DOCUMENT RESUME ED 025 220 24 HE 000 314 By-Mosher, Frederick C. Professional Education and the Public Service; An Exploratory Study. Final Report. California Univ., Berkeley. Center for Research and Development in Higher Education. Spons Agency-Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C. Bureau of Research Bureau No- BR-5-0248 Pub Date Apr 68 Contract- OEC- 6- 10- 106 Note-170p. EDRS Price MF-$0.75 HC-$8.60 Descriptors- Administrative Personnel, *Government (Administrative Body), Governmental Structure, *Government Emplo_yees, *Higher Education, Professional Education, Professional Occupations,Professional Personnel, Public Administration Education, Public Officials, *Public Policy Professional and technical fields are the fastest growing occupational sectors in the US. More than one-third of all professional and technical workers are employed by government, particularlyinadministrative positions, and exert an increasing influence on public policy. But, with the exception of city managers, many of these employees regard themselves as members of the disciplines in which they weretrained rather than primarily as public administrators. The field of public administrationhas not influenced public policy as much as other fields have, possibly because: it is not a specialized profession; practitioners do not agree on what its core knowledge,skills and orientation should be; and there is little incentive for students to pursue studies in the field since most administrative positions are held by otherspecialists. Althou9h more attention in colleges is now being paid toadministrative and management fields, courses are usually based onorganizational theories of private business models, with little emphasis on the unique problems of government administration.Professional schools suffer from a general bias against teaching the kinds of subjects thatmight be useful in government jobs. Hence, many professional administrators lack theskills, knowledge or attitudes to deal with increasing social problems. To meet the growing demand and suggest future action for trained public administrators, a research proposal is offered for evaluating the roles of educational institutions, governmental agencies, and assessing the attitudes of professional publicofficials. (WM) FINAL REPORT Project No. 5-0248-2-13 don:braANo.owa6.1o.1o6
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE
u:s. DEPARTMENTOf HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION
THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY ASRECEIVED FROM PERSON OR ORGANIZATION THE ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEWOR OPINIONS STATED DO NOTNECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICEOF EDUCATION POSITION ORPOLICY.
April, 1968
E D025220
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ffEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
Office of Education Bureau of Research PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE
An Exploratory Study
By
Frederick C. Mosher Professor of Political Science University of California Berkeley, California
Center for Research and Development in Higher Education University of California Berkeley, California CONTENTS
Preface
1 I. The Professionaland the Public Service
Its Development andProblems . 39 II. Professional Education:
72 III. Educational Programs andCurricula
92 IV. The Faculties
110 V. The Students
Proposal for Research 1.43 VI. Some Conclusions,Problems and a V
Preface: The Reasonsfor This Study
book entitled TheProfession A few years ago aBritish scholar wrote a about the administrative ofGovernment,1an able andinformative document not including GreatBritain. services of the countriesof western Europe,
professionalized countryin the The United States isprobably the most of the world today, in the senseat least of thequantitative proportion Communist countries working force who areprofessional. Leaving aside the
"non-public" employment are where the differencesbetween "public" and States is also difficult to measure if notindistinguishable, the United
countries in the proportion probably among the highestof the "developed"
employed by government. of professionals andtechnical personnel who are yet According to the 1960 census,the proportion hereis above one-third. really has been, a"pro- there is not in the UnitedStates, and there never
entitled The Professional: fession of government.".A recent book was
to the skill, the artand the Lyndon B.Johnson12 but itwas directed "professional" as experience of the politician,the "old pro," notto the study begun about the term is generallyunderstood. The field of academic aimed to give a profes- half a century ago known aspublic administration government, but in this sional strain to the practiceof administration in of regard it has had onlymoderate success. Few of the administrators secondarily, as membersof a government today regardthemselves, more than the outstanding profession of publicadministrators. The city managers are significant--minority of exception, but these compriseonly a tiny--though
our publicadministrators.
1 London, 1959). Brian Chapman(George Allen and Unwin Limited, 2 William S. White(Boston, Houghton-Mifflin,1964). ii
There are abundant reasons why in our particularculture we have not developed a class of public administrators, a"profession of government."
But there are also abundant reasons for us to beconcerned about those who are administering our public programs--theirskills, their knowledge, their
attitudes, their orientation. If the bilk of them are not members of a
"profession of government," most or them nonetheless are professionals in
government--professionally trained, professionally oriented. In fact, in no
country of the free world is administrative leadership ingovernment more
concentrated in professionals than in the United States.But, I repeat,
they are not members of a profession of government or of publicadministra-
tion. They are professionals in certain fields of knowledgeand action,
more or less identified wi.th the purposesof the agencies which they
administer. They are agriculturists in the Agricultural ResearchService,
officers in the Army, engineers in the state highway department,psychiatrists
in the mental hygLene department, scientists in the Bureauof Standards or
the Space Administration, meteorologists in the Weather Bureau,public health
officers and welfare officers at every level of government,economists in
the Council of Economic Advisors, investigators in the FBI,criminologists
in a local police department. Secondarily, some of them may think of them-
selves as public administrators, but few would regardthemselves as members
of a "profession of government." Most, I suspect, wouldresent this label
or that of "governmentbureaucrat."Yet this aggloteration of "professionals
in government" will probably exercise moreinfluence upon our society and
the lives of each of us than any other cluster, whetherit be the captains
of industry, the leaders of labor, the faculties ofuniversities, the
politicians. We are all inescapably dependent upon theprofessionals in
government and will probably be increasingly so in the future. exactly what is meantby the word Ell- There is littleagreement as to considered to qualify asprofessions. fession and whatoccupations should be
the importanceof education But on one element,there is wide consensus: undergraduate or both,which is pre- at the universitylevel, graduate or and philosophies sumed to transmitthe knowledges,skills, attitudes, Most of sucheducation necessary forthe performance ofprofessional work. part of it by separateprofessional is provided byunivyrsities, and a large professionals, if we may use a schoola on the campuses. Some governmental
produced by the liberalarts col- liberal interpretationof the term, are
(chemists, physicists,biologists) leges, especiallythe natural scientists
sociologists,economists). and social scientists(clinical psychologists,
for the productionof professionals In this country,the primary instrument And, in fact, whenmeasured solely is the institutionsof higher learning.
of professionalshas become the in quantitativeterms, the production (whether or not they largest part of themissions of suchinstitutions
the graduates ofprofessional realize it or likeit). Some proportion of
to work forgovernment-- study in virtually everyfield are destined The range inthese proportions international or national orstate or local.
quite low in the casesof dentists among differentfields is wide--from welfare, and teaching, or architectsto dominant inpublic health, social ofthe militaryservices and diplomacy. to virtuallyexclusive in the oases will be employed Over-all, nearly twoof every fiveprofessional graduates
trends in governmentemployment and by government.Furthermore, if current from this pool willin the promotion continue, we mayreliably assume that those exercising future be drawn alarge number of ourtop public leaders,
formation and executionof public policy. the greatestinfluence upon the indeed it is virtuallytautological, It seems equallysafe to assume, having and willcontinue to that the nature ofprofessional education is iv
the course of exert a significant thoughlargely indirect influence upon For government itself--upon itsnature, directions, andeffectiveness.
professional education the student of government, abroader understanding of
service and public and the nature of itscontributions to the public
government, even leadership should enhance hisunderstanding of American
to practical problems if he is theoreticallyinclined. For those oriented
education in its relationto and to improvement, thestudy of professional government may suggest leadswhereby such educationshould be modified products of pro- and whereby government may moreeffectively utilize the
fessional education. education for in- There have been a considerablenumber of studies of
dividual professions, such aslaw, medicine, andengineering, and relatively to fewer directed to educationin such individualfields in its relation
professions governmental needs. But there is a paucityof studies on the
and professional education as awhole, and almost none ontheir relation
denominators among with the public service as awhole.What are the common
And what are their the different professionsin these regards, if any?
differences? What do thesesimilarities and differences meanfor Anerican
government? explore these and related The present study is apreliminary effort to
existing data andliterature and questions. It is based principally upon
number of interviews withpublic upon somecorrespondence and a limited organizations, and administrators officials, representativesof professional My objectives and my pre- and professors in a fewprofessional schools.
identify and to organize someof tensions are modest. I have undertaken to
and professional edu- the more importantlinkages between professionalism problems attendant cation with the public service;to highlight some of the most or all of upon this linkagetoday--both those which seem common among
individual the fields of professionalism andthose more or less special to fields; and, perhaps mostimportant, to set forth hypothesesand questions to provoke and guide moreintensive research in thefuture, research in greater depth of individualprofessions and their relationto governmental service, and research about theprofessions in general andtheir inter- relationship with government. 1
CHAPTER I
THE PROFESSIONALAND THE PUBLICSERVICE
the twentieth centuryand particularly The firsttwo-thirds of the
witnessed a remarkablegrowth in theUnited years followingWorld War II generated an academicinterest in States ofprofessionalism. This growth and their relevanceto society. Both and knowledgeabout the professions accelerated sinceWorld War II. the interest andthe knowledge have in made aboutprofessional education Virtually the samestatements could be groups apply nearlyequally to pressure the universities. They could also Somewhat more recentlyhas devtloped and their impact uponpublic policy. organizations are amongthe most in- the realizationthat professional been aparallel--though fluential of pressuregroups. Finally, there has
about publicadministrators and perhaps not quiteequal--growth in concern
training for them.
has been solittle interestin, and It is alsoremarkable that there developments. It is study about, the convergenceof thesecontemporaneous
deplored and sometimesfeared--that public now generallyrecognized--often have a significantimpact upon administrators andadministrative agencies shape appreciated that theuniversities help to public policy. It is also values, theirroles, their the professionals--theirthinking, their It may be less standards and norms,and theirprofessional competence. in the largerjuris- widely known thatthe bulk ofpublic administrators in the universities asprofessionals dictions of the UnitedStates are trained
and not asadministrators. and of others which Ihope may follow The primary focusof this study
of professionaleducation in the it is upon thenature and adequacy 2
universities for our future public administrators.The subject may seem a narrow one in comparison withthe professions in general, or education in general, or pressure gioups in general, orpublic administration in general.
Yet its ramifications are far too broad for afew--or a few hundred--pages.
In my judgment, they are tremendouslyimportant.
The Professionalizing Society
A distinguishing feature of an advancedand an advancing society is a relatively high and risingdegree of occupational specialism. Another
distinguishing feature is a relatively high and rising levelof educational
attainment, a substantial part of which is directedto the preparation for
such specialiam. The word "relatively" is here used withreference to
comparisons among contemporary societies: between those considered advanced
or developed or industrializedand those considered underdeveloped or de-
veloping. It is also applicable to comparisons of the samesociety ovtr
time, between past and present; but not betweenpresent and future.Whereas
both specialization and education in theUnited States are today advanced
in relation to the past, the current paceis such that a few decades hence
they may well appear primitive. At least to some point, not yet determined
and probably not yet reached, education andspecialization are essential
ingredients of general social and economicdevelopment; their are probably
both causes and effects.
The changes which we are nowwitnessing in our society are doUbtless
as profound as, and morerapid than, those associated with the Industrial
Revolution. The values and the power customarilyassociated with property,
wealth, production, and industry are giving wayto values and power of
knowledge, education, and intellect. As Daniel Bell recently wrote: "To 3
figures of the pasthundred years havebeen speak rashly: if the dominant
and the industrialexecutive, the 'new the entrepreneur,the businessman, the economists, andthe engi- men' are the scientists,the mathematicians,
And the dominantinstitutions of neers of the newcomputer technology.
they will providethe most creative the new society--inthe sense that talents--will be theintellectual insti- challenges and enlistthe richest
the new society willrest, not withbusinessmen tutions. The leadership of but with theresearch corporation, or corporationsas we knowthem . . .
experimental stations,and the univer- the industriallaboratories, the
1,1 sities. the professions, amongwhich are In this process,the importance of
of most disciplines,is increasing properly includedthe applied scientists
the principalsocial mechanismswhereby rapidly. Viewed broadly, they are action and service(or disservice). They new knowledgeis translated into intellectual achievementbecomes opera- are thetransmission belts whereby
increasingly dominantin the workimof tional.The professions are In a recent issueof Daedalus society, if not inthe engines of change.
professions, Kenneth S.Lynn declared: which was entirelydevoted to the 2 triumphant." In the "Everywhere in Americanlife, the professions are "Professions are more numerousthan same issue,Everett C. Hugheswrote: larger proportionof the labor ever before. Professional people are a
attitude, or mood,is likewise morewidespread; force. The professional
professional status moresoughtafter."3
1 Society, (I)" The Public Daniel Bell,"Notes on the Post-Industrial
Interest, Vol.6(Winter 1967), pp.24-35.
2Daedalus, Vol. 92, No.4 (Fall, 1963), p.649.
3Ibid., p. 655. terms, the accelerating The U.S. Censusreflects, in quantitative
"professional, technical, and increase of workers whomit defines as twenty-three in the kindred."In 1900, theyconstituted but one of of twelve, in1960, one of American labor force. By 1950, they were one of this century, nine, in 1966, one ineight. Over the first sixty years more than double the average annual rateof growth of professionals was compared that of all others inthe labor force: 3 per cent per year as 1950-60, the average with 1.3 per cent per year. During the decade of
triple that of otherworkers: annual growth rate ofprofessions was more than
There is every reasonto believe 3.7 per cent comparedwith 1.1 per cent. workers is continuingat a that the growth ofprofessional and technical
it did in the decade be- rapid pace, though perhapsnot accelerating as
tween 1950 and1960. workers in general The rapid growth ofprofessional and technical Some obscures wide differencesin the increaserates of individual fields.
others have grown no faster thanthe have mushroomedspectacularly while Among the non-professional labor forceand a few have grown moreslowly.
slowest growers over thepast sixty years havebeen the best established,
the doctors, the most highly respectedtraditional professionalfields: In striking lawyers, the dentists,the architects, andthe clergymen.
engineers were, numericallyat contrast are the engineers. In 1900, the
than three times as many least, a minor profession. There were more times as many lawyers. doctors; three times as manyclergymen; nearly three
professions in toto out- With the dentists andexchitects, these traditional
numbered the engineers by morethan ten to one. By 1960, the statistics
engineers more had more than reversedthemselves. There were then 110,000 than the other five put together, andnot one of these latter professions included as many as one-third the numberof engineers.
The nearly revolutionaryreversal of engineers relative toother well established professions is but one ofseveral general conclusions that may be drawn from the statisticaldata concerning the changingcontours of the professions in American society.Most of those to which attentionwill be called relate to trends in the decadeof 1950-1960, and most of these are probably continuing to the time of thiswriting.
First is the explosive increasein the pTofessionals concernedwith
the expansion and applicationof knowledge concerningexternal matters and
things as distinguished fromthose involving services toindividuals or
groups as people. It is reflected in the largeincreases in natural sci-
entists as well as engineers.
Second is the tremendous increasesince 1950 in science, bothnatural
and social, which islikewise reflected in the increasesin college pro-
show by far fessors. It is noteworthy that thetwo categories of sciences
the largest percentage increasesbetween 1950 and1960.
Third is the substantial increasein persons devoted toeducation, at
substantial both grade school and collegelevel. Teaching is providing a very
fraction of the total increase inprofessional personnel.And the large in-
crease in the numberof librarians also reflectsthe expanding emphasis
upon education.
Fourth is the substantialgrowth in those fields in which women are
the dominant or the majorparticipants, notably schoolteachers, librarians
and nurses.
Fifth, I note again the lethargicgrowth rates of the more traditional
professional fields of law, medicine,dentistry, and architecture--all 6
dedicated in substantial part to individual services toindividual people.
