reading-higher-education

Higher Ed’s 2015 reading list for faculty & admin


New books just released this year explore varying topics from academic pay to faculty’s role in governance, and from keeping undergrads in STEM to understanding how digital tech influences learning.

reading-higher-educationFrom subjects such as how to master “hot topics” like entrepreneurship and community engagement for instructors, to how to save small liberal arts colleges from extinction, higher education’s authors, editors and researchers are tackling some of the most controversial and complicated issues affecting colleges and universities today.

If you have a reading list for 2015, these recently published [January-February 2015] paperbacks and eBooks may be a good place to start.

[Listed in alphabetical order]

academic

Academic Leadership in Higher Education: From the Top Down and the Bottom Up

Released: Jan. 5th

By: Robert Sternberg, Elizabeth Davis, April Mason, and more

Summary: “Now what should I do?” This is a question academic leaders ask themselves with great regularity. As ironic as it may seem, very few academic leaders have had any formal training in academic administration, or in any kind of administration. For the most part, academic administrators learn on the job. The book is written both for academic administrators at all levels as well as for those who aspire to academic administration.

buildingacademic300

Building Academic Leadership Capacity: A Guide to Best Practices

Released: Feb. 2nd

By: Walter Gmelch and Jeffrey Buller

Summary: With a clear, generalizable, systematic approach, this book provides insight into the elements of successful academic leadership and the training that makes it effective. Readers will explore original research that facilitates systematic, continuous program development, augmented by the authors’ own insight drawn from experience establishing such programs. Numerous examples of current campus programs illustrate the concepts in action, and reflection questions lead readers to assess how they can apply these concepts to their own programs.

crisisinhigher

Crisis in Higher Education: A Plan to Save Small Liberal Arts Colleges in America

Released: Feb. 1st

By: Jeffrey Docking

Summary: In 2005 Adrian College was home to 840 enrolled students and had a tuition income of $8.54 million. By fall of 2011, enrollment had soared to 1,688, and tuition income had increased to $20.45 million. For the first time in years, the small liberal arts college was financially viable. Adrian College experienced this remarkable growth during the worst American economy in seventy years. How, exactly, did this turnaround happen? Crisis in Higher Education: A Plan to Save Small Liberal Arts Colleges in America was written to facilitate replication and generalization of Adrian College’s enrollment growth and retention success since 2005. This book directly addresses the economic competitiveness of small four-year institutions of higher education and presents an evidence-based solution to the enrollment and economic crises faced by many small liberal arts colleges throughout the country.

(Next page: The future of universities in democracy; the digital age)

democracysed

Democracy’s Education: Public Work, Citizenship, and the Future of Colleges and Universities

Released: Feb. 1st

By: Harry Boyte

Summary: Democracy’s Education grows from the American Commonwealth Partnership, a year-long project to revitalize the democratic narrative of higher education that began with an invitation to Harry Boyte from the White House to put together a coalition aimed at strengthening higher education as a public good. Beginning with an essay by Boyte, “Reinventing Citizenship as Public Work,” which challenges educators and their partners to claim their power to shape the story of higher education and the civic careers of students, the collection brings world-famous scholars, senior government officials, and university presidents together with faculty, students, staff, community organizers, and intellectuals from across the United States and South Africa and Japan. Contributors describe many constructive responses to change already taking place in different kinds of institutions, and present ideas like “civic science,” “civic studies,” “citizen professionalism,” and “citizen alumni.” Authors detail practical approaches to making change, from new faculty and student roles to changes in curriculum and student life and strategies for everyday citizen empowerment.

higheredindigital

Higher Education in the Digital Age

Released: Jan. 25th

By: William Bowen

Summary: Bowen, one of the foremost experts on the intersection of education and economics, explains why, despite his earlier skepticism, he now believes technology has the potential to help rein in costs without negatively affecting student learning. As a former president of Princeton University, an economist, and author of many books on education, including the bestseller The Shape of the River, Bowen discusses the dizzying array of new technology-based teaching and learning initiatives, including the highly publicized emergence of MOOCs. Based on the 2012 Tanner Lectures on Human Values, delivered at Stanford University, the book includes responses from Stanford president John Hennessy, Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner, Columbia University literature professor Andrew Delbanco, and Coursera cofounder Daphne Koller.

liberallearning300

Liberal Learning and the Art of Self-Governance (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)

Released: Feb. 9th

By: Emily Chamlee-Wright

Summary: Concerns over affordability and accountability have tended to direct focus away from the central aims of liberal learning, such as preparing minds for free inquiry and inculcating the habits of mind, practical skills, and values necessary for effective participation in civil society. The contributors to this volume seek to understand better what it is that can be done on a day-to-day basis within institutions of liberal learning that shape the habits and practices of civil society.

locus

Locus of Authority: The Evolution of Faculty Roles in the Governance of Higher Education 

