Academically Justifiable Yet Ashford University

Week 1: Purposes of Higher Education

The Purposes of Higher Education

• What is academic freedom? (describe)
• Please unpack the following quotation, “Scholars must recognize a duty to observe scholarly standards of inquiry as a condition of their social office.” (p. 175, analyze)
• What is “democratic higher education”? (describe)
• Integrate the two concepts: What is its relationship between “democratic higher education” and academic freedom? (analyze)
• Unpack the following quotation, “Public attacks on universities for being sanctuaries for social critics are evidence not of the foreignness of universities, but of one of the ways in which they belong to democracies.” (p. 188, analyze)

The Idea of the Multiversity

• What is a “multiversity”? (describe)
• Follow up (or context) from the original question: Unpack this quotation as it relates to what it means to be a “multiversity”: “A university anywhere can aim no higher than to be as British as possible for the sake of undergraduates, as German as possible for the sake the graduates and the research personnel, as American as possible fo the sake of the public at large – and as confused as possible for the sake of the preservation of the whole uneasy balance.” (p. 14) (analyze)
• Kerr was writing in 1994, and he served as chancellor of UC Berkeley in the 1960s. Of what relevance is the concept to contemporary higher education? (analyze)

Never Forget

• What is “educational debt”? (describe)
• What is the history of higher education that we should “never forget”? (describe)
• If we began discussions of higher education institutional policy from this perspective, what would/could this look like? (analyze)

Goals: The Intended Outcomes of Higher Education

• What does Bowen argue is the purpose of credentialing? (pp. 43-44, describe)
• Unpack and directly relate to the purposes listed, “Marx sought to change the world through social institutions. Jesus through changing the hearts of men. Higher education tries to do both.” (p. 31, analyze)
• Bowen refers to higher education as “organized anarchy” (p. 32). Please unpack what this concept means, especially in terms of tensions between pursuit of knowledge, practical applications of said knowledge, and external market forces. (analyze)
• Bowen continued: This chapter is definitely dated. (analyze)
  • What positive outcomes do you think are still relevant? (sidebar: do you still see them as positive?)
  • Which positive outcomes have gone out to pasture?
  • Which negative outcomes specifically do you see as relevant contemporarily?
  • Which negative outcomes specifically do you see as irrelevant contemporarily?
  • What is missing from this list that you wish was on there?

*********

Reading Across the Readings

• How do the readings speak to each other?
• For example, Gutmann argues that universities are bastions of non-repression and unpopular ideas (that are academically justifiable), yet Kerr argues these are necessarily conservative institutions.
• Or… Gutmann argues that conferring democratic values is a central purpose of higher education, yet Cabrera argues that the foundation of U.S. higher education was predicated upon systemic exploitation, violence, and exclusion of Communities of Color.
• Or… A lot of the authors talk about or mention academic freedom. What are (or should be) the accompanying academic responsibilities for people exercising academic freedom (please refer to specific pieces from this week)?
• Or… you add something else – a connection or tension you saw between/among the readings.

Meditative Questions

• From a scholarly perspective, what is knowledge?
• From a scholarly perspective, what is an argument?
• Can the pursuit of scholarly knowledge exist without academic freedom? (preview to later weeks)Week
  1: Purposes of Higher Education

  The Purposes of
  Higher Education

  
  ●
  What is academic freedom? (describe)

  ○

  ●
  Please unpack the following quotation, “Scholars
  must recognize a duty to observe scholarly standards of inquiry as a condition
  of their social office.” (p. 175, analyze)

  ○

  ●
  What is “democratic higher education”? (describe)

  ○

  ●
  Integrate the two concepts: What is its
  relationship between “democratic higher education” and academic freedom?
  (analyze)

  ○

  ●
  Unpack the following quotation, “Public attacks
  on universities for being sanctuaries for social critics are evidence not of
  the foreignness of universities, but of one of the ways in which they belong to
  democracies.” (p. 188, analyze)

  ○

  The Idea of the
  Multiversity

  ●
  What is a “multiversity”? (describe)

  ○

  ●
  Follow up (or context) from the original
  question: Unpack this quotation as it relates to what it means to be a
  “multiversity”: “A university anywhere can aim no higher than to be as British
  as possible for the sake of undergraduates, as German as possible for the sake
  the graduates and the research personnel, as American as possible fo the sake
  of the public at large – and as confused as possible for the sake of the
  preservation of the whole uneasy balance.” (p. 14) (analyze)

  ○

  ●
  Kerr was writing in 1994, and he served as
  chancellor of UC Berkeley in the 1960s. Of what relevance is the concept to
  contemporary higher education? (analyze)

  ○

  Never Forget

  
  ●
  What is “educational debt”? (describe)

  ○

  ●
  What is the history of higher education that we
  should “never forget”? (describe)

  ○

  ●
  If we began discussions of higher education
  institutional policy from this perspective, what would/could this look like?
  (analyze)

  ○

  Goals: The
  Intended Outcomes of Higher Education

  
  ●
  What does Bowen argue is the purpose of
  credentialing? (pp. 43-44, describe)

  ○

  ●
  Unpack and directly relate to the purposes
  listed, “Marx sought to change the world through social institutions. Jesus
  through changing the hearts of men. Higher education tries to do both.” (p. 31,
  analyze)

  ○

  ●
  Bowen refers to higher education as “organized
  anarchy” (p. 32). Please unpack what this concept means, especially in terms of
  tensions between pursuit of knowledge, practical applications of said
  knowledge, and external market forces. (analyze)

  ○

  *********

  ●
  Bowen continued: This chapter is
  definitely dated. (analyze)

  ○
  What positive outcomes do you think are still
  relevant? (sidebar: do you still see them as positive?)

  ■

  ○
  Which positive outcomes have gone out to pasture?

  ■

  ○
  Which negative outcomes specifically do you see
  as relevant contemporarily?

  ■

  ○
  Which negative outcomes specifically do you see
  as irrelevant contemporarily?

  ■

  ○
  What is missing from this list that you wish was
  on there?

  ■

  Reading Across the
  Readings

  
  ●
  How do the readings speak to each other?

  ○

  ●
  For example, Gutmann argues that universities are
  bastions of non-repression and unpopular ideas (that are academically
  justifiable), yet Kerr argues these are necessarily conservative institutions.

  ○

  ●
  Or…
  Gutmann argues that conferring democratic values is a central purpose of higher
  education, yet Cabrera argues that the foundation of U.S. higher education was
  predicated upon systemic exploitation, violence, and exclusion of Communities
  of Color.

  ○

  ●
  Or… A lot of the authors talk about or mention
  academic freedom. What are (or should be) the accompanying academic
  responsibilities for people exercising academic freedom (please refer to
  specific pieces from this week)?

  ○

  ●
  Or… you add something else – a connection or
  tension you saw between/among the readings.

  ○

  Meditative
  Questions

  
  ●
  From a scholarly perspective, what is knowledge?

  ●
  From a scholarly perspective, what is an
  argument?

  ●
  Can the pursuit of scholarly knowledge exist
  without academic freedom? (preview to later weeks)