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Title: Academic Duty by Donald Kennedy ISBN: 0-674-00223-7 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.16 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Institutional, Academic, Personal Duties
Comment: As an academic aspirant, I read this book with diligence and thoroughness. Twice. Donald Kennedy has an impressive academic achievement as an environmental scientist, along with institutional leadership experience as former President of Stanford University. In this book-inspired by a conviction of the need for academic aspirants to know the true workings of the academia- various duties of members of the academia are elaborated and modern day issues facing the universities are dissected. However, after reading the book twice, as excited as I was with the book, there were some deficiencies.
Traditionally, the roles of a professor in a university have been to teach and to research, with different emphasis on the two roles, in different universities. With this as an accepted view, Kennedy further breaks down the roles of the academic into mentoring, institutional service, publishing, as symbols of truthfulness and perhaps, closest to his heart, as agents of change.
In the 303 pages, Kennedy warns the current and the future members of the need to balance academic duty with academic freedom. With no implicit arguments, he stressed the need to re-focus on undergraduate teaching, a central role of universities. The members of the academia are not only teachers but also mentors and influential role models of the students in institutions of higher learning.
He also questions the current style and intensity of producing Phd students, the majority of whom make up the future professoriate. Kennedy exposes truths about the over-production of PhD students; the subsequent failure of many to break into the academia; the lack of teaching training for those who eventually become young professors.
What is personally the most exciting discussion was without doubt the one on research, research misconduct and the pursuit of truth. Kennedy carefully elaborates examples of the difficulty of research with appropriate stories of fictional but realistic characters. However, as a student of social sciences, I was nonetheless disappointed that many of the examples were in the field of sciences and there was no significant discussion of the field of social sciences or humanities. Added to that, there were hardly any examples of Kennedy's own experiences in research. Perhaps, the author thought that any personal experiences were materials insufficient to demonstrate the arguments or that he was uncomfortable in using his own experiences as examples. Either way, I felt that lessons of his own research experiences would have been very enlightening.
However, this short book has powerful insights and lessons for the future members of the academia, not excepting me. Somehow, after reading this book, I understand the fallacy of the ivory tower. Much of the universities' world, as a scholarly enterprise, lofty in their pursuit of truths and free of political man-handling, has changed into an institution under public scrutiny and subjected to public accountability. This book has inspired me to write a piece for a scholarship application. Despite the challenges to be faced by hopeful academics, the resolve is still strong in me to become one and that is, I believe, the essence of this book-the academia, despite its pitfalls, will always be sustained in its important mission of education and discovery, by future members, themselves the product of that mission.
Rating: 5
Summary: A must read for entering doctoral students, too!
Comment: Great book. Not only should all assistant professors read it, but it should be required reading for all new doctoral students no matter what discipline. It illuminates the way universities actually work and details common pitfalls into which people entering the profession (academe and the professoriate)can fall. In addition, the reader is given an insider's look into one of the major research universities in the world (Stanford). It has the bonus of being extremely well written and a pleasure to read. Again, great book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great book!
Comment: An outstanding antidote to misinformed university bashing. All new assistant professors should read this book. It gives excellent advice and insights into the inner workings of the university.
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Title: Universities in the Marketplace : The Commercialization of Higher Education by Derek Bok ISBN: 0691114129 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 03 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Uses of the University by Clark Kerr ISBN: 0674005325 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: A University for the 21st Century by James J. Duderstadt ISBN: 0472110918 Publisher: UMP Pub. Date: 08 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: Ethical Ambition : Living a Life of Meaning and Worth by Derrick Bell ISBN: 1582342059 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Pub. Date: 25 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Knowledge Factory : Dismantling the Corporate University and Creating True Higher Learning by Stanley Aronowitz ISBN: 0807031232 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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