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The American Faculty

The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers

Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein

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Higher education is becoming destabilized in the face of extraordinarily rapid change. The composition of the academy's most valuable asset—the faculty—and the essential nature of faculty work are being transformed. Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein describe the transformation of the American faculty in the most extensive and ambitious analysis of the American academic profession undertaken in a generation.

A century ago the American research university emerged as a new organizational form animated by the professionalized, discipline-based scholar. The research university model...

Higher education is becoming destabilized in the face of extraordinarily rapid change. The composition of the academy's most valuable asset—the faculty—and the essential nature of faculty work are being transformed. Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein describe the transformation of the American faculty in the most extensive and ambitious analysis of the American academic profession undertaken in a generation.

A century ago the American research university emerged as a new organizational form animated by the professionalized, discipline-based scholar. The research university model persisted through two world wars and greatly varying economic conditions. In recent years, however, a new order has surfaced, organized around a globalized, knowledge-based economy, powerful privatization and market forces, and stunning new information technologies. These developments have transformed the higher education enterprise in ways barely imaginable in generations past.

At the heart of that transformation, but largely invisible, has been a restructuring of academic appointments, academic work, and academic careers—a reconfiguring widely decried but heretofore inadequately described. This volume depicts the scope and depth of the transformation, combing empirical data drawn from three decades of national higher education surveys. The authors' portrait, at once startling and disturbing, provides the context for interpreting these developments as part of a larger structural evolution of the national higher education system. They outline the stakes for the nation and the challenging work to be done.

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Reviews

The definitive work of a broad shift now underway.

The authors paint a troubling picture.

Always readable, occasionally conversational style... keeps you moving along.

The American Faculty is destined to be a classic... The most thorough and thoughtful analysis of its topic in many years.

I found this book to be a significant resource for data on the American professoriate.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6.125
x
9.25
Pages
600
ISBN
9780801891038
Illustration Description
37 line drawings
Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One: Overview of the American Facultty
1. Establishing the Framework
2. The American Faculty in Perspective
3. The

List of Tables and Figures
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One: Overview of the American Facultty
1. Establishing the Framework
2. The American Faculty in Perspective
3. The Professoriate in Profile
Part Two: The Faculty at Work
4. The Changing Complexion of Faculty Work
5. Academic Culture and Values and the Quality of Work Life
Part Three: The Academic Career
6. The Changing Academic Career
7. The Revolution in Academic Appointments: A Closer Look
8. Compensation and Academic Careers: Trends and Issues
9. Pathways to the Professoriate
Part Four: Assessing Contemporaray Academic Life
10. American Academic Life Restructured
11. What's Ahead? Agendas for Policy Analysis, Research, and Action on Academic Staffing
Appendixes
A. The National Faculty Surveys
B. Selected National Faculty Surveys: A Concordance of Contents
C. Interpreting Faculty Surveys: Challenges and Strategies
D. Variables for Classifying Faculty Subgroups
E. Definitions of Terms Used in Tables and Figures
F. Academic Appointments: Historical Milestones
G. Faculty Compensation: Data Sources
H. Note on Accessing the Survey Instruments
I. Faculty Diversity: Race and Ethnicity Categories
J. Appendix Tables
Bibliography
Index

Author Bios
Jack H. Schuster
Featured Contributor

Jack H. Schuster

Jack H. Schuster is professor emeritus of education and public policy and a senior research fellow at Claremont Graduate University. He is a coauthor of The New Academic Generation: A Profession in Transformation and The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers.
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