These are the occupations--and among them particularly lawand medicine-- which have provided our image of what a profession is. Yet today they con stitute a diminishing minority of professionals in America, andtheir historic modi operandi are decreasingly representative of general pro- fessional practice.
The last point requires some expansion, for itreflects a larger phenomenon in American society. The traditional image of a profession
envisaged individuals, specialized and educated in a given field,who
offered their services in that field to individuals and werecompensated
by a fee, a system with which most of us who have goneto a doctor or a
dentist, or have engaged an architect or a lawyer are familiar. Such a
system still applies to some in virtually all theprofessions, and it remains
the dominant pattern for most lawyers, doctors, and dentists. But these
are professional fields which havenot been growing rapidly.As long as a
hundred years ago, there were twice as many professionals on asalaried
basis as on a self-employed or fee basis. The proportion of self-employed
professionals continues to decline; it was 11.8 per cent in1960. Most
professionals today are working for, and are paid a salary by, an
organization--a private industry, a university, a hospital, agovernment.
They are presumed therefore to be under the tensionof mixing or somehow
accommodating their professional values, standards, and dbjectives with
those of the organization by which they are employed. The actual or
potential conflict between profession and bureaucracy has been anobject
of a number of studies in recent years, principally in the businessworld.
But it is important to emphasize that most professionalstoday are not "lone
stars," working on their own for fees from private clients.They are 7
"organization men," working on salaries asdo mostof the rest of us.And
to the vast majority of in this regard, those ingovernment are comparable their peers outside.
TheProfessionalizingPublic Services Americans, a myth The American heritageincludes, for a great many primarily of that the administrative servicesof our governments consist
number of politicians, an army of clerks,capped at the top by a smaller
appointed or elected.The myth had more basis infact two centuries ago
There are and even one century ago. But today it is radicallyinaccurate.
heavily upon edu- few institutions in ourcurrent society which rely more
In 1960, cated, skilled, and specializedpersonnel than our governments.
those classified by the Census as''Professional, Technical, andKindred"
constituted about one in nineof the entire labor force,but of the civilian
exactly one in three. In employees of governments,they constituted almost
Technical, and Kindred" fact, more than one-third ofall the "Professional,
The proportion workers in the UnitedStates were employed bygovernments.
of public school teachers, is heavily *weighted bythe rapidly rising number
but even if we leave schoolteachers out, the proportionof professional and
employment is technical workers in governmentto total non-teaching public
times the comparable pro- nearly one-fifth(19.4 per cent) or two and a half
portion in the private sector(7.7 per cent).
employers of professional and The relative importanceof governments as
technical personnel in thenation appears even moreemphatic if we compare
their numbers only with thenumbers employed and paid bynon-governmental
"self-employed" organizations. It was noted abovethat the proportion of
professionals has been decliningand was below 12 per centof all profes-
the calculation, we find thatof all sionals. Eliminating this group from 8
professionals working for organizations on asalaried basis, about two out of five were on government payrolls.
Review of the individual professional andtechnical fields in govern- ment, as they are defined in the Census,indicates that most of them fall into two fairly clear-cut categories: those in which two-thirds or more are employed by publicagencies--and those in which one-third orfewer are employed by public agencies. Only a few fall between these groups--college professors and administrators and scientists. It must be borne in mind that the Census classification is insufficientlyrefined to enumerate many of those in government who might be treated as,and who no doubt consider themselves as, professionals--such as militaryofficers, diplomats, city managers, city planners, criminologists,wildlife specialists, and others.
The groupings of occupational fields obscure oneimportant fact about the
engineers. While the great bulk of all engineers areprivately employed,
nearly half (48 per cent) of those classified ascivil engineers are in the
public service.
Governments have, since World War II, beenthe principal contributors
to the over-all professionalization of oursociety. They have led in three
different ways. In the first place, governments as a wholehave been
among the fastest growing employersduring this period, and the largest
part of their growth has been in fields requiringlarge numbers of profes-
sionals, such as education, health andhospitals, highways, and scientific
research and development.Almost all of governments share in the total
employment increase has been at the state and locallevel, an increase
during the past decade of about fifty per cent. And a large share of this
was new professional employment. Secondly, even among public agencies
whose over-all employment has shown little increase,there has been substantial 9
Figure I
Government Professional andTechnical Personnel in Selected Fields in Relation to ThoseOtherwise Employed (based upon the 1960 Census ofPopulation)
Professional and Proportion of All in Proportion of All Number Technical Occupation Field Who Are Employed GovernmentProf. Employed by Public Agencies and Technical Pers. by Gov't. (Thous.) (%) (%) I. Predomntl Governmental (67% orhigher)
School Teachers 82 52 1,365 Foresters 78 1 25 Social Workers 73 3 69 58 Librarians 70 2
II. Mixed (Between "Wand 67%)
College Professors and 98 Presidents 56 4 Natural Scientists 42 1 28 Social Scientists 39 1 21
Predominantly Non- Governmental Tn% or lower)
Personnel and Labor Relations 33 1 32 Nurses 24 5 140 Engineers 17 6 147 Accountants 17 3 79 34 Physicians 15 1 Lawyers and Judges 15 1 31 Chemists 13 -* 11 .* Architects 9 3
All Professionals and Technical Employees 36 100 2,625
*Lessthan half of one per cent. largely in shifting in the make-up of theemployment, and this has very
blue collar to whitecollar the direction of up-gradingof personnel--from
This phenomenon,which and from clerical toprofessional and technical. government, is discussed has been particularly conspicuousin the Federal
particularly the Federalgovernment, later. Thirdly, governments, and
throzIgh procurement, have increasingly supportedthe employment of personnel of such pri- contracts, grants, and subsidies;and a substantial fraction
vate employment for public purposeshas unquestionablybeen professional,
scientific, and technical. It is estimated that morethan six million
provide goods and servicesfor persons are employedin private industry to
4 estimates that two-fifthsof all governments. The Department of Labor government- scientists and engineers in theUnited States are employed on
the fastest growing supportedprograms;5and these are of course among add to categories of professionallyqualified persons. In fact, were we to
personnel those the governmentally employedprofessional and technical the probable working for private employers ongovernment supported programs,
technical workers, in all finding is that two of everyfive professional and
share of the fields, are supported bygovernment. Obviously, a very large
United States is current professional andtechnical revolution in the
governmental.
Public Policy, Administration,and Professionalism statistical picture is the More significantthan the quantitative, public policies and the actual and potential impressof professionals upon
4 Manpower, Report, of thePresident and &Report, on ManpowerRequirements,
States Department of Resources, Utilization,and Training 11:the United
Labor (Washington:U.S. Government, April1967), p. 30.
5Ibid., p. 173. way they are carried out. One betrays no secrets noroccult wisdom to observe that a large part--in most governmentsthe bulk--of public policies and programs are initiated and areeither decided or proposed by andwithin administrative agencies of government.Practically all of them are carried out by such agencies. The kinds of people who composeand who lead in those agencies, the kinds of abilities, perspectives,and values which they bring to bear upon policy issues are therefore amatter of legitimate con- cern to all citizens. It is the premise of this reportthat, in a large number of the most important publicagencies, policy and administration are
dominated by identifiable professional groups or groupsof personnel who
aspire to be recognized as, and who actlike, such professional groups.
There is a surprising degree of parallelismbetween the organizational
structure of public agencies and occupationalspecialization in society and
within the government itself, with the consequencethat specialists come
to dominate public prograns in thefields appropriate to their recognized
competence. In general (though with a fewexceptions), where pre-entry
education in the occupational field to thelevel of the bachelorts degree
or higher is consideredrequisite to journeyman status, thefield comes to
be regarded as professional.The degree to which professionsdominate
individual agencies in the publicsector is suggested by the examples
below. The right hand column indicatesthe primary professional field
dominant in each agency.
Federal
All the military agencies Mllitary officers Del)artment of State Foreign Service officers Public Health Service Public health doctors Forest Service Foresters Bureau of Reclamation Civil Engineers 'Geological Survey Geologists Department of Justice Lawyers Office of Education Educators 3ureau of Standards Natural scientists 12
State and Local
Highways and other public works Civil Engineers Welfare agencies Social workers Mental hygiene agencies Psychiatrists Public 'health agencies Public health doctors Elementary and secondaryeducation Educators Higher education Professors Attorneys general, districtattorneys, Lawyers legal counsel
The Level of Leadership
Perhaps the most significantaspect of the professionalrevolution
within government has been the emergenceof professionals, liberallyde.
fined, to positions of direction andcontrol of the major subjectmatter
agencies. The process of professionalizationof agency leadership has
been proceeding, though at unevenspeeds, for at least thelast century;
in the years since World War II,it has greatly accelerated. There has
disciplines of been an increasing identificationof professional fields or number of study with governmental programsto the point that, in a great
the programs, one or anotherprofessional discipline has acomplete monopoly
ofthe leadership positions. In some cases, the monopolyis written into
General law. It is, for example, virtuallyunimaginable, that the Attorney
(indeed, any attorney general or generalcounsel) would not be a lawyer;
director of any that any director of highwaysnot be an engineer; that the
sizable public health servicenot be a public healthdoctor; that the
director of any forest servicenot be a forester; that thehead of the
Geological Survey not be ageologist; that the Chief of theBureau of
Standards not be a scientist;that the commander of anybureau or army or
service of the military forcesnot be an officer of theappropriate branch
and service. 13
of whose work The picture is less clear amongagencies the main thrust does not fall within theappropriate scope of arecognized occupational
missions are in a condition group, and some newagencies and others whose But even here, of rapid change lack suchclear-cut professionalleadership. and continues over an if a new or changed governmentalprogram stabilizes extended period of years, thetendency will be for the coreof its work
professional group or to and workers to becomeidentified with an existing develop a new and indigenousprofession.
of political In most units of Americangovernment, there is a layer officers, appointive and elective,above the professionalagencies.
Historically, this stratum hasbeen occupied by personsnot specialized
century, in the activities whichthey superintend.During the nineteenth
most of these were lawyers inthe national and manystate and local
that this political groupis governments.Recent studies however indicate professionalism (other than likewise moving haltingly inthe direction of
tenure--department law). Those positions in whichthere is no assurance of chiefs in head l! in cities and states,bureau and independent agency
Washington--are filled in a largenumber of cases by professionalsin
fields appropriate to the missionsof their agencies.
Kinds of Professions inGovernment (1) a reasonably clear- A profession is hereconstrued, liberally, as
specialized educational cut occupational field,(2) which ordinarily requires
preparation, at least to thelevel of a bachelor'sdegree, and (3) which
offers a life-time careerto its members. This is admittedly a loose
definition which might not satisfy somestudents of occupations. It is
deliberately intended to comprehend somevocational fields which are not
not yet possess yet generally and publiclyrecognized as professions and do all the attributes of a fullydeveloped profession.Among these attributes
orientation to may be mentioned: a formalprofessional organization; an
establishment and service as against purelyprivate and personal goals;
work; minimal recognition in law; individualautonomy in performance of
and a code of standards of performance; enforcedlimitations upon entry;
liberal usage is more ethics. In terms of gov.ernmentalconsequences, the
the officers of the U.S.Navy appropriate. In these terms, for elample, though they are not are as"professionalized" as medical doctors, even widely considered toconstitute a profession.
be divided in two The professions ingovernment may conveniently and the classes: First are those in fieldsemployed both in the public
private sectors and for whomthe government must competein both recruitment
professions," in- and retention. This category, which I shallcall "general law, medi- cludes most of the callingscommonly understood asprofessions:
I also include among cine, engineering, architecture,and many others. Second are them applied scientists ingeneral and college professors.
by governmental those employed predominantlyand sometimes exclusively of these agencies, which I shall call"public service professions." Most
to the needs of public programs, were generatedwithin government in response
and although there has been atendency in the directionof increased pri-
employers. vate employment for manyof them, governments arestill predominant
employed exclusively by They fall in two classes: first, those which are
officers, Coast a single agencysuch as militaryofficers, Foreign Service of different govern- Guard officers; and second,those employed by a number
mental jurisdictions, such asschool teachers,educational administrators,
social workers, public healthofficers, foresters,agricultural scientists,
librarians. 15
Mbst of those listed above in both categories may bedescribed as
"established professions" in the sense that they are widely recognized qua professions and, with only a few exceptions, their status has been legiti- mized by formal state action through licensing, credentialling, commissioning, or recognition of educational accreditation.
In addition to these, there are a large number of"emergent professions" which have not been so recognized and legitimized but which are valiantly and hopefully pulling themselves up by their vocational bootstraps to full professional status. In the "emergent" and "general" group are included, for example, specialists in personnel, public relations, computer technology, recreation, financial management, purchasing, etc. 101mergent" in the
"public service" category are governmental sub-divisions of all of these and some which are more exclusively governmental: assessors, police, penologists, employment security officers, air pollution specialists, etc.
Some Consequences of Professionalism for Public Agencies
Observation of a number of those public organizations in which an
individual profession has gained acceptance as providing the basic skills
necessary to agency purposes suggests certaingeneralizations about the
relationship between professionalism and agency administration. In general,
these consequences are more consistent where the profession is well estab-
lished, and most of them apply whether it is a general or a public service
profession.
In the first place, the profession has staked out the organizational
territory in the appropriate agency over which it claims effective suzerainty.
It has identified those positions which are decisive with regard to agency
leadership and has established the minimal professional standards for boundary lines (or, perhaps more filling them. It has identified the them vigorously, often accurately, boundaryzones) of its claim and defends
the boundaries arecontiguous by trying to extendthem. More often than not, boundaries, with that of the organizationitself. Within those territorial Thus, in the total it resists outsideintervention and interference. from control and framework of government, itstendency is centrifUgal--away the legislature influence from central staffagencies, the chief executive, of organi- as a whole, andthe public in general. The close identification loyalty, and the dependence zation with professionstrengthens the bond, the
and its dominant pro- of professional memberstoward both the organization
the years, a processof mutual fession. There has typically been, over and professional adjustment between organizationalgoals and activities
continues and quickens attitudes, skills, and content,and this process
situation of rapid develop- in a social context ofchange and a professional
ment of knowledge. constituted Secondly, members ofthe profession withinthe agency have
themselves an elite withsubstantial control overall agency operations, policies, and high significant and perhapsdecisive influence over agency
It should be prestige within the agencyand often, also,outside of it.
a singlespecialized Observed that in no sizableand complex organization can
assistance and participationby group operateentirely by itself without Usually there must be personnel who are not membersof that group.
administrative, clerical, custodial,labor, and sub-professional-technical
organizations, there are usuallyalso support. In large and medium-sized
contributing to the work ofthe agency. What- memt, of other professions professions is in society atlarge, ever the socialstanding of these other
in relation to the within the agency it almostalways is second or below 17
elite profession. In numbers, the elite may constitute atiny minority of all enployees of the organization--as psychiatristsin mental hospitals, public health doctors in loeal healthdepartments, officers in the Depart-
ment of the Army, and Foreign Service Officersin the Department of State.
Within the elite group itself is likelyto develop a spirit of mutual
support and collegial administration, the topranking professionals view
their roles, and are viewed, as representatives ofthe interests of the
entire elite group rather than as commanders. Toward others in the organi-
zation, not members of the elite, their posture is moreoften somewhat
distant and polite, paternalistic, sometimesdefensive and even hostile if
the outside group is offering a challenge.