Released: Jan. 25th

By: William Bowen and Eugene Tobin

Summary: Locus of Authority argues that every issue facing today’s colleges and universities, from stagnant degree completion rates to worrisome cost increases, is exacerbated by a century-old system of governance that desperately requires change. While prior studies have focused on boards of trustees and presidents, few have looked at the place of faculty within the governance system. Specifically addressing faculty roles in this structure, Bowen and Tobin ask: do higher education institutions have what it takes to reform effectively from within? The authors use case studies of four very different institutions—the University of California, Princeton University, Macalester College, and the City University of New York—to demonstrate that college and university governance has capably adjusted to the necessities of the moment and that governance norms and policies should be assessed in the context of historical events.

mindchange

Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains

Released: Feb. 10th

By: Susan Greenfield

Summary: Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create a snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the internet differ.

(Next page: Practice-based learning; how to keep students in STEM)

practicebased

Practice-based Learning in Higher Education: Jostling Cultures (Professional and Practice-based Learning)

Released: Will release in March; available for eBook now

By: Monica Kennedy, Stephen Billett, Silvia Gherardi, and Laurie Grealish

Summary: This book addresses issues confronting universities’ attempts to integrate practice-based learning in higher education curriculum, yet reveals the jostling of cultures which exist within and amongst the academy, industry, government and professional bodies and other educational providers. The volume comprises two main sections: the first laying out focal issues in the integration of learning and work in higher education. This section presents the issues at multiple levels of analysis and in theoretical terms, and also provides a foundation for the second section of the book which introduces a number of research studies illustrative of the issues theorized in the first.

reaching

Reaching Students: What Research Says About Effective Instruction in Undergraduate Science and Engineering

Released: Jan. 29th

By: Linda Kober, Board on Science Education, and more

Summary: The undergraduate years are a turning point in producing scientifically literate citizens and future scientists and engineers. Evidence from research about how students learn science and engineering shows that teaching strategies that motivate and engage students will improve their learning. So how do students best learn science and engineering? Are there ways of thinking that hinder or help their learning process? Which teaching strategies are most effective in developing their knowledge and skills? And how can practitioners apply these strategies to their own courses or suggest new approaches within their departments or institutions? Reaching Students strives to answer these questions.

socialm

Social Media for Scientific Institutions: How to Attract Young Academics by Using Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Released: Feb. 3rd

By: Daniel Hurrle and Julia Postatny

Summary: Hurrle and Postatny follow the research question of how social media can empower the communication of such institutes by using the example of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Based on an analysis of the designated target group of young academics, a holistic social media concept is developed with clear guidelines for immediate application and implementation. Diagrams, illustrations, models and short summaries after each section facilitate the understanding of the process and complex decisions.

globalfuture

The Global Future of Higher Education and the Academic Profession: The BRICs and the United States 

Released: Feb. 6th

By: Phiip Altbach, Gregory Androushchak, Yaroslav Kuzminov, and more

Summary: The Global Future of Higher Education and the Academic Profession focuses on the all-important emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations by analyzing the academic profession and particularly salaries and contracts. The authors claim that the professoriate is key to the success of any academic system, and this is the first book—now in paperback—to carefully analyze academic systems and the academic profession, say the editors. The book argues that the BRICs show a variety of approaches to academic careers—and none provide globally competitive salaries. China and Russia, in particular, pay academics poorly. Using purchasing power parity, this book is able to accurately compare the actual purchasing power of the academic profession. The book also analyzes how professors are appointed and promoted.

tyranny

The Tyranny of the Meritocracy: Democratizing Higher Education in America 

Released: Jan. 13th

By: Lani Guinier

Summary: Scholar and civil rights advocate Guinier argues that the merit systems that dictate the admissions practices of today’s higher-ed institutions are functioning to select and privilege elite individuals rather than create learning communities geared to advance democratic societies. Having studied and taught at schools such as Harvard University, Yale Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Guinier has spent years examining the experiences of ethnic minorities and of women at the nation’s top institutions of higher education, and here she lays bare the practices that impede the stated missions of these schools.

toppling300

Toppling the Ivory Tower: Preparing for Faculty Jobs of the Future: Seven Strategies for Success 

Released: Feb. 1st

By: Judith Sebesta

Summary: This booklet offers graduate students and early career instructors seven practical strategies to successfully prepare to be faculty in the rapidly shifting landscape of higher education. The strategies address such “hot” topics as online education, entrepreneurship, and community engagement and provide step-by-step basic guidelines for getting an electronic portfolio up and running. The author has over 17 years of experience in higher education, including as a tenure-track and/or tenured faculty member at four universities. Most recently she has served as a policy analyst and project manager for a nonprofit foundation and state agency, both dedicated to supporting access and success for college students.

Sign up for our newsletter

Newsletter: Innovations in K12 Education
By submitting your information, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

Sign up for our newsletter

Newsletter: Innovations in K12 Education
By submitting your information, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.