts from faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and other contributors, about their research and how it enriches and energizes their teaching. Contributors from the humanities, engineering, social and natural sciences, and other disciplines explore how ideas, methods, and materials merge to lead their students down life-changing paths to creativity, discovery, and solutions. As faculty introduce their classes to work conducted from the Illinois prairie to the farms of Africa, from densely populated cities to dense computer coding, they generate an atmosphere where research, teaching, and learning thrive inside a feedback loop of education across disciplines. Aimed at alumni and prospective students interested in the university's ongoing mission, as well as current faculty and students wishing to stay up to date on the diverse work being done around them, An Illinois Sampler offers a rare glimpse into the impact of cutting-edge research on undergraduate education in a rapidly changing world. The book also showcases the best, the most ambitious, and the most effective teaching practices developed and nurtured at one of the world's premier research universities. "The late Ernie Boyer inspired his readers when he wrote about the 'scholarship' of teaching. Years later, the engagement of faculty in the scholarly assessment of what students know and can do and in the exploration of ways in which these outcomes might be improved remains a formidable challenge. This is especially the case in complex research universities. In this timely volume and in fields as diverse as dance, geology, music, medicine, kinesiology, mathematics, engineering, and microbiology we have firsthand accounts of what faculty members are doing to make a better tomorrow. The narratives are as inspiring as they are practical and deserve to be shared and read by those who care about the quality of American universities."--Stanley Ikenberry, President Emeritus of the University of Illinois "The land-grant model is discovery of new knowledge, teaching students, and engaging the broader community. Something is lost when you try to separate the three concepts because they are mutually enriching--discovery comes in part by engaging the community, discovery by faculty and students strengthens education, etcetera. In this time of accountability and scarce resources, the academy must better explain this integration of effort, particularly in connection with the allocation of faculty time and compensation to research and engagement. The stories of scholar-educators from the University of Illinois, one of the great land-grant universities of the country, wonderfully illustrate how this all works."--Peter McPherson, President Emeritus of Michigan State University and President of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (From the Publisher)

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: The death of a student, especially to gun violence, is a life-changing experience that occurs with more and more frequency in America’s schools. For each of these tragedies, there is a classroom and there is a teacher. Yet student death is often a forbidden subject, removed from teacher education and professional development classes where the curriculum is focused instead on learning about standards, lesson plans, and pedagogy. What can and should teachers do when the unbearable happens? An Empty Seat in Class illuminates the tragedy of student death and suggests ways of dealing and healing within the classroom community. This book weaves the story of the author’s very personal experience of a student’s fatal shooting with short pieces by other educators who have worked through equally terrible events and also includes contributions from counselors, therapists, and school principals. Through accumulated wisdom, educators are given the means and the resources to find their own path to healing their students, their communities, and themselves. (From the Publisher)