A third consequence of professionalismwithin public agencies is the
drive toward self-government, withparticular emphasis upon personnel
administration. That is, the elite corps seeks control overpersonnel
standards, policies, and individual actions relatingto its members and
dominant influence over personnel policies andactions governing non-elite
personnel who might compete with the members. This phenomenon is most
obvious in those agencies whose elites areestablished by law outside of
any generalized civilservice system--as the various branches ofmilitary
officers, the Foreign Service, the Coast Guard,the national public health
officers. But it is also evident in civil serviceagencies where, in
effect, the decisions about personnel have beendelegated to the profes-
sional elites within the agencies.Among the general and established
professions, decision-making about initial appointmentsis performed by
the various state licensing boards, themselveslargely controlled by the
professional organizations. And among both the general and public service
professions, the institutions of higher education play asubstantial role accreditation, andfaculty recom- through the processesof degree-granting,
activities of civilservice in recruitingand mendations. The historic importance in selectionof competitive examinations areof diminishing
places, and for agood many positions,they professionals. In a good many
have vanished. of professionalismto be mentioned The fourth(and final) consequence
elites to assuretheir nembers the here is the driveof professional
of careers withintheir agencies. opportunities, advancement,and protecticns
and its degreeand/or the licensing Once past the gatesof the university professionals in the agency,the examination and/orselection by senior working life in the agency recruit may be confidentthat he can spend his compete for the upperlevel and can advance tojourneyman level and can
positionsassuming, of course,that he performssatisfactorily in in the agency. accordance with thestandards and ethosof the profession
rely primarily upondirect recruit- Most of theprofessionalized agencies advancement upon thebasis of ment from the collegesand universities, ratings, and protectionfran seniority and sometimesalso efficiency Career systems ofpersonnel competition with outsiders(lateral entry). of strong administration appear tobe normal andexpectable consequences
dominant in agencies. This is true and continuingprofessional elites, laws.Among the whether or not theagencies are governedby civil service
of career systems maybe mentioned: common attributesand consequences and its members; a high degreeof interdependencebetween the system feelings by memberspartly strong identificationand loyalty competing because it represents a mergerbetween the otherwise loyalties of organizationand profession;
emphasis upon rank inthe man rather thanin position; system members emphasis upon status--asdifferentiating career ranks within thesystem; and outsiders andalso differentiating 19
stability, continuity and conservatism(with respect to changes in the system but not necessarilychange outside of it orpolitical change);
emphasis upon the approved normsand standards of the careersystem, which of course include professional normswithin the agency.
These four tendencies then maybe considered common, evennormal, for professional and professionalizingagencies: territorial control and accompanying centrifugal pull fromcentral government; elitiam; self- government; and careeriam. The depiction presented aboveis over- simplified and, for purposes of emphasis,somewhat exaggerated. It is improbable that any professionallydominated agency in Americangovernment would present an "idealtype" in all these respects, although Isuspect that a few are well down the road. In a rapidly developingand changing society, there are countervailingforces working against theestablishment of professionally dominated agencyfiefdoms. Some of these are discussed in the paragraphs which follow.
Common Trends and Problemsof the Professions
Although every profession isdifferent and to some extent unique,the
examination of several of them,operating in widely diversefields, suggests
that most if not all of them areparallel in their directions ofdevelopment
and the problems which they arefacing. I shall in this sectionundertake
to identify and describe some ofthese directions and problems,with
particular emphasis upon those relevantto the conduct of Americangovernment.
(The impact of these directions and problems uponprofessional education
is reserved for a laterchapter.)
It appears that the very factorsand forces which have given riseto
the accelerating growth ofprofessionalism and to the proliferationof pro-
fessional specialties are fomentingthe major problems of the professions, 20
both the ancient and the newly established ones. These include; the accelerating changes in social structure andinstitutions; the rapid growth in individual income and with it thegrowth in education; the accelerating range and depth of knowledgeaccompanying the burst of science; theincreasing specialization both of knowledge andof work activIty; thechanging.of value systems in the direction of knowledge andintellectual competence and away from property and incomecompetence. The professions, like other institutions, once established and recognized, areconservative. They seek to preserve their prerogatives, theirmonopolies, in given areas of activity.A, profession carves out, defines,legitimizes, perhaps legalizes a sphere of action in whichit possesses unique tools and knowledgewith which to operate.But then, with rapid social change,the nature of the problems change; with rapid technologicalchange, the nature of the relevant tools and knowledge change; with rapid scientificdevelopment, the requisite knowledge both widens and deepens. Perhaps most important of all, as understandings of problems of both a physical andsocial nature broaden, it becomes increasingly clear that solutionsdepend upon no single set of
methods, no narrow body of knowledge, butrequire contributions from a
number of perspectives and with a varietyof tools. They are inter-
disciplinary and inter-professional.The professional credential of afew
decades ago, or a few years ago, or sometimes even afew months ago can
become obsolescent if not totally obsolete. Thus the very bursts of
knowledge and specialization which have givenrise to most of our profes-
sions are also sources of the principal challengesto their continuing
effectiveness and integrity. 21
Changing Problemsand/or. Understandings About Them the situation in Probably every professionhas faced or is facing
initially designed to copehas which the subject matterwith which it was from objective altered more or less radically.Partly this has resulted
knowledge relevant changes in society; partly,from enlarged scientific of to such subject matter;partly, from changingpopular understandings
public programs--could what society--eitherthrough private enterprise or words cancer, and should do in certain areas. Not too long ago, the and a trip syphilis, and contraception wereverboten in polite society,
older profes- to the moon wasscience-fiction.Probably every one of the is sions has had to shiftits sights, and for someof them such shifting
the field of publichealth a continuous process.A dramatic example is initial objective-- which, through its owngreat success in its primary
brought about the elimination of communicabledisease--might well have has virtually its demise. Over the course ofthe past two decades, it chronic disease, research, revolutionized its orientationin the direction of for environmental healt14 individual care,preventive health measures, care
with a great the indigent and aged,etc. Architects must now be concerned military officers are deal more than the designof individual buildings; technology in virtually still struggling with theinvasion of a vast new activity; so are doctors, all e their traditionallyrather simple fields of
bulk of their time inindividual a decliningminority of whom spend the to the extended bedside care of the sick. Psychiatrists, long oriented
analysis and treatment ofindividual patients"on the couch," now manage
asylums" and a vast those enormous institutions onceknown as "insane
array of mentalhealth clinics. directions of the pro- The examples of shiftingproblems and shifting
virtually all the fields fessions are almost endlessand must comprehend
that few of the new conceived of as professional. And it should be noted
within,the traditional public programs are directedto, or can be accomplished War confines of any singleprofession. (For example, the Peace Corps, the crime con- on Poverty,foreign aid, desegregation,air and water pollution, professionswere initially trol.) If, as I believe, the bulkof our modern
developed to operate in someidentifiable problem area, allof them have
mission and in their had to make major adjustmentsin their view of their
tools to meet them; and formost of them, suchadjusting must be a
virtually continuous process.
The Maintenance ofBoundaries definition, has staked Every well establishedprofession, by its own
claims exclusive pre- out a territory of activityin which it hopefUlly
boundary lines may be pro- rogative to trespass. Their minimum or inner
beyond a boundary zone, tected by law, but almostalways there is an area
perhaps to assure the in which the professionseeks hegemony, partly
inviolability of its innerboundary. The maintenance ofthe inner boundaries
of frequent, in and the occupancy of theboundary zones are the sources
different but contiguous pro- some cases,continuous warfare: as between and social welfare; fessions (e.g., medicine andpsychiatry; public health
and "generalist" military and foreignservice); as between professionals
administrators (most governmentsand businesses offerabundant examples);
(likewise illustrated in a and as between professionsand politicians
great many governments). 23
knowledge AiAinst some of thesechallenges, the growthof specialized
to understand, letalone and of the accompanyingincapacity of the layman
in defending andextending their cope with it,strengthens theprofessions who would compete isat an in- inner boundaries. The amateur practitioner administrator finds itharder and creasing disadvantage;the generalist subordinates; and thepolitician harder to direct andsupervise professional
professional decisions. Indeed, is increasinglydisadvantaged to contest becomeother things beingequalthat so one-sidedwould these contests of specialized one can imaginethat the logicalconclusion of the development society, governed by a"pro- knowledge would be aprofessionally dominated
fessional state."
compensating directions. It But the growth ofknowledge also works in problems and of their sources, increases our awarenessof social and physical with them. And, as and it also increases ourreadiness and ability to cope disdain indicated above, theproblems themselves asthey become understood FUrthermore, the accustomed occupational andspecialized boundaries.
based, are increasingly scierces upon which mostof the professions are true among the physical inter-locked and interdependent. This is obviously the other, and to an sciences on one hand and amongthe social sciences on Few izofessions increasing extent between thesocial and physicalsciences. physical, any more can longer claim abase in a singlescience, social or exclusive mastery of anymajor than can any single sciencelonger claim an
problem area, social orphysical.
their boundaries of social In confronting thesedual challengesto number of problems and of scientificdevelopmentthe professions pursue a
First, they may hire or con- different courses, singly orin combination.
professions outside of or tract for the use of otherknowledges and other 24
far as, and as beyond their own immediateboundaries, thus maintaining as which has long as, they can ultimate powerand control in the territory
historically been their own. Thus have the militaryofficers maintained
of scientists and hegemony whilst utilizingthe specialized competences
professionals in a variety offields;.the foresters haveemployed engineers
employed sanitary engi- and agriculturists; thepublic health officers have and neers and dentists;and the prison wardenshave employed sociologists
psychologists; etc.
Second, they may enterwith other kinds ofspecialists on a cooperative
problems in the boundary and approximately equal basisin the treatment of
great variety zone. This is the "team" approach. It is exemplified in a physicist, an of fields: in scientific researchand development wherein a problem; or astronomer, an engineer, a chemistwork together on a common
by a pathologist, in a medical case or researchproblem involving participation or problem anatomist, nutritionist, andneurologist; in a mental health case psychologist, and involving a psychiatrist, apsyChiatric social worker, a
calling upon the knowledgeand a physicaltherapist; or an urban problem, political talents of an urban economist, ademographer, an engineer, and a
specialist, analyst; or a foreignaffairs problem requiring acountry political The examples an anthropologist, aninternational economist, and alinguist. appears are legion invirtually every field,And the usage of such teams
to be growing. challenge of broadening The third strategy ofprofessions in meeting the boundaries of their own knowledge and broadeningproblems is to widen the foundation of activities. This means taking in,at their base, a broader activity and responsi- knowledge and in theiroperations a broader range of
with other professions bility. The process ofassimilation in competition 25
the may be difficult andhighly competitive.As will be discussed below, ensuing digestion can be mostdisruptive, even destructive ofthe unity and integrity of the professionitself.
Intra-Professional Fission
The broadening of knowledgeat the base of a izofession,together
with the widening of the boundariesof its legitimate and more orless
exclusive operation has had aninevitably fissiparous effect uponthe
cohesion and community of theprofession as a whole. Individual groups
of professionals, whose work isfocussed on common problems that are
distinct from the general profession as awhole and is based on a partic-
ular sector of knowledge andscience, develop a sub-communityof interest
and association. And as suchsub-identity grows stronger, the tiesto the
broader parent profession weaken.The very process ofspecialization--of
knowledge and activity--which gaverise to the professions in thefirst
place, as it carries furtherforces sub-division intoprofessional segments
and sub-segments. Each sub-field is likely,to some extent, to attract
different kinds of recruits, togenerate its own system of valuesand
perspectives as well as its distinctivetechniques, further weakening the
sense of identitywith the larger parent Drofession. In some instances,
this leads to an open breakbetween the segment and the largerprofession,
or a new linkageof a segment with some otherprofessional or scientific
field; in others, to a situationwherein the larger profession becomes a
loose confederation ofspecialized principalities, each withits own in-
terests and boundaries and sometimesin continuinp warfare with oneanother.
This process of fission isperhap3 best illustrated by theolder and
larger professions such asmedicine and engineering. The original division in engineering was that betweenmilitary and civil, which occurred more than a century and a half ago. Arecent count of engineeringspecializations showed more than twenty different ones. There is no comprehensive engi- neering organization which commandsmembership of more than a smallnumber
of fields, and there are morethan one hundred differentengineering organi-
medical zations. In medicine, although thereis a strong comprehensive
organization (the AMA) at least inthe viewof the public, there are a
vast array of sub-specialtiesand sub-sub-specialties, eachwith its own
organizational expression.A recent study of this processof fission in
the field of nedicine identified alarge variety of elements inwhich each 6 sub-field was distinguished fromthe others and was more orless unique:
its unique mission distinctive work activities nethodology and techniques clients colleagueship--esprit de corps interests and associations(professional organizations)
But engineering and medicine areonly well developed examplesof a
phenomenon which is common amongvirtually all the professions. And the
process of fission is inall probability acceleratingduring our current
years with therapid advances in research andthe depth of scientific the view knowledge across the entirefrontier. It is worthy of note that
those who are of professions as cohesive,single entities persists among
outside them, and they can continueto exercise social andpolitical in-
fluence as long as they canmaintain the appearance(or illusion) of
internal unity.
Process," The Anerican 6Rae Bucher and AnselmStrauss, "Professions in
Journal of Sociology, Vol. LXVI(January 1961), pp.325.334. Viewed as vocational communities,the professions seem surprisingly similar to other kinds of communities in oursocial and political environment. They are sub-divided, sub-grouped,forming alliances and blocks, sometimes affiliating with groupsoutside the profession.Most of the sub-groups and the individualmembers of a profession havt astake in maintaining some degree of unityin order to advance theirrecognition and influence upon society. There is thus a continuingstruggle betwten
centripetal and centrifugal forces withineach profession, more or less
comparable to that so frequently remarkedin government. There is a con-
tinuing striving for a basis of unity whichwill tie the many strands
together, yet maintain a clear distinctivenessfrom other professional
to groups. There is a search for a commonbasis in doctrine, acceptable
all but not so genPralized asto be meaningless.And there is a search for
a common, central coreof knowledge and technique.
Some Impacts of Science
It appears to be widely believed--andin the main it is probably
true--that the professions are based upon scientific knowledge or,more
specifically, the application of scienceto the problems of societyand
havt the its members. "Engineering, medicine, and law, in different ways,
function of taking the abstractions ofscience (or other systematic n7 knowledge) and applying them to the concreteand practical affairs of men.
The scient;fin basis of theprofessions is less evident in theirhistory
and development. The classic professions of themiddle ages--clergy, law,
and medicine--developed beforethere was much science to go on,although
7Don K. Price, The ScientificEstate (Cambridge:Harvard University
Press, 1965), p. 122. 28
each had some foundation of"systematic knowledge," or at least systematized belief. Training for most of the early professionsconsisted in apprentice- ship, whereby the wisdom of experience could bepassed along to the neophytes.
Even some of the newer professions got under waybefore there was much sci- entific knowledge applicable to their activities--such asagriculture or forestry or public health--but it is true that amongtheir founders there vas a faith that scientific basescould be developed, and they soughtat an early stage to initiate research for that purpose.It is also true that, as they developed andbecame more sophisticated, research and thedevelop- ment of relevant knowledge proceeded, oftensponsored and conducted by
arms of the professionsthemselves. The history of professionaldevelop- ment was generally a progress away from the rulesof experience, rules of
thuMb, to rules from the laboratory and othersystematic research.
The mushrooming of scientific investigationin recent decades has
greatly complicated the problems of theprofessions. In the first place,
it is increasingly difficult to keep up withthe pace. A profession has
difficulty keeping within shooting range of thefrontiers of knowledge
relevant to its practice. Their translation and integrationinto the codes
of professional practice become a greaterand greater challenge. It is
complicated by the fact that science is becomingincreasingly inter-
disciplinary. A good deal of research, probablymost of it, is carried on
by others than those oriented to theprofessions themselves, and much of
it is not performed for the purposes orproblems of the professions.Yet
it may have the highest relevance to theiractivities. Virtually every
profession is today dependent upon scientificknowledge deriving from a
considerable variety of fields orinterdisciplinary combinations thereof. 29
This of course raises serious problems in the educational preparation of new professionals: haw to pack into their few years of formal instruc- tion all the knowledge which they will need. But the problem is greater for
the practitioner a few or many or a great many years after he has completed his professional education. Even were he an exceptionally able student,
he may find that the knowledge, the orientation, and the methodology that
he acquired in college, are out of date a decade following this graduation;
by the time he has reached the "peak" of his career--say at ages 45-60
years, he may be completely by-passed.The pace of development of relevant
knowledge varies widely among different professional pursuits, but in all
it is significant and increasingly so.
