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The Academic Life. Small Worlds, Different Worlds. a Carnegie Foundation Special Report

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The Academic Life. Small Worlds, Different Worlds. a Carnegie Foundation Special Report DOCUMENT RESUME ED 299 902 HE 021 877 AUTHOR Clark, Burton R. TITLE The Academic Life. Small Worlds, Different Worlds. A Carnegie Foundation Special Report. INSTITUTION Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Princeton, NJ. REPORT NO ISBN-0-931L.;0-32-4 PUB DATE 87 NOTE 376p. AVAILABLE FROM Princeton University Press, 3175 Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 ($12.50, paper--ISBN-0-931050-32-4; $24.50, hardback--ISBN-0-931050-31-6). PUB TYPE Reports - General (140) -- Viewpoints (120) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Careers; *College Faculty; Culture; Higher Education; Institutional Characteristics; Organizations (Groups); Power Structure; *Professional Occupations; Professors; Researchers; Research Utilization; *Teaching (Occupation) IDENTIFIERS Academic Structure ABSTRACT The condition of the academic profession today is examined with a focus on the teaching and research functions in the academy. The diverse settings in which academics work are considered in three parts: (1) the foundations of the academic profession (the evolution of institutions; the elaboration of disciplines; and the open system); (2) the dimensions of academic professionalism (the imperatives of academic work; the enclosures of cilture; the grip of authority; the promises of career; and the ties cf association); and (3) the logic of the profession. Three judgments on the logic of the acdemic profession in America deal with: the hegemony of subjects; the dual commitment of academics to subjects and institutions, which greatly strengthens centrifugal forces in the profession; and the nature of research and teaching as human activities that promote the tendency for academic life to remain a calling. Appended are research focus and procedures; American disciplinary associations (1985); supplementary tables on the imperatives of academic work, the enclosures of culture, and the promises of career. Contains 11 pages of references and 17 tables. (SM) Reproductions supplied by kDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******* ******** *** ***** ******* ***** ** ********* ********** ************* ** A CARNEGIE FOUNDATION SPECIAL REPORT The Academic Life SMALL WORLDS, DIFFERENT WORLDS BURTON R. CLARK WITH A FOREWORD BY ERNEST L. BOYER ICE THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING 5 IVY LANE, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 J Copyright © 1987 The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching This report is published as part of an effort by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- ment of Teaching to explore significant issues in education. The views expressed should not necessarily be ascribed to members of the Board of Trustees of The Carnegie Foundation. Copyright under International Pan American and Universal Copyright Conventions. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any formexcept for brief quo- tation (not to exceed 1,000 words) in a review or professional workwithout permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Clark, Burton R. The academic life. (A Carnegie Foundation special report) Bibliography: p. 335 Includes index. 1. College teachersUnited StatesHistory. 2. College teachingUnited StatesHistory 3. Universities and collegesUnited StatesHistory 4. United StatesIntellectual life. I. Carnegie Foundation Cnr the Advancement of Teaching. II. Title III. Series. LB1778.C53 1987 378'12'0973 87-15068 ISBN 0-931050-31-6 ISBN 0-931050-32-4 (pbk.) Copies are available from the PRINCETON UNIVERcITY PRESS 3175 Princeton Pike Lawrenceville, N.J. 08648 To Philip Neil Clark 1954-1986 I hold every man a debtor to his profession, from which as men do of course seek to receive countenance and profit, se ought they of duty to endeavor themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and an ornament thereunto. Francis Bacon, MAXIMS OF THE LAW, WORKS We want to draw the lesson that nothing is gained by yearning and tarr:ng alone, and we shall act differently. We shall set to work and meet the "demands of the day," in human relations as well as in our vocation. This, however, is plain and simple, if each finds and obeys the demon who holds the fibers of his very life. Max Weber, "GCIENCE AS A VOCATION" The absolute scholar is in fact a rather uncanny being....A man will incest his sum of living in the study of Sumerian potsherds, in the vertigi .ius attempt to classify the dung beetles of one corner of New Guinea, in the study of the mating pitterns of wood lice, in the biography of a single writer or statesman, in the synthesis of one chemical substance, in the grammar of a dead language....To the utmost echolar, steep is a puzzle of wasted time, and flesh a piece of torn luggage that the spirit must drag after it.... It is indeed a haunting and haunted business. George Steiner, "THE CLERIC OF TREASON" CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES Xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Xlii FOREWORD BY ERNEST L. BOYER XV INTRODUCTION XXi PART ONE: THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION I. The Evolution of Institutions The development of diversity. The contemporary division of the profession 3 II.The Elaboration of Disciplines The Evolution of a disciplinary base. The contemporary distribution of faculty. The professorial matrix 25 III. The Open System The condition of competitive disorder. The condition of hierarchy. The system and the professoriate 45 PART TWO: THE DIMENSIONS OF ACADEMIC PROFESSIONALISM Iv. The Imperatives of Academic Work The institutional definition of work. The disciplinary specification of work. The paradox of academic work. The endless variety 69 v.The Enclosures of Culture Identification with institution and discipline. The culture of the profession. Symbolic integratior 105 vi. The Grip of Authority The bases of academic authority. Authority environments. The unionization response. Control in a fractured profession 147 ix vii.The Promises of Career Attraction and entry. The differentiation of career lines. The continuities of rank. Satisfaction and solace in the academic career 187 viii. The Ties of Association The patterns of association. The role of invisible associations. The associational webbing of academic groups 233 PART THREE: THE LOGIC OF THE PROFESSION ix. The Logic of the Profession The third moment. The profession and the organization. The logic of the profession 257 APPENDICES 277 NOTES 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY 339 INDEX 351 x LIST OF TABLES 1 Growth of Institutions and Faculty, 1870-1980 12 2 Institutions and Enrollments in American Higher Education, by Type of Institution, 1976 18 3 Growth of Conferred Degrees, 1870-1980 35 4 National Disciplinary Associations, 1985, by Period in Which Founded 37 5 Disciplinary Distribution of Faculty 39 6 Work Load: Time Spent on Teaching Undergraduate Courses, by Type of Institution 75 7 Work Load: Teaching at Undergraduate and Gri 1uate Levels, by Type of Ingitution 77 8 Research 4. am, by Type of Institution 78 9 Hours Spent on Administration, by Type of Institution 81 10 Primary Interest in Teaching or Research, by Type of Institution 86 11 Faculty Sentiment That Collective Bargaining Has No Place in Higher Education, by Type of Institution 181 12 Rank Structure of the Continuous Career 211 13 Unwillingness of Faculty to Choose College Teaching Again, by Type of Institution 218 14 Faculty Feelings of Entrapment in the Profession, by Type of Institution 219 15 Faculty Feelings About Their Own Institution, by Type of Institution 220 xi S Faculty Belief That Education is Best Hope of Improving the Human Condition, by Type of Institution 223 Faculty Attendence at National Meetings, by Type of Institution 245 xii 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE COMMITMENT to fashion this volume originated in late 1982 when Ernest L. Boyer, President of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, agreed to support a national field study of American academics. The ensuing major grant from the Foundation, in- corporating funds from the Mellon Foundation, allowed me to mount an extensive research effort that otherwise would not have been possible. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Boyer, the Carnegie Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation for the opportunity they provided. The magnitude of the investigation required a small staff in which two postdoctoral research associates played a leading role in planning and car- rying out the research. Sydney Ann Halpern (1983-1984) and Kenneth Ruscio (1983-1985) made numerous visits to participating universities and colleges to conduct the interviews on which my later writing so much de- pended. Their efforts were invaluable: their own writings from the study have informed mine. A third research associate, Gary Rhoades, offered in- sightful criticism from beginning to end. I am much indebted to the con- tributions of these three young scholars. Over the course of several aca- demic years, six research assistants, all graduate students at the University of California, Los Angeles, were also variously involved. I wish to thank Mitchell Bard, Marie Freeman, Ronald Opp, Ann Hansen, Curtis Shepard, and Betty Glick for work that stretched from field visits to routine tasks that overlooked their intelligence and initiative. I am also particularly mindful of the necessary contribution to the study made by the several hundred professors and administrators in universities and colleges, disciplinary associations, and other academic locales who agreed to be interviewed. They patiently conversed about our concerns. The openness of American higher education was reflected in the willing- ness of these respondents to actively enter into our particular pursuit of die truth. It is a pleasure, on behalf of all those in the UCLA research group, I-i to thank those who met us more than halfway when the knock on the office door produced an interviewer equipped with fifteenpages of open-ended questions, a tape recorder, and a smiling request for the appointed hour of time. Cindy Caloia and the staff of the communications processingcenter in the UCLA Graduate School of Education helpedto prepare numerous drafts cf them ,nusclipt over many months. Adele Clark provided thegen- eral editing that helped translate some sociologese and educationeseinto clear English.
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