It now seems clear that most professionals and indeed most single pro-
fessions are unable to obtain and maintain a mastery over all the technologies
and all the knowledge necessary to complete effectiveness in the performance
of their activities. This has given rise to a variety of devices whereby
such sciences and technologies can be utilized without loss to the profes-
sion of its ultimate hegemony in its field.These have included: admission
to semi- or full-professional status of some trained in other requisite
areas; employment on temporary or consultant bases of specialists; special
training courses for selected members of the profession in other fields;
attempts at the universities to introduce courses from other fields into
the regular professional curricula; and many others.Many such devices have
the effect, in some degree, of.lessening the self-sufficiency and autonomy
of the profession within its traditional boundaries, and of reducing the
autonomy--or claims to autonomy--of its individual members to make decisions
within that field. 30
The Pressure for"Upgrading" faith in, the idea In a society so longdedicated to, and with such
that a fundamental facetof of change and progress,it is not surprising
should be the pressurefor the philosophy ofoccupational communities individual members and change in the directionof betterment for their themselves looked upon prospective members as well asof the communities
has not always beenthe case of as integralunits. This, it may be noted, The grand- occupational groups and theirorganizational expressions. including the parents of a good manyof our presentoccupational groups, dedicated not to change professions, were themedieval guilds, which wre
status 3E2. In a society so but to the maintenanceand protection of the hardly maintain its characterized by rapiddevelopment, an institution can
The only way tostand still relative status quo withoutitself developing.
upward is to climb. in a situation whereeverything else is moving restless Within most of theprofessions, there seemsto be a continuing, to as "upgrading." pressure for whatis often somewhatambiguously referred is similarly a pressure And within many of thoseoccupational fields, there
recognized as a profession. The for upgrading in thedirection of being
different connotations, word is itself a catch-all,carrying a variety of Most generally, but these are seen asrelated and mutuallyself-supporting.
which the occupationis held upgrading refers to thestanding and esteem in associated with it andthis in society--or at least amongpersons closely
of the occupation. It of course applies to theindividual practitioners of applies also in some, butnot all cases, tothe income-commanding power Indeed, its most the profession, itsstrength in the labormarket-place. reclassification upward literal meaning, in civilservice terminology, is
of standards ofprofessional to higher-salaried grades. It means the raising 31
education, of entrance, and of performance, and enforcing suchstandards with increasing strictness. It means, in a scientized society, becoming moreand more scientific, rational, andobjective, It means attracting better and better recruits into the profession; developing andenforcing codes of ethics; eliminating amateurs; and divorce from politics.
The effects of the ceaseless pressure for upgrading arepervasive, not least in the realm of education for the professions, and someof them will be discussed later. I should like here to mention two tendenciesto which upgrading has contributed. One is the development of sub-professions, sup- porting occupations to perform the essential work, which liesbelow the
threshold of full professional caliber.As demands for services in the
various professional fields rise, and as the supply offully accredited pro-
fessionals is restricted by ever-rising standards andqualifications, others
must be found and trained to perform the tasks of lesserdifficulty which
do not require the high skills and knowledge of the trueprofessional.And
soon the sub-professions are on the"upgrading" track themselves, seeking
recognition as true professionals.Thus the doctors delegated to the
nurses, and the nurses after gaining the standingof a profession, delegated
to practical nurses and nursing aides. The engineers and architects have
their technicians, surveyors, draftsmen (andothers), the accountants their
bookkeepers, the lawyers their clerks, the dentists their dentaltechnicians,
and the Foreign Service officers the Foreign Service staff.
A second consequence of upgrading--and of related causes--isthe
generational strain it is putting upon the idea of career, which is itself
so central to the idea of profession. A progressive professional career is
traditionally associated with the assumption that a person's competence
increases as he gains experience--i.e., as he becomes older.But with 32
recruits, the standards and qualificationsconstantly rising for the new
older practitioners becomedecreasingly qualified unlessthey take heroic
professional field, measures to keep upto date. In a rapidly developing
competence between ages 25and a practitioner maybe at the peak of his Experience 35; by the time he reazhes50, he may be totallyobsolete.
in many becomes positively disqualifying. This accelerating tendency
in rela- fields is giving rise to rethinkingabout professional education
about a very sub- tion to experience and theolder man, and may well bring
stantial shift of emphasis in thefuture.
preaLEEtion. and Managpment
We have noted above thatthe mushrooming of scienceand technology is
both in absorbing creating growing problems forthe established professions,
and keeping up with changescentral to their own fieldsand in relating
hegemony with other themselves effectively andwithout loss in status and
arise from the development technologies. Somewhat similar kinds of problems
of organizations and theiremployment of professionals. It has already
employed, and been ncted that the vastmajority of professionals are so
associated with bureaucracies that the values, orientations,and disciplines
Here I should liketo may not be congruentwith those of the professions. and emphasize another facet of the sametrend. In government particularly,
probably to an increasingextent in private business,the leadership of
men--i.e., men administrative organizations isexercised by professional
but not trained for the kinds of workperformed within organizations
of large specifically for the managementof that wrk. A recent survey
businesses revealed that abouthalf of their directors wtreeducated, not
And we have seen in business administration,but in engineering.
1: 33
above that a growing proportion offederal, state, and localadminis- trators were professionally trained menin fields other thanpubli6 . or business administration.
Government, Politics, and theProfessions
Historically as well as contemporaneously,the professions and
governments are interdependent in a greatnumber of ways. Governments
are, or were:
the founders or initial sources of demandfor many professions
the legitimizers of all those which havebeen legitimized
protectors of the autonomy, integrity,monopoly, and standards of those which have such protections
the principal supporters of theirresearch and of that of the sciences upon which they depend
the subsidizers of much of theireducation
among their principalemployers and the nearly exclusiveemployers of some of them; and this means
among the principal utilizersof their knowledge and skills.
For their part, the professions:
contribute to government a very substantialproportion of public servants
provide most of the leadership in aconsiderable majority of public agencies
through their educational programs,examinations, accreditation, and licensing, very largely determine whatthe content of each pro- fession is in terms of knowledge,skills, and work
influence public policy and the definitionof public purpose in those many fields withinwhich they operate
in varying degree and in different waysprovide or control the recruit- ment, selection and otherpersonnel actions for their members
shape the structure as well as thesocial organization of many public agencies. 34
organization of a good many Furthermore, one of theprimary reasons for the
in the political realm. professional associations wasto exercise influence
removing the profession But usually this pressure wasin the direction of
and bestowing uponthe from the operations ofgeneral or ampolitics sovereign powers of thestate professional organizationitself some of the
exceptions--most conspicuously for its self-regulation.With one or two professions and general law--there is a built-inaversion between the
Its origin is (as distinguished fromintra-professional) politics. the public service historical: most of the professions,and particularly good many arduous yearsto category, won theirprofessional spurs over a domination, and the the extent they could escapethe infiltration, the by definition influence of politicians(who, to most professionals, are
Compare, for example,the amateurs at best and corrupt onesat worst).
city manager and evolution of the military,diplomatic, social welfare,
has contemporarysupports. Pro- like fields. The aversion to politics science, and upon fessionalism rests uponspecialized knowledge, upon and of doing rationality. There are correct waysof solving problems elections, votes, things. Politics is seen asconstituting negotiation, Politics is to compromises--all carried onby subject-matteramateurs.
expediency to rightness, as the professions asambiguity to truth, as
agnosticism to true belief. than politics in the Government as a whole comesoff not much better
the "general" ones. In the first eyes of mostprofessions, particularly Secondly, it violates place, it carries thepolitical taint bydefinition.
attributes and myths oftlue profes- or threatens someof the treasured autonomy and freedomfrom sionalism individual and professional individual clients; "bureaucratic" control; serviceto, and fees from, 35
vocational self-government.Among those general professions ofwhose members large numbers are employedprivately, pre-service education usually treats government(insofar as it is mentioned at all) as an outside agency with or against which onemust deal. This seers to be true of most (but not all) educationin law, engineering, accounting,
and some other business fields, upon allof which government is heavily
dependent. It is also true of medicine andmost of its sub-specialties.
Even in many public serviceprofessions, there is a considerableaversion
to government in general and topolitics--which may be another wordfor
the same thing. Government is acceptable in thoseparticular areas in
which the specified profession hasdominant control; but beyond those
perineters, it is equated with"politics" and "bureaucracy" in their more
invidious senses.
The ImortsRe of Higher Education
Over the long pull, the mostdominating impact upon the professional
public services will be that of theuniversitiestheir professional
schools, their departnents in the physical andsocial sciences which pro-
duce professionals, and their faculties ingeneral. Higher education,
particularly in the professional fields,produces the bulk of future pro-
fessionals. By their images, and bytheir impressions upon undergraduates,
the schools have a great influence uponwhat kinds of young people--of
wbat quality, what interests, whatvalues--opt for wbat fields. It is
clear too that they influence thechoices of students among employers--
whether government or other, and whichjurisdictions and agencies of
government. By their curricula, theirfaculties, their teaching, they
define the content of each differentspecialism and the expectations and 36
aspirations of the students in each.These students will of coursein- clude the principal operators ingovernment tomorrow and theprincipal leaders day after tomorrow.
In most professional fields,governments have accepted, without much question or knowledge, the academicdefinition of content and theacademic criteria of qualification and merit. Most governments, like other employers, rely upon accreditation: that the graduate has earned his sheepskin in an accredited institution.Accreditation itself is normally based upon a review and approval of agiven school's program by a com- mittee of a larger organization composedof, or dominated by,profespional
educators in the same field. It reflects a consensus amongacademics in
a given field asto the minimal curricular and facultyrequirements
preparatory for practice in that field.My impression is thatin most
fields accreditation and high academicstanding (grade pointaverage) are
Where more important togovernmental employers than professionallicenses.
registration has been provided in only afew states or in none atall=4-'
such as social work, or cityplanning, or librarianship--accreditationand
grades become almost the solecriteria. Aecreditation is sometimes a re-
quirement for licensing. Where government employers have anysignificant
choice among candidates for jobs inthe recognized professions,their
reliance is placed upon(1) whether they come from accreditedschools,
(2) their grade point averages, (3) therecommendations of professors.All
three are of course academic determinants.
In the main, governments haveyielded to the universities and profes-
sional educators the significantinfluences, the criteria, and the choices
about public employment. Few of our larger governmental units give any
competitive examinations on substancei.e.,knowledge and skill--for 37
candidates inprofessional fields. They leave it largely to the universities to determine what knowledges and skills are appropriateand who, among the graduating students, are deserving of appointment. In a few fields, they also rely upon licensing examinations, themselvescontrolled by practitioners outside of govtrnment.And among the agencies dominated by an elite professional corps, personnelderdsions are largely dictated by the corps.
It is interesting, in this connection,to note that the Congress as recently as 2944, reaffirmed in the Veterans'Preference Act its long- standing suspicion of formal academic qualificationsfor civil service jobs:
No minimum educational requirementwill be prescribed in any civil service examination except for such scientific,technical, or pro- fessional positions the duties of which the CivilService Commission decides cannot be performed by a person who doesnot have such edu- cation. (Section 5)
But the Civil Service has since exceptedfrom this caveat about ninety dif-
ferent occupations which comprehend virtually allthe established profes-
sional fields, a great many emergent professionsincluding some that are
exclusive to government, and most of the natural,life, and social sci-
entists. The omissions from the Civil Serviceexceptions are more
conspicuous than the exceptions themselves. Lawyers are of course omitted
since they are not under Civil Service anyway. Occupations in administrative
fields, such as budgeters, personnel specialists,purchasing officers, tax
administrators, accountants, and administrativtofficers are not excepted.
Urban planners, but no other planners, areexcepted. None of the fields
normally considered among the humanities at universitiesis excepted, among
the social sciences, political science, publicadministration, and history
are conspicuous in not beingexcepted from the Congressional fiat. 38
(Anthropologists, economists, psychologists, and sociologists are all excepted.) The normal mode of entrance for those in non-excepted fields is the highly competitive Federal Service Entrance Examination. In the excepted fields, entrance is normally made without written examination.
It hinges on a review of the college record, recommendations of professors, and, for higher level positions, experience.
For better or worse--or better and worse--mt-lh of our governmentis now in the hands of professionals(including scientists). And the choice of these professionals, the content of their work and their skills, and their values and aspirations are now principally determined, not by general governmental agencies, but by their own professional elites, professional organizations, and the institutions and faculties of higher education. It is unlikely that the trend toward professionalism in or outside of govern- ment will soon be slowed or reversed.But the educational process through which the professionals are produced and later refreshed(in continuing educational programs) can be studied and changed. 39
II
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND PROBLEMS
The explosive growth of the professions during thetwentieth century and particularly in recent years was of course supported and evenmade possible by a similarly explosive growth in professional education. The institutions of professional education stand in a pivotal position with respect to the development of professions.On the one hand, they may be
viewed as a response to social demands for certain kinds of occupational
services and also a response to growing knowledge in fieldsrelevant to
those services--knowledge which to a considerable degree they generate
themselves. On the other hand, they are shapers of the professions. The
very existence of professional training in a newfield is a significant
symbol of the existence of a new profession. They recruit and select the
professionals of the future; they weed out the unfit, they largely deter-
mine through their curricular content the depth and breadth of knowledge
upon which the profession uill be based and,to a varying extent, what
the content of professional work will be; they play a key role in the
process of socialization of the newprofessionals--their orientation to the
field and to the world in general, their values, standards, ethics; through
their research, they contribute to the growth of both knowledge and technique;
and they provide the principal linkage between the professionsand the aca-
demic fields of scholarship and learning, particularly in the natural and
social sciences. They provide major inputs to other scientific enterprises
in the way of problems and experience and major outlets for newdiscoveries
whereby they can be put to practical use and benefit in the life of mankind.
Each profession has its own unique history, and there is an abundance
of studies and reports on the development of education in the various fields. 4o
It is not my intent to review these or tosummarize them into a history 1 of professional education. Rather, I shall limit these remarks to a few general observations that seem most relevantto the development of the publ-c service.Many of our current problems grow out offorces and trends and conflicts from the past.
The Antecedents
The recent burgeoning of professionaleducation in this country is in historical terms a sudden development. In comparison with the nations of
Western Europe, especially Germany and France, the UnitedStates was relatively slow and backward in this regard until the turnof the twentieth century. The early colonial colleges, modeled to some extent upontheir
British forebears, Oxford and Cambridge, were heavilyoriented toward and to some extent dominated by the churches, and theircurricula consisted primarily of classics, classical languages, philosophy, andtheology.
This general pattern of emphasis persisted forthe most part until after the Civil War and it was multiplied during early andmid-nineteenth century by the tremendous increase in small, private, oftendenominational colleges.
At the beginning, the American colonies relied almostexclusively upon
immigrant professionals, educated in the old country--then principallythe
clergy, law, and medicine. Later American young men from the upper classes
went to Europe for their professional education in law and medicine. This
1 For histories in the major professional fields as well as summary
statements, see Lloyd E. Blauch, ed., Education for the Professions
(Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1955); and Nelson B. Henry,
ed., Education for the ProfessionsThe Sixty-First Yearbook of the National
Society for the Study of Education, Part II (Chicago:University of Chicago
Press, 1962). practice continued into the nineteenth century. Thus, seventeen per cent of the professionals appointed to executive positions by Thomas Jefferson
2 were educated in Europe, principally in Britain, Scotland, and France.
Later in the century substantial nuMbers of Americans went to Germany for training in technical and scientific fields.
The domestic production of professionals began with apprenticeship-- young men working under the immediate guidance of accomplishedpractitioners for periods of years. Later, in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, to the apprentice system was added the proprietary professional school, sometimes an outgrowth of clusterings of apprentices (such as the
Litchfield Law School in Connecticut) with increasingly formalized and didactic instruction. Professional education under the apprentice system was low-level and even primitive according to modern standards. There was little association with science, with systemacdc knowledge above the vocational and day-to-day experience standard.And the standards of the proprietary schools in most fields were not much higher. The egalitarian
ideology associated with Andrew Jackson and his followers provided a hostile
climate for specialized education for the professions. (Jackson himself,
virtually uneducated, won his political spurs as a lawyer and prosecuting
attorney; on the other hand, he warmly advocated college education for
youngmen.)3But the main points about apprenticeship and proprietary
school training for the professions during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries are: (1) their orientation was essentially vocational, and their
vality, in terms of dApth of knowledge, was low; (2) with a few notable
2 Sidney H. Aronson, Status and Einpla in the Higher Civil Service
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), p. 131.
3 Ibid., pp. 138-39. 42
exceptions, they were not based upon, or even associated with, science or its advancement; (3) they were outside the mainstream of highereducation in the nation, most of which was classical and humanistic anddisdainful both of science and of vocational education.
The last point above--the separation of professionaltraining from the mainstream of higher education--deserves some emphasis, for it wasthe source of some of the principal problems ofprofessional education today.
Until well after the Civil War, the vast majority of Americancolleges resisted with the utmost stubbornness the intrusion of vocational, or otherwise "useful" subject matter in their curricula. Their mission was to produce moral and cultured gentlemen and ladies, well grounded in the
classics and philosophy.Representative statements of purpose, drawn from 4 college catalogues circa 1875, were:
"The aim has been to so combine the classics, sciences, and elements of learning as to bring out in natural order and in harmcnious proportions, the different faculties of the mind, and to so care for the moral and physical culture of the stu- dente as to secure symmetrical character." (Cornell College)
"The object of the Institution being to afford literary, moral and religious instruction to its students, and to inculcate
habits of punctuality and self-control. . . ." (Earlham College)
The inhospitable attitudes of the colleges forced the developmentof
vocationally oriented training programs in special, proprietary schools,
not generally esteemed as educational institutions, and in operating pro-
fessional organizations themselves--law offices, hospitals, libraries,etc.
The separate development of professional education was for many years
a favorite target of educational criticsand reformers.Woodrow Wilson,
in 1893, referred to it as "an acute symptom of the diseaseof specialization 401r=1.1.erys.. Both quotations derived from Earl J. McGrath and Charles H. Russell,
Are Iliberal Arts Colleges Becoming Professional Schools? (New York: Teachers
College, Columbia University, 1958), p. 4. 43
by which we are now so sorely afflicted. . . . Knowledge must be kept
get must together. . The Liberal education that our professional men not only be antecedent to their technicaltraining; it must also "Ne con- current with it.115 Alfred North Whitehead in 1929 wrote that: "The solution which I am urging, is to eradicate the fataldisconnection of subjects which kills the vitality of our modern curriculum.There is only u6 one subject-matter for education,and that is Life in all its manifestations.
The unification of vocational and general education was acentral theme of the leaders of the progressive education movement. "Of all the dualisms
[ADDhnl Dewey attached none was more crucial to hisview of progressivism 7 than the ancient divorce between culture and vocation. Though Dewey and
most of his fellow progressivists were directing mostof their attention to
elementary and secondary education, the argument could be, and to some
extent was, applied to higher education.As late as 1958, McGrath and
Russell stated that: "The divorce of liberal and professional education
has been an immense educational and social blunder. The separation has
damaged both.H8 The development of American universities over thepast
century--and, indeed of thc colleges themselves--has witnessedthe return
5 I!Should an Antecedent Liberal Education be Required of Students inLaw,
Medicine) and Theology?" in National Education Society ofthe United States,
proseedineof the International Comuss of Education(New York: 1893),
pp. 116-117.
6The Aims of Education and Other Essays(New York: The Macmillan
Company), p. 10.
7Lawrence A. Cremin, The Transformation of the School,progressivism
in American Education, 121:1227 (New York: Vintage Books) 1964), p. 124.
8 Ibid., p. 15. 1+4
of professional education toward the mainstreamof higher education, but
the return has been neither complete nor wholly comfortableand friendly.
And this use of the word "return" is perhaps a littlestretched. The
departure had occurred two to three centuries earlier,but it may be
recalled that the medieval universities in Europe, includingGreat
Britain, were primarily professional schools for theonly professions which
then existed--the clergy, law, medicine, and to someextent, the higher
civil service.
Three major developments in the second half of thenineteenth century
had fundamental influence on the subsequent development of professional
education in the United States. One was the passage of the Morrill Act in
the midst of the Civil War which provided impetus for a host of landgrant
state universities, dedicated in part or in toto to education in"agri-
culture and the mechanic arts."The Morrill Act gave expression to the
ethos of the nation: equality of opportunity so that most wto qualified
could gain higher education; faith in knowledge, rationality, and research
to solve the problems of society; emphasis upon practicality--the study
and teaching of subjects which would be helpful in carrying out tasks in
agriculture and industry; and a heavy orientation to economic considerations
in the subject matter of education. The Morrill Act and the federal and
state actions which followed it gave emphasis to the vocational aspects of
higher education; they thus opposed the tendencies to that date,which were
quite plainly anti-vocational in their main emphases. They contributed
little immediately to the development of sUence in the universities except
at a rather superficial end applied level.But over time, they provided
institutional bases for scientific development and nexi between the sci-
ences and professional occvpations. The Morrill Act and the subsequent developments for which it was the fuse were sui generis American for
American education, for Anerican politics and government, and for American
society.
The second major influence on American professional education in the
latter part of the nineteenth cmtury derived from the European, principally
German, emphasis upon science and research and the development of the German
universities as institutions for the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge,
free of ideological, religious, or political bias and influence. Substantial
numbers of American scholars studied in Germany during the middle and later
nineteenth century, and they returned with elevated and different standards
of knowledge in the various fields of learning, particularly in science.
The effects of German influence on American higher education were quite
different from those of the Morrill Act. They included the emergence of
science and research in the higher education scene; the reawakening of
scholarships; the Ph.D. degree, first at Yale (in 1860), later and more
importantly at Johns Hopkins (beginning in 1876), which was to become the
"union card" for the Drofession of college-level teaching. They also in-
cluded profound institutional changes: a tremendous proliferation of
subject matter fields and courses; the development of the American style
of "university," being a mix, which is not fully digested to this day, of
the older American patterns of general education of the colleges, the
vocational orientation of the land grant schools and the emphasis from
Germany upon science and research. They further included profound changes
in teaching method--the elective system, the seminar, the lecture, the
laboratory and the emphasis on research.
A third major influence on higher and professional education was the
development, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, of the high 46
school, especially the public high school. Earlier, the bulk of college
students entered with little more than an elementary school preparation.
Many of the colleges established their own academies to provide at least
basic preparatory instruction for college entrance, and it is probable that
a good part of the materials taught in the colleges,especially the land
grant institutions, were at a level we would today expect to be handled in
the high schools. The early high school curricula varied from one to four
years, and most high schools were considered essentially ascollege
preparatory; they were not terminal programs. "In 1870, for example, eight
out of ten high sch.,o1 graduates entered college, where six of them received
degrees; there were more than twice as many college graduates in the country
as there were people with high school diplomas only. In the years fol-
lowing 1880, the four-year high school grew at geometric rates. By 1920,
the number of high school graduates who went on to college fell to about
25 per cent. In short, high school graduation had become terminal for the
majority of students. But at the same timt, the educational attainment of
those who did proceed to college was greatly improved.And this made
possible the elevation of the level of college instruction. To a very sub-
stantial degree, the rapid growth in the depth and the extent and the
nuMbers that has occurred in higher education since about 1880 has been made
possible by the emergence of the high school.
The.Twentieth CerAug: Professional Education Comes of Age
With the growing support of the high schools, and under the not
altogether parallel stimuli of scientism, a la the German universities, and
9Grant Venn, Man, Education and Work: teltritEssamVocational and
Technical Education, American Council on Education (Washington, D.C.: 1964),
p. 46. vocationalism, a la the Morrill Act,professional education burgeoned and
For assumed its present shape duringthe first decades of thiscentury. the most part, this shape wasthe seni-independentprofessional school on
reflected--and it also con- a university campus. But this development
ditioned--some very much larger trendsin American society andculture.
This was the era of progressivismin politics and of theparallel movement
It in the field of education alsodescribed by the word progressive.
witnessed the blossoming of faith inrationality, applied science, and
Scientific progress. Then was the first vision ofthe Great Society.
management flourished in industryand government as didconservationism and
a variety of newapplied sciences in agricultureand on the countryside.
Under the onslaught of socialoptimism and rationality, thebastions
of traditionalism, theeducational institutions, had toyield some ground,
though they did not do so withoutstubborn opposition. Vocationalism
penetrated not alone the universitiesbut also the traditionalliberal
1917 arts colleges and even thepublic schools. The Smith-Hughes Act of
finally brought Federal aid forvocational training below the college
brought it to the level, a full half centuryafter the Morrill Act had
education programs began universities. Professional and pre-professional
to appear in the curriculaof even the most conservativefour-year liberal 10 arts colleges, a movementwhich has continued to thisday. The general
preparation of our view that the educationalsystem should aim toward the
young people for theirworking lives as well as, orinstead of, preparing
them for a cultured life, tookhold at all levels. The acceptance of pro-
fessional training on college anduniversity campuses--even withouttheir
10 McGrath and Russell in1958 wrote that %arely a handful ofcolleges"
have escaped such a change, andthey cite St. Johns College inMaryland as
the outstanding exception. 911. cit., p. 12. 48
complete absorption--was spotty,sporadic, often reluctant. But it was inexorable and resulted in a situationin which the bulk of higher edu- cation, undergraduate and graduate, wasin fact directed to thepreparation of young people for working careers.That is, higher education became pro- fessional. The early drive towardidentifying education and its insti- tutions with work and with currentsocial problems was in some places more spectacular thanit is today. In 1899, the Universityof Chicago, to then only six years old, established acollege of commerce and politics deal, among other things, with"the principal economic, social and poli- ull tical problems which confront theleading nations of the world. Amd
Chicago, of all places, engaged Dr.Edmund J. James as Professorof Public
Administration, the first such title,to my knowledge, in thehistory of
the United States.During the same period, the Universityof Wisconsin
inaugurated its program of total serviceto the State and to society. Its
President, Charles Van Hisedeclared in 1905: "I shall never be content
until the beneficent influenceof the University reaches everyfamily in "12 the state. This is my ideal of a stateuniversity. And Wisconsin
blazed new trails in its extension programin agricultural and urbanaffairs,
its various programs of socialreform, its support of tradeunionism, and
first of this its institutional economics. During the same decade, the
century, the most venerableeducational institution in thecountry) Harvard,
was debating a proposalfor a professional school totrain diplomats and
civil servants. The discussions resultedeventually, in 1910, in the Harvard
11 Edmund J. James) "CommercialEducation," thirteenth of tAe Monographs
on Education in theUnited States, ed. by Nicholas MurrayButler, Louisiana
Purchase Exposition Company, J. B. Lyon Co.(Albany, N.Y.: 1899), pp. 40-41.
12 Cremin, 92. cit., p. 165. 49
School of Business, the change infocus resulting primarilybecause of 13 doubts of career possibilities in thediplomatic and civil services.
The invasion of professionaleducation upon university campusesbegan in earnest at about the same time--thatis, about 1900. As late as 1895,
Nicholas Murray Butler wrote thatthe only two professional schoolsof
"university rank" in the United States were Harvardin law and Johns
14 being Hopkins in medicine. But the groundwork for profound changes was laid through the development of sciences,both physical and social, which would provide a more systematicfoundation of knowledge for theexisting professions--then mainly medicine and law--aswell as a basis for pro- fessionalizing a number of vocations thatpreviously had little claim to professional status. The late nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries-- until about World War I--witnessed rapidchange and development of pro-
fessional education toward the patternsthat continue to exist today.Among the significant developments were:
1. the accelerated growth ofprofessional schools on university campuses where they were to some degree associatedwith the arts and sciences and, with it, the gradual elimination ofreliance upon apprenticeship and pro- prietary schools. Apprenticeship training wasbuilt in to professional preparation in some fields, but onlyafter or in association with academic instruction. Virtually all basic professionaleducation in most fields is now carried on atuniversities, and most of it requires workat least to the level of the bachelor's dearee;
2. the birth of a number of professions, andtheir spawning ground was the university campus.As Frederick:Rudolph has written: "The flowering American university took what werevocations and turned them into
./Imemalarril 13 Frank C. Pierson and others, The Educationof American Businessmen
(New York: McGraw Bill Book Co., Inc.,1959), p. 38. 14 In his introduction to the Americanversion of Friedrich Paulsen,
German Universities: Their Character and HistoricalRatiopaeL_at (New York,
Macmillan Co.: 1895), p. xxv. 50
915 professions; the old distinctions would be lost inthe process. Although in some cases there had been earlieruniversity initiative, a large number of professions really came of age between1900 and 1922. They included:
accounting, though begun as a university-level disciplineat the Wharton School in 1881; the number of universitycurricula in accounting grew from 7 in 1900 to 135 in 1921;
forestry, begun at Cornell in 1898 and Yale in 1900,there were by 1914 24 schools of forestry;
journalism, though four universities offered professional programsin journalism before 1900, the first School ofJournalism was established in 1908 at the University of Missouri;
nursing, previously taught almost entirely by schoolsoperated by hospitals, courses leading to the baccalaureatedegree were introduced by 1916 in a small number of collegesand universities;
optometry, previously taught almost entirely at privatetraining clinics, the first university program was opened at Columbiain 1910;
public health, begun earlier in courses in medicalschools, comprehensive programs began circa 1910;
social work, systematic training began during the first yearsof this century at some privately organized schools, some ofwhich were associated with a university;
teaching, earlier confined to normal schools belaw thecollege level, after 1900 high-school diplomas began to berequired; later many of them became degree-grantingteacher's colleges, and still later, full-fledged general colleges.
3. the reform and upgrading of standards ofprofessional education in the older fields as well as the newer ones. Most spectacular were the tremendous changes and improvements in medical education grawingout of the famous study by Abraham Flexner in1910.16But similar efforts were proceeding on various fronts in law and engineering. In fact, all the professions gave increasing emphasis to the problems of raising standardsin general and eliminating or at least substantially reducing the numbersqualifying for professional practice who could not meet the minimum levelof quali- fication--a level which tended to rise. The devices for raising educational
15 The American College and University: A History (New York: Random
House, 1962), p. 343. 16 Medical Education in the United States and Canada, Apeport to the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching(Bulletin No. 4). 51
standards were many: curricular revision and increasing thelength of educational programs; increasingincorporation of scientific subjects, offered by regular university departments,into professional curricula; raising the qualifications of professors;developing advanced degrees up to the Ph.D. in some fields to improveteaching and encourage research; requiring ever stiffening examinationsfor professional licenses; the development of accreditation proceduresfor professional schools; and organizing associations on professionaleducation in the various fields.
These three trends--the developmentof professional schools onUni- versity campuses, the upgrading ofvocations to professions, and theraising of professional standards have continuedto this day, though somewhat
sporadically and unevenly. The twenties and thirtieswitnessed the de- velopment to professional or nearprofessional status of a numberof the
public service professions, usuallythrough or accompanied by,the develop-
ment of specialized educational programsat universities--social work,city
management, city planning, diplomacy.The fifties and sixties weremarked
by the tremendous growth of knowledgeand discovery in the sciences,
particularly the physical ones, and amushrooming demand for applied sci-
entists and other professionals whoseactivities are based on scientific
knowledge and methodology. So there has been a new spurt in new pro-
fessions in the scientific fields and ofincreasing scientific substance
in the older fields.
The Public Service Professions. The development of educationfor the
professions employed predominantly orexclusively by governments has ol-
lowed somewhat distinctive courses. One may identify four principal
patterns. In a few specialized fields forwhich there was clearly no
relevant educational preparation inestablished institutions and over
which the public agency desired directcontrol, the agency has established
a government institutionin-house. The best known examples of this arethe
military academies.West Point, established in1802 by the War Department
primarily for training in engineering, wasprobably the first professional 52
school in the nation outside the ancient professions oflaw, medicine, and the ministry. Forty-three years later, the Navy emulated the Army at
Annapolis.Following the establishment of the independent AAr Forcein
1947, one of its first undertakings was the inauguration of itsAcademy at Colorado Springs, planning for which had been underway for some years prior to the separation of the Air Force.The separate academy had become, not alone a tool for professional training andorientaticr', but also an
essential symbol of professional status. Each of the services, as well as the Defense Department as a whole, has developed alarge number of in-
service schools for officer training at various stages of careerdevelopment.
There are a few examples of non-military in-houseeducational institutions--
the Coast Guord Academy, the Foreign Service Institute, and agreat variety
of special in-service training programs which areintended to contribute
to professional competence. In some fields, substantial nuMbers of the
professionals are in fact trained within governmental facilities. Thus,
the majority of psychiatrists today are trained in mentalhospitals (fol-
lowing a regular medical education).The same applies to many nurses and
social workers. In the main, however, and outside ofthe military field,
American governments have tended to turn to outside sourcesfor the profes-
sionsl training of their recruits.
A second pattern was to encourage, persuade,and otherwise induce out-
side institutions, usually the universities, to set up programsresponsive
to governmental needs, or to modify existing programs.The inducements
sometimes included financial grants, donation of qualifiedgovernmental
personnel as teachers, assistance in providing teachingmaterial, fellow-
ships to students in particular fields, and assurances ofgovernmental
employment of graduates. Illustrations of various ingenious devices 53
abound in a great many fields inrecent.years--doctors and other spe-
cialists for the military services,scientific programs of a varietyof
The kinds, NDEA fellowships, area programsat some institutions, etc.
development of the various fieldsgrouIed under the rubric"agricultural
science" was one of the products of theMorrill Act and the land-grant
boost colleges. The profession of forestryreceived its greatest initial
in consequence of GiffordPinchot's persuasion of Yale Universityto set
up a forestryschool (with the added inducementof a substantial bequest
research grants and con- from Pinchot's father). In the last two decades,
tracts to professional schools andscientific fields have hadthe indirect rv, effect of producing new specialtiesand new specialists some ormost of
whom will later be employed bygovernment.
A third device has beentraining contracts withinstitutions,usually
universities or under the widening canopyof universities, to prepare per-
sons for new kinds oftasks for which qualifiedspecialists are not avail-
able on the labor market. Contractual arrangements have usuallybeen used
to develop new specialties orcross-specialties within establishedfields
or crossing the boundariesof different fields, often forexperienced personnel
within agencies. Examples are abundant, especiallyin recent years in the
sciences, in the health fields, in agreat many aspects of militaryadministra-
tion. A current example is thecontracts made by the federal governmentwith
several universities in1966 for year-long training courses to developquali-
fied staff for the Planning-Programming-BudgetingSystem (PPBS), which may
well produce a new kind ofprofession for public management.
Finally, I would mention thosepublic service professions which were
developed outside the government bycitizens and educators of vision and
initiative who saw a governmental need, wereacquainted with the resources 514.
e knowledge and method applicable to it, and wereconvinced that it was or could be made teachable. The initiative as well as the resources forde- veloping education for a number of professions andspecialties have COAB from outside the government.Among them might be included city planning, city management, and in a sense the entire field of publicadministration together with many of its sub-fields.
It appears that, at least until quite recently andin a few of the more esoteric scientific fields,education for the public service profes- sions has traveled a rockier and slower road than thattraversed by the general professions. Despite the early pleadings of Washington and
Jefferson for a national university, there has alwaysbeen reluctance to establish central, national educational facilities, even whereconfined to specific specialized fields (except for the militaryprofessions).As late as 1962, President Kennedy feared that aproposal for a national foreign affairs college would draw dawn on his head the wrath of allthe university and college presidents in the United States. The state universities and the legislatures which provide their funds havelong been most responsive
to the demands of private gToups which commanded someelectoral support,
and therefore those fields which were quite directly andvisibly related
to interests outside government itself.Those fields whose development
could claim clear-cut benefit to important sectors ofthe public--such as
education and agriculture in mid-nineteenth century--fared somewhatbetter.
But for most, professional education lagged behind boththe need, usually
perceived at least by some, and the knowledge and technique. Very probably,
this remains the case today. The popular and the educational bias against
what I have designated public service professions is reflected in the fact
that few of them are generally recognized as professions at all and that 55
educate for--some there exists so obvious aneed to professionalize--and
status, such as property that now have only limitedclaim to professional assessment, police,pollution control, and manyothers. needs that are specifically The relativeunresponsiveness to educational heavily upon experi- governmental has compelledgovernment agencies to rely extent by formal ence gained onthe job, supplementedto a rather limited
this experientialdevelop- in-service training. In the majority of cases, bachelor's degree or ment is built upon aneducational foundation of a hopefully is, a relevant higher in some fieldwhich appears to be, and of the public basis for the type ofwork involved. This is why so many
service professions fallinto the group I havelabeled "emergent." profes- The Growth ofProfessional Education. The rapid growth of the
and made possible by sions, described in ChapterI, was of course supported
It has been part and the accompanying growth inpr.)fessional education.
United States, particu- parcel of the mushrooming ofhigher education in the professionalism is larly in the last twenty. years. But the full impact of To an not completely reflected inthe growth in theprofessional schools.
students in liberal increasing degree,undergraduates as well as graduate
for professional arts are majoring in subjectsintended to prepare them
careers--that is, their schoolingis in some degreevocationally oriented.
natural and biological sci- This is probably largelytrue of those in the
sciences, and even partlytrue ences, substantiallytrue of those in social century, in the liberal of those in the humanities. Since the turn of the
arts fields there has been a veryrapid increase of students,faculties,
decline in the and courses in the ,socialand physical sciencesa relative religion, and humanities such as English,foreign languages, philosophy,
At the graduate fine arts--staples ofthe classical liberalarts college. 56
level, it is very probele that moststudents are "professional" whatever their field, in the sense that they arepreparing themselves for a career, even if it be teaching orresearch.
The statistical data greatlyunderstate the vocational orientation because so very many persons preparingthemselves for teaching in ele- mentary and secondary schools aretoday majoring in subject-matterfields other than education. This is a recent trend in theeducational field which is growing rapidly, and itsinfluence can be estimated only roughly. Thus, in 1966, about 201,000 collegestudents completed their certificaterequire- ments for teaching; of these 125,000qualified in specific subjects-- 17 other than education itself--incollege. This was just about double the number of bachelor's and firstprofessional degrees estimated inthe field 18 of education for that year. Very substantial proportionsof those
gaining degrees were apparently preparingthemselves for teaching, particu-
larly in the more traditional liberalarts fields. Thus, the teaching
certificates in English were about halfall those who graduated in English;
the certificates in art, industrialarts, music, and speech were neartwo-
thirds the graduates in fine arts;the certificates in foreign languages
were nearly half thefirst degrees in foreign languages;and the certi-
ficates in social sciences were aboutone-quarter the first degrees in
social sciences. The relationship betweenbachelor's degrees and teaching
certificates is cloudy, partly because somedo not gain their certificates
17 As reported by the Research Divisionof the National Education
Association in the NEA Research BulletinsV. 44, Vb. 4 (Dec.,1966), p. 118. 18 By the Department of Health,Education and Welfare, Office of Education,
in the Projections of EducationalStatistics to4E11E1(Washington: U.S.
Superintendent of Documents,1965), p. 22. 57
until they reach the Master'sdegree level. But it is clear that very substantial numbers of collegestudents in the most traditionalliberal arts subjects are preparingthemselves for careers ofteaching.
universities has Thus, the onslaught ofprofessional education on the
schools and also been a product of theburgeoning,avowedly professional
The vigor of the of vocationalism in thetraditional academic disciplines. onslaught is reflected in thepercentages below of the resident degree-credit
students of age 18.21 years and18-24 years to the population of those 19 ages:
Percentages...2f Resident Degree- Year Ending.: Credit Students to Population
1870 1.7 1.1 188o 2.7 1.6 1890 3.0 1.8 1900 4.o 2.3 1910 5.1 2.9 1920 8.1 4.7 1930 12.4 7.2 1940 15.6 9.1 1950 29.6 17.0 1960* 34.9 20.5 1962* 36.4 22.0 1963* 38.1 23.3
* First term enrollment only.
between 18 and 21 years In 1963, nearly two outof five of our young people
24 was in were in college, andnearly one in four ofthose between 18 and
proportions of both age groupsshown above college. Between 1900 and today, the
who were degree students inhigher education increased bynearly ten times.
19 Drawn from U.S. Departmentof Health, Education and Welfare,Office
of Education, Digest, ofEducational Statistics(Washington: U.S. Superintendent
of Documents,1965). 58
emphasized by comparisonwith higher This extraordinarygrowth may be
"developed" nations ofthe world. According education in some ofthe other 20 Education in GreatBritain, the United to the RcUinsReport on Higher
than any other inthe proportionof States stoodsubstantially higher normal entering age,usually by students and graduatesto population of
more than twoto one: Percentage of Age Percentage of AgeGroup EnteringHigher Only Group Completing Education 1958-9,Full-Time Courses Higher Education Courses of British All Levels Degree Level All Levels
9 5 France 7 4 4 7 Germany 9.8 Great Britain 4.5 7.7 6 4 Netherlands 3 12 7 Sweden 10 year) 30 17 U.S.A. 20 (Junior 5 7 U.S.S,R. 5 professional educationin the The availablestatistical record on desired and presents agood deal to United States leaves agood deal to be
of the Commissionerof Education for be doubted.According to the report professional schools(presumably 1890, there were.then30,000 enrolled in colleges anduniversities), some, most orall were notassociated with in colleges anduniversities, 15,600 enrolled inprofessional departments
institutions of154,000.Professional and a totalenrollment at all one-third of totalenrollments enrollments were thussomething less than institutions of higherlearning above high school. By 1965,enrollments at
found any breakdownbetween pro- exceeded five million,but I have not However, an indicationof the fessional andnon-professional programs.
20 Minister under the Report of theCommittee appointedby the Prime Office (London: Chairmanship of LordRobbins, BerMajesty's Stationery
1963), pp. 42, 44, 59
in recent years. shift in emphasis is indicatedby the degrees conferred
In 1963-64, of a total of461,000 first degrees conferred(in most cases,
first professional the four-yearbachelor's) 260,000, 57 per cent, were
degrees in avowedly professional programs,i.e., programs normally
schools or colleges, governed by separate,semi-autonomous departments, 21 outside the liberal artscurricula. tremendous growth in Over the past century,the greater part of the The swing has higher education has beenin clearly professionalfields.
less, depending been from one-third or less(and perhaps very considerably of upon one'sinterpretation of the cloudyfigures of the Commisdioner growth, and the Education) to very nearly two-thirds. The rapidity of the
relationship between professionaland non-professionaleducational programs
both exogenous to higher have fluctuated widely. Two principal factors,
education itself, have been warand the business cycle.Wars have
pronounced occasioned deep dips in highereducation in general, especially
But in those fields such asengineering and law in which menpredominate.
in which women the wartime dips have beenpartially compensated in fields
nursing, librarianship, are significantparticipants--such as education, Following the wars, social work, and to alesser degree, the humanities.
accentuated in there has been a tremendous upcurgein higher education,
and the sciences. those fields in which menpredominate, buch as engineering
accentuated by the GI Bill, and This was most markedfollowing World War II,
somewhat less so following theKorean War. There is some indication
periods (though I am still searching the datato confirm it) that, during
21 Department of Health, Educationand Welfare, Office ofEducation,
Earned Degrees Conferred1963-64 Oitualingtm: Superintendent of Documents,
1965). 60
of prosperity and relativeaffluence, general,non-vocational education grows more rapidlythan professional education, asin the twenties and
vocationally the current decade of thesixties. Conversely, professional,
and limited oriented training gains relativelyduring periods of depression employment. boom Over-all the recent trend hasbeen plain. There was a tremendous in higher education in allfields following World War IIwhich reached its
the Korean peak in 1950. This was followed by arather sharp drop during most period. Since then there has been asteady and persistent increase, pronounced in the natural andsocial sciences and a fewof the professions.
(See Figure I).
Figure I
Recent and Projected Growthof Earned Degrees:*
Earned Degrees Percentage Growth
(Thousands)
1965-66 to 1955-56 1965-66 1975-76 1955-56 to (EsLL (Est.) 1965-66 1975-76
Bachelor's and 74 74 First Professional 311 540 938
114 87 Masters 59 126 235 100 106 Doctors --2. 18 37 81 77 All Degrees 379 684 1210
* Based upon Projections ofEducational Statistics to1975-76, U.S. Department of Health, Educationand Welfare, Office ofEducation, 1966, Table XVII.
professional, and The greater part of highereducation today is clearly
professional in more than half isin schools andcolleges which are avowedly character and purpose. Fewer than one-thirdof all bachelor's degrees are
and, as indicated granted to majors in thehumanities and social sciences, At above, a good many of these areaimed toward professionalpractice.
and humanities account the level of master'sdegrees, the social sciences for one-fifth, and at thedoctor's level, a little morethan one-quarter.
in the natural sciences In contrast, degreesof professional schools or 70 per cent; at comprise, at the bachelor's orfirst professional level,
level 73 per cent. the master's level,80 per cent; and at the doctoral
Curiously, the proportion ofdegrees in avowedlyprofessional fields
except at the to all graduates has beendeclining for the last decade, doctoral level, and 'be Officeof Educatiun predicts acontinuing relative
rise in both the decline. (See Figure II.) This reflects a more rapid Very natural and social sciences aswell as a rise in tbehumanities.
probably, a good part of theshift results from thechanging emphasis of
teacher-training from education as aprofession to subject matterfields.
noted earlier that duringperiods It probably alsoreflects tbe probability to programs of general of prosperity increasingnumbers of students aspire it education rather thanprofessional education. Most of all, I surmise,
construed by reflects a swing to the sciences,physical and social, both Though many students assuitable diving platformsfor professional careers. dominance of the there may be some decline,relatively, in the numerical
professional schools, I doubt adrop in the professional(or, in lower case,
vocational) aspirations of college anduniversity students.
recent and probably There has, however, beenwide disparity in the
Some have grown and future development amongdifferent professionalfields.
modestly; a few have not grownat are growingtremendously; some are growing
all or are actuallydeclining. (See Figure III.) The hard sciences, 62
Figure II
Proportions of Degrees in MajorEducational Groupings, 1955-6, 1965-6 (est.) and 1975-6(est.)*
1955-56 1965-66 1975-76
Bachelors and 1st Percentages** Professional
Professions 67.1 56.7 44.8 Nat. Sciences 9.7 12.5 16.9 Soc. Sciences 14.4 18.8 22.8 Humanities 8.8 12.0 15.5 Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0
Masters (Except 1st Professional) Professions 76.8 66.4 56.8 Nat. Sciences 7.7 12.9 17.3 Soc. Sciences 9.2 12.2 14.8 Humanities 6.3 8.5 11.1 Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0
Doctors (Except 1st Professional)
Professions 34.1 37.2 38.4 Vat. Sciences 35.3 34.9 30.9 Soc. Sciences 21.2 18.6 22.4 Humanities 9.4 9.3 8.3 Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0
*Based upon Propctions ofEducational Statistics to1975-76, U.S. Depart- ment of Health, Education, andWelfare, Office of Education,1966. I have grouped the categories as follows:
Professions: Engineering, Agriculture and Forestry, HealthProfessions (dentistry, medicine, osteopathy, nursing, optometry,pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine, andothers), Fine Arts (architecture, music, speech and drama) andothers), Education, Library Sciences, Social Work, Business, Home Economics,Law, Military, Naval, Theology, and others. Natural Sciences: Mathematics and Statistics, Physical Sciences,Bio- logical Sciences, and Science, General Program. Social Sciences: Psychology, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, International Relations, PoliticalScience, Public Adminis- tration, Sociology, and others. Humanities: English, Journalimn, Foreign Languages,Philosophy, and Religion. 63
Figure II (Continued)
Some of these groupings areclearly inaccurate. They are forced by the classifications of the data. It is hoped that the errorsroughly balance one another. Thus, the inclusion of art,music and home economics in the professions is a bit doubtful, especiallyat the bachelor's level. On the other hand, the inclusion ofjournalism in the humanities and allof psychology, economics, and public administrationin the social sciences, distinct from the professions is equallyquestionable. And clearly a very large proportion of students in all thenatural sciences are in fact undergoing professional preparation.
** The totals may not equal onehundred due to rounding. 64
Figure III*
Earned First Degrees Fields, 1952-53 and1962-63 Recent Growth of SelectedAcademic and Professional
Numbers of Earned Degrees Growth Rates of Growth 1952-53 1962-63
Rapidly Developing (100% or more) 287.0 Library Science 607 2,351 263.9 Mathematics 4,396 15,923 234.6 Social Work 919 3,075 138.7 Physics 2,005 4,785
Moderately Growing (20%-99%) 98.0 Biological Sciences 9,707 19,218 61.0 Accounting 7,371 11869 49.3 Nursing 4,371 6,526 48.4 Chemistry 5,943 8,822 43,9 Forestry 1,026 1,476 40.1 Public Administration 309 433 38.3 Engineering 24,189 33,458 Education 61,520 83,165 35.2 32.0 Military Sciences 1,666 2,199 25.5 Business and Commerce 33,335 41,815
Stable or Declining (19% or less)
8.7 Dentistry 2,935 3,191 8.1 Medicine 6,686 7,278 4,162 1.5 Pharmacy 4,100 -.83 Architecture 2,045 2,028 Veterinary Science 878 823 -6.3 -10.1 Law 11,329 10,181 -20.9 Public Health (doctors) 220 182 -41.2 Agriculture ..2.02 4 587
Total, All First Professional 38.4 Degrees 194,699 269,498
Total, All Other Bachelor's 64.5 Degrees 110,158 181,194
47.8 Total, All Fields 304,857 450,692
Department of Health, Based upon Earned DegreesConferred 1962-1963, U.S. Education and WariFF, U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, 1965. 65
At the including especially mathematics,have been growing enormously.
such as medicine, other end of the scale, someof the traditional fields,
and a few-- law, dentistry, and architecturehave been relatively stable, pharmacy, agriculture,optometry have declined.
professional education One further dbservationabout the development of
public, as distinct is that increasingly thecosts are being met through
the latter, are from private, institutions,and even where conducted in
through public funds. increasingly subsidized,directly or indirectly,
forestry, social This has been especiallytrue in some fields--such as hospitable to work, teaching, nursing--wherethe state universities were
demands and influence in the new types ofundertakings and responsive to has been political arena.More recently, thetrend toward public support
accentuated by the tremendousincreases in enrollments,which private
institutions are simply unableto meet, and by the rapidgrowth in costs
health professions, engi- per student,especially in medicine and other of neering, and the physical sciences. Increasingly, the preparation
professionals is a governmentalresponsibility.
in In short, highereducation is one of thegreatest growth industries
the United States today; and itis one upon which mostof the other growth
industries are dependent. In material orquantitative terms, professional
education has become thelargest part of highereducation, whether measured
numbers of dollars. in terms of numbers offaculty, numbers of students,
in and studies about It is surprising that, inall the recent disturbances
higher education, there hasbeen so little concernabout professional edu- To cation, so much about thearts, other humanities, andsocial sciences.
institutions a majorextent, our society andparticularly our governmental
scientific departments will depend upon theprofessional schools and the 66
which produce professionals--upon the kindsof students who enter profes- sional programs and the kinds of training andorientation they receive.
Yet these topics seem to have receivedrelatively little attention by those who would reform higher education.
Underlying Problems of ProfessionalEducation
The evolution of professionaleducation in universities, which has been summarized in the foregoing paragraphsphasgiven rise to a nudber of problems which appear to be common and generalizable amongell the fields.
The chapters which follow are in factaddressed primarily to problems.
Here I should like to point up some ofthe broader problems which underlie those of curricula, students, and faculty.
First, I would remind the reader of the generalproblems of the pro-
fessions themselves which we::e discussed inChapter I. Among them the
following have particular relevance to the problemsof professional
education:
intra-professional fission--to what extent and at whatstage should sub-specialization be recognized or encouraged in theeducational process?
professional boundaries and the spillover of problems--towhat extent should professional education invade the zonesbeyond the traditional boundaries of the profession? Wre.broadly, how shouldeducators define the content of the profession?
obsolescence--how should professional educators cope with theacceler- ating growth of knowledge relevant to theindividual professions? How should it be accommodated in the pre-careerprograms?How much emphasis should be given to continuing education?
organization and management--to what extent and at whatstage should professional education recognize and prepare students for managerial responsibilities which a great many of them will sub- sequently assume?
To these, I would add four types of problemsthat are more specific to the
educational process itself. emphasis which First is the triangularargument as to the relative
and the liberal should be placed upon thevoca.tional, the scientific, not alone arts (or generaleducation) subject matter. The problem besets liberal arts colleges the professional schoolsbut universities and even when Morrill as a whole, andit goes well back intothe nineteenth century
scientism first begantheir en- Act vocationalism andGerman Uhiversity focal croachment upon traditionalhumanism. The professional schools are
and very nearly by to the university-wideproblem, since by "history midst of what definition, they epitomizevocationalism, planted in the
Further, eadh profes- some like to thinkof as a commity ofscholars. The principal sional school must facethe problem within its ownconfines.
justification for their being onthe campuses at all isto take advantage
22 of the general liberal of relevant sciences and, to a lesser extent, the pressure and con- arts that are alreadythere. Over the long pull, vocationalism seems to sequent movement towardscience and away from pure
probably accelerating. have been substantial inalmost every field and is
the demands of thebooming It derives from theknowledge explosion itself, of many faculty industry of research anddevelopment, and the interests
themselves trained in members, particularlythe younger ones who were
by the practitioners, science. It is widely resistedin a good many fields turning out especially the older ones, whocomplain that the schools are
22 For example, a principal reasonfor the bringing ofmedical schools
be, proximity to the sci- to the campuses has longbeen, and continues to
medical educators in ences. I am told that astandard set by certain relevant sci- California is that the schoolshould not be removed from
entific laboratories by morethan seven minutes. 68
the graduates mnstthen go researchers rather thanpractitioners and that
learn the real substance through what amounts to anapprentice program to
later, the practitioners of professional practice.And, as will be noted toward scientism and to are not without weaponsto combat the tendency discipline the schools.
general education, In the contest amongvocationaliam, science, and
has run a rather weakthird in most my impressionis that the last-named Its principal proponents arethe of the four-yearundergraduate programs.
professional schools.The educators themselves,including some in the content of professional argument for increasingthe general education
practitioners and hiringorganizations, programs hasscattered support among Several recent and in some fields suchsupport appears to begrowing. professions have included studies of educationfor different individual social sciences and the recommendations for augmentingthe offerings in
humanities.23 stance and relation- A second educationalproblem is the ambivalent It arises from the ships of the professionalschools at the universities. outside of, and separate historic development ofprofessional training
The entry of theprofessional from,the mainstream ofhigher education.
is a substantialstep in schools on the campusesreflects an effort and professional schools the direction of thatmainstream. But most of the
their knees. Their are still onthe banks of thestream, or wet only to
in varying degreesoutside programs, theirstudents, their faculties are organizational the central foci of campuslife.There is a degree of
each other, of serving -distance, a problem on bothsides of relating to
23 See Chapter III. 69
of welding theircalenders, their and accommodatingto each other, And there is along tradition, procedures and the useof their resources. what the"proper" role deeply impressed upon someacademicians' minds, of
few humanists,professional edu- of higher educationis. For at least a less respectable. For some cation is of a lowerorder, less scholarly, training therefor--isof a scientists, professionalapplication--and the search for truthitself. A good lower order of humanactivity than the
the scientists,who may be lessthan many in both groups,the humanists and
to be superciliousabout professional friendly towardeach other, tend the business oftraining profes- education (even thoughthey are both in be described as oneof contempt sionals), and sometimestheir attitude may
professionals return thespirit in kind; and open hostility. Some of the
and "pure" scientistsbecause of their they are criticalof the humanists
in the world today,because of their con- alleged ignoringof real problems One senses thatthe finement to narrowdisciplinary specializations. accurately, all threesides) attitudes on bothsides (or, perhaps more present facts oflife on the are in goodpart defensive. But they are
campus. Side their JanUS: they face on one The professionalschools are like hire their graduates;on the other, professions and theorganizations which
its standards,aspirations, regu- they face the restof the university, They are at theutiversity but lations and bersonnel(including stUdents).
The position is adifficult one andoften not completely init or of it. strategic one which canbe--and I am sure a delicate one. But it is also a to the rest of theuniversity and in many cases is--ofgreat value, both school provides alinkage between to the societyoutside. The professional
occupational sector ofthe society and theknowledge an importantand esteemed 70
the appropriateplaces in theuniversity "factories."It can bring to experience and problemsfrom the realworld the informationderived from material for researchand study by both which may directand provide it may translatethe ideas and scientists and humanists.And, conversely,
into terms that areusable in profes- the findings ofthe academicians principal mechanismsfor putting new sional practice. It is one of our concepts and newknowledge to work. depends partly uponthe degree to The effectivenessof the mechanism above are brokenand partly upon which the universitybarriers mentioned practicing profession. This the relations ofthe school with its own between the brings me to a thirdeducational problem: the communications themselves, and theimpacts and professional schools andthe professions
To what extent arethe emerging the constraints thahave upon one another. communicated back problems and needs ofprofessionals in thewcrking world
they tooled into thecurricula? to the schools? Andto what extent are constrained, in thedevelopment Conversely, to whatextent are the schools
certification requirements of their programs, bylicensing examinations, agencies, etc.? Andwhich sectors and for the schoolsthemselves, hiring have most influence upon which points of viewwithin the profession paragraph of this these entrance gates intopractice?In the first education are chapter, I stated that theinstitutions of professional it seems that the"gate- "shapers of the professions."But in some fields the discretion ofthe keepers" of professionalpractice severely narrow
of variation in themethods, the degrees, educators. There is a good deal exerted on the professional and the directions ofinfluence and control that it is schools as a productof gatekeeping. But one might speculate professions such as law and most influential amongthe older established 71
i.e., resistant medicine, and that itseffects are generallyconservative: of professional to change in thetraditional criteriaand interpretations content. knowledge and theorientation that The final problemhas to do with the
to give, with regardto the larger professional educationgives, or fails work, with particularreference social co.12text withinyhich Erofessionals
into, or are alreadyin, the publicserviee. to those graduateswho willgo
first educationalproblem mentioned This is not simply arefinement of the
For those professionalswho above having to dowith general education.
the top of publichierarchies, reach influential"generalist" positions near education," at least incertain kinds of it would appearthat "general Particular attention subjects, is synonymouswith vocational education. this problem in relationto the will be given in thefollowing chapters to schools. curricula, the students,and the facultiesof the professional 72
CHAPTER III
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMSAND CURRICULA
and executivesin the The great bulk ofgovernmental professionals
least a college program,or are proximate future willhave completed at universities, or willdo so soon. currently studying inthe colleges and
or will bestudying"professional" The majority ofthem have been, or are, for a more orless sUbjects (in the broadersense ofhigher education future publicservice specific kind ofcareer). The quality of our the content ofthe curricula, and its leadershipwill dependheavily on:
of knowledge,skill and orientation which not aloneconditions the kinds
extent defineswhat the substance of the students,but to a considerable
the facultiesin the different of the individualprofessions will be; of theirinstruction and fields--the nature,quality and orientation numbers, counsel; the studentswho opt fordifferent fields--their
abilities, andorientations. undertake to reviewthese This chapter andthe two following with a focus upontheir three elements ofprofessional education At the outset,I emphasize significance for publicservice employment.
appraisal of professionaleducation that it does notattempt a general
require a bookshelfof volumes.Nor as a whole, atopic which would Rather it isgrounded in studies is it based upon anyoriginal research.
by others. This material is and books and essayswhich have been made undetermined degree,dated. not abundant, and someof it is, to an
of works abouteducation for There have been aconsiderable number self-studies made bypractitioners individual professions,most of them
Of the largenumber of studies of and teachers ofthose professions. 73
higher education, most have addressedthemselves to the liberal arts, not professional education. There have been a limited numberof works 1 of professional education as a whole. There have been almost none which focussed upon professional educationin its relation to the public
2 service. The principal conclusion of thesechapters may be stated in
advance: the available information on thislest topic suggests hypotheses
and hunches which should be of grave concernto those interested in the
improvement of the 'public service;but itspaucity and inadequacy are such
as to dictate further researchthat we may know wlere we are, wtere we are
going, and what actions may be taken toimprove the prospects.
It maybe postulated that whatprofessional students learn during their
education influences not alone theircapacity to operate in their respective
fields through the acquisition of knowledgeand experience, but also the
norms, values, styles theyassociate with their profession and theirview of
where that profession fits in thesociety. That is to say that professional
education (both pre-entry andmid-career) has a significant role in defining
ONIIIMMO14111111110111
1.Amongthese should certainly be included: Lloyd Blauch, Education
for the Professions (Washington Government Printing Office) and two works
by William J. McGlothlin, Patterns ofProfessional Education (N.Y., G.P.
Putnam's Sons, 1960); and The ProfessionalSchools (N.Y.: The Center for
Applied Research in Education, Inc.,1964).
2Almost the only example is the work. by LucilleBrown,.Lawvers, Law
Schools, and the Public Service(New York: Russell Sage Foundation,19)48). 74
are,.and what its relationships what a profession is,what its boundaries In turn, are to thoseelements of the environmentbeyond its boundaries. given field and at the nature and content ofprofessional education in any
different influences, among any given institution are aproduct of 8 number of which are:
history, including theorigins and development ofthe profession in question, the development ofeducation for the professionin general, and its prior developmentat the institutionitself;
institutional relationships ofthe professional program onthe campus;
licensing, registration, the organized professionitself, including its and accreditation processes;
the principal prospectiveemployers of theprogram's graduates;
the faculties of theprofessional programs, theircapacities, interests, values;
profession in the world, the students, theirabilities, views of the and ;articular interests.
and content of professional This chapter undertakesto describe the nature
some hypotheses educational programs and thetrends thereof; and it proposes
public service. with particular referencetoprofessionals wto are ded.tined for
Patterns of Professional Education
There is so much variationin the typical patternsof education for
leads one to believe they the various professionstoday that a quick overview
Most require a are the products of aseries of historical accidents. make-up of the four years minimum of four years ofcollege-level work, but the
beyond the bachelor's varies widely. Some extend one, two, or more years
begin at the freshmanlevel; somedon't degree. Some professional programs
formal;vstart until one has graduated. Some hav.e built-in intern or ap-
prentice programs; others do not. Some build specific pre-entry requirements 75
for specialized courses downinto the high school level; othero are remarkably permissive to thejunior year and even intograduate education.
While some of these differences mayberationally explained by the nature and difficulty of the subject matterand the extent to ytich eachprofession
rationale for has a scientific underpinning,this is hardly a satisfactory the array.A more acceptable explanationlies in the history of each field, for each has been to aconsiderable extent unique in itsdevelopment.
All have gone through.varying stagesin their progress fromapprenticeship
and the evidence to formal professionaleducation, as mentioned earlier,
suggests that the progress toward moreand higher-level educationis still
going on. In general, the older ones andthose more immediately dependent
upon science have thelonger curricular requirements,though there are
exceptions.
Figure I indicates the widevariety of patterns among thedifferent
degree to fields. There is also a good deal ofdiversity among them in the
which the general pattern isstandard and controlling. Some are quite
flexible, permitting a good dealof experimentation anddifference among
different schools. In many fields for which thebachelor's degree has
been the standard qualificationfor practicelvaster's programs aregrowing,
and in a few, professionaldoctor's degrees are becomingfairlywidespread.
Some programs at some schools includeinternship or apprentice periods. 76
Figure I 3 Typical Pre-ProfessionalEducational Patterns in Various Fields(in Years)
Undergraduate Graduate Other Total Typical Intern- Journey- men Liberal ship Profes- Arts or sional and Profes- Profes- Resi- Degrees Sciences sional sional dency 110011111=011
General Professions B.Arch. Architecture 5 5 4 BS Business Administration 2 2 6 DDS Dentistry 2 4 4 BS Engineering 4 6 LLB Law 3 1 2 4 11 MD Medicine 3 1 3 4 BS Nursing 4 8 Ph D Psychology 4 3 1 5-9 BA, MA, or Ph D Sciences (natural, 4 1-5 BS, MS, or Ph D biologic, and social)
Public Service Professions City Management 4 (or 4 in 1 5 MPA engineering) WA 6 MCP City Planning 4 2 BA or MA Diplomacy 4 1(optional) 4 or 5 Educational Admini- 7 .Ed.D. stration 4 3-5 4 BS Military 4 Public Administra- 5 WA tion 4 0 or l 6 MSW Social Welfare 4 2 Teaching 4 or 4 1 5 NIA
3This figure is largely based onmaterial contained in LloydB. Blauch, ed.,
1955) Education for the Professions(Washington: U.S. Gavernment Printing Office,
The Center for and William J. McGlothlin,The Professional Schools (New York:
ARlied Research in Education", Inc.,1964), p. 46. 77
It maybe recalled that invirtually all of the olderfields, professional education in theUnited States consistedof apprenticeship
education--at least to a or guidedexperience on a base of general professions minimal level of schooling. Those old, yell-established historically associated withcollege education--the"learned" professions
principal elements ofthe of law, medicine, andtheology, which were the century, to medieval European universitiestended,during the current
liberal education. build their professionalinstruction on top of a
Likewise, some of the newerfields, the leadershipof which consisted
dominantly of college-educatedpeople, built theirprofessional of the pUblic instruction at the graduate level. These included a number
service professions--social work,city planning, citymanagement,
librarianship, and, to anincreasing extent, diplomacy. In all of these
at the graduate fields in which the core ofprofessional education was
level, the pressure ofincreasing content ofprofessional sUbjects of encouraged the penetrationdownwardinto the undergraduate years of professional and pre-professionalsubjects, often at the expense
both the junior general arts and sciences. In some cases, the senior or
and senior years werevirtually lopped off. In others, formulation
professional school, subjects were made requisitesfor entry into the
concentration thus in effect enforcing somedegree of pre-professional
in the first years ofcollege and even in highschool. of those fields A second category ofprofessional education consists
latter nineteenth wtich raised themselves"by the bootstraps" during the vocation to that of and the twentieth centuriesfrom the status of
izedecessor practitioners werenot professions. In most cases, the a substitute college graduates, andprofessional education developed as for general education at thecollege level rather than as alayer on top of it. It maybe noted, too, that someof these were more or less lineal descendents of the MorrillAct--"agriculture and the mechanic
undergraduate arts". Basic education for theseprofessions remains at the level, though in most of them,additional work at the graduatelevel is becoming increasingly commonand even, in some places,required.
administration (and its They include: agriculture, engineering, business
(though with a standard sub-fields) forestry, nursing, architecture
teaching, 5-year undergraduatecurriculum), the military services, school include among others. In terms of nuMbers ofstudents and graduates, these
education and together comprehend by far thelargest fields of professional
a considerable majorityof all new professionals. Here, too, there
education, mostly has been increasing pressurefor more pre-professional Similarly in basic sciences, penetratingback into the high-schoollevel.
several of these fields have beenpushing toward making afive-year degree
or graduate degree astaple for journeyman professionalstatus.
A third category of professionsis the sciences, natural,biological
and social, which, by and large,have grown out of theuniversities
themselves.The rapid growth of knowledgein each has produced pressure
toward more and more concentration onspecialized scientific content
of scientific in the undergraduate major,creating a virtual monopoly
subjects in the junior andsenior years and penetratingin varying degree
all the way down to the freshman year.At the other end of the educational
stream too, it has contributed pressuretoward more training at the
clinical psychology and some graduate level. In some fields, such as
branches of physics andchemistry, a Ebel).has become virtually, even
legallmequisite for professionalpractice. 79
A main push over the yearshas been in the directionof lengthening
instruction in most fields. the periods of scientificand professional
number of pressures: This has been--and continuesto be--a response to a
professions themselves; the growth of thesubject-matter content of the
and relevant the growth of scientificknowledge (!onsidered necessary professional standards to professional practice;the demand for ever-rising
educational requirements in the technical sense;the association of high
with high social status andprestige: It is likely that in the past
by the the elevation of educationalrequirements has been encouraged the fashion of established professionals torestrict their nuMbers after
preserving their economic medieval guilds, thusstrengthening or at least
few fields (possibly position. This may be a motivatingfactor today in a the professions law); but the severe shortages ofqualified people in most of The leads one to doUbt thatit is now a very importantconsideration.
pressure forlengthening the scientificand specialized professional
courses hasoccasioned a number ofexpedients:
addition of graduate work tothe master and evendoctoral levels as (as in an increasingly"normal" requirement for better jobs teaching, business administration,engineering, diplomacy, educational administration)$
adding a year to the basicprogram--i.e., a five...yearbachelor's degree (as in architectureand some schools ofengineering);
levels of forcing some of the basicscientific courses into lower education, even the highschools through pre-entryrequirements (as in most of the scientific andtechnical fields and insocial welfare);
reducing or limiting thedevelopment of generaleducation courses (likewise illustrated in many scientificand technicalfields);
desirable developing post-entry, continuingeducation programs as 80
or requisite foradvancement up the career ladder(widely practiced among the public serviceprofessions, as in the elaborate school systems ofthe military services, in-service and university programs for theForeign Service, summer courses for schoolteachers, mid-career program forschool administrators--and the developing programsfor continuing education in most of the generalprofessions).
In spite of these pressures for moreand better content, the basic time structure and calendar forhigher education in the UnitedStates remains one of its most impermeable,change-resistant feature. The four-year liberal arts programlwith itslengthy summer holidays, was brought here from Britain by Harvardthree centuries ago.And here it
remains, though what is taught and hawit is taught has been largely,
though not completely, transformeddespite the valiant efforts of some
educators to modify it, usually in thedirection of compression.
Professional programs, once establishedand standardized,are almost
equally stable. The basic four-year pattern forengineering, forestry,
and business administration persists; sodoes the two-year graduate
requirement for socLal workers,which was decided upon in 1937
by the American Association ofSchools of Social Work, eventhough
some at the timeconsidered it premature andunrealistic.4During the
last century, bills havt beenintroduced in almost every Congressto
establish a professional academyfor diplomats, but nonehavt passed,
and recent attempts by theKennedy administration toestablish a
4 On this point, see particularlyEarnest V. Hollis and Alice L.
Taylor, Social Work in theUnited States (New York: Coludoia University
Press, 1951), P.29 ff. A comsequence is that only a minority of persons
in the social work field havethe MN degree and far fewer arelegally
licensed. They, of course, constitutethe elite. 8a.
affairs similarlyfailed even professional graduateschool in foreign ccnstitutes a profession-- to be reported out ofcommittee. If diplomacy argued--it is a"sport" among and both sides of thisquestion have been
only one whichrequires no the breed of professionsin that it is the
the subject matterof its work. pre-entry professionaleducation focussed on
diversity, growingessentially The stability of thepatterns and their development, out of the socialsituation at the timeof their early
For while virtuallyall the present a curious andunfortunate anomaly. rationality professions are built upon,and aspire to, ahigh degree of
educational patterns,wten viewed in their approach toproblems, their How does one explain along side one another, appearquite irrational.
that: should have 2 to4 years of a psychologist or alawyer or a doctor military general education while anengineer or a forester or a officer requires little ornone?
undergraduate business administrationcurriculum is four the standard while the years with amodicum of generaleducation courses, starts at the public administrationcurriculum typically in general graduate level, on topof a four-year program education?
the public andprivate as many top leveladministrators in both graduates of eitherpublic fields are filled byengineers as by the engineers have or businessadministration programs--and little generaleducation?
of graduate workand full-fledged socialworkers need two years diplomats need none?
specialized, professional One consequence isthat those who enter upon their college careers aredeprived training at the startof, or early in,
general educationat .the very timewhen of many of thebenefits of higher of a rapidlyinoreasing proportion higher education iscoming within reach
earlier sections ofthis study, these of our society.As indicated in administrators in fieldscrucial to constitute a growingmajority of public
the scientific,technical, the nation'sdevelopment.Yet, aside from 82
gain through theirhigher edu- and vocationalknowledges they as they cationewhich kinds ofknowledge aredecreasingly important than a rise to administrative posts--somehave gained not much more high school education inbroader and general fields;and these fields become increasingly important asthey rise up theadministrative ladder.
Institutional Relationships andControl
relationship of a The nature of the structuraland administrative
of which it is professional training programwith the larger university
demands a part importantlyaffects its independenceand autonomy and the
For convenience, one may to which it is most likelyto be responsive. 5 group the programsin four main structuralcategories:
independent 1. Professional Colleges. These include completely institutions in no way related to auniversity(teacher's colleges, military academies, etc. and sastantiallyautonomous colleges within universities and on theircampuses. Typically, they the provide four-year undergraduatecurricula beginning with freshman years and grantB.A. or B.S. degrees. They may, in of: addition, offer graduate programs.Examples include colleges military. agriculture, architecture,education, forestry,
emphasis). 2. Professional Schools(with undergraduate These operate as more or lessintegral parts of auniversity though with and must meet its averallrequirements and standards Some sastantial self-control overthe professionalcurricula. begin with the freshman yearand carry through tothe bachelor's is to pick students upwhen degree.A more widespread pattern their junior year. they choose their majorsat the beginning of Graduate work and degrees mayalso be offered.Examples include schools of: business, criminology,journalism, nursing, social work, sometimes education.
them, are necessarily 5The groupings, and thedesignations I have given
somewhat arbitrary and may notbe strictly accurateat any given university.
two or three And some of the fields are providedat different places by
kinds of structures(notably education). I do not here include programs secondary teaching and for in academic saject matterfor elementary and virtually teaching and reserch inhigher education. These are included in all fields and programs, 83
and as Professional GraduateSchools.Most of these operate on, 3. university part of, a university campus. They must meet overall control over requirements and standards,but have substantial Their emphasis is upon the graduate professionalofferings. and some, graduate degrees, but manyoffer undergraduate courses librarianship, majors. Examples include: city planning, law, health, social dentistry, medicine, publicadministration, public welfare.
numbers of Academic Departments.These produce stibstantial 4. objective or as professional practitioners,either as an avowed official a by-product ofacademic training. In general, the is with beginning of departmentcontrol of students' programs in the hard sciences the choice of major inthe junior year, but, back particularly, career choice isincreasingly being forced pre-requisites. to the sophomore andfreshman years because of the doctoral Emphasis is placed on graduatetraining, and in some of degree is a professionalrequirement. Professional programs departments, but, one kind oranother are provided bymost academic the for purposes of thepliblic service, the mostimportant are: sciences, earth hard scienceschemistry,physics, biological sciences, mathematics,statistics; the socialsciencesanthropology, administration), psychology, economics, government(especially pUblic sociology. universities There are, of course, widevariations among different
Furthermore, as to bow individualprofessional programs areset up. to the locus of formal organizationalrelationships offer only a clue as
few generalizations, real operative control.Yet one might hazard a
Professional collegeswhich are other considerationsbeing held equal. to be constrained completely or substantiallyautonomous are less likely
standards, particularly inthe direction by normal universityand academic have fuller control over of general education.Their faculties tend to
standards of entrance,standards of program andcurriculum as well as Having less easy performance, degreerequirements, and likematters.
academic departments,they often recourse to the courseofferings of other focus of the profession, have to provide more coursesoutside the central They are in a partially duplicative of regularuniversity offerings.
requirements as buffers less favorable positionto use the university and of the marketfor against the vocational demandsof their profession responsive to their their students.By and large, they are more
profession and less so to academia,either on the scientific or the
general education sides. Professional practitioners and their organizations
are likely to favor this kind ofstructurefor. these very reasons, end
some of them, such as inthe accreditation of businessschools, demand
a substantial degree ofprofessional school autonomy for accreditation
At the other extreme is the professionaltraining conducted by
the academic departments, especia.ly in the scic ces.They are, of
course, completely governedwithin the rules and regulationsof the
university, which, however, their facultieshave a significant voice
in shaping. They are conditioned, too, by theethos, the objectives,
the workways, and the culture of academiawhich are typically inhospitable
to vocational training(except for the vocations of teaching andresearch).
They are likely, therefore, to resist orignore the demands and pressures
of the outside professions andnon-academic hiring organizations. Some
discount or completely disavow professionaleducation, holding that prepa-
ration for practice is contrary to thefirst mission of the university:
the search for and dissemination oftruth.
Lying at various points across thebroad spectrum between the ultra-
violet and the infra-red, describedabove, are the professional graduate
and undergraduate schools. These must face both ways: toward the
university for its general requirementsand standards, the pools of 85
students from wtich they must select, the resourcesfor general education, and the drive toward academic excellence;toward the profession and toward the market for its graduates tosatisfy vocational demands
(including for some accreditation and registrationrequirements). In
some ways, they commandthe best of both worlds. They can rely upon
the academic demands of the universityto resist an excessivevocationalimn,
and upon the demands of the practicingprofessionals to resist an
excessively academic orientation. Of the two, the graduate schools can
have greater assurance of academicquality among their studentsassuming,
of course, that they receive enoughapplications. They also can have
greater assurance that their studentswill have a broad educationalbase.
But in both cases, the imposition ofentrance pre-requisites can greatly
restrict the breadth of general educationbefore entrance.
What is Taught and NotTaught
Generalization about curricula ishazardous. Coume titles and
descriptions are sketchy and often tellrather little of the flavor of
the syllabus. There has not been much over-allanalysis of curricula in
professional fields which would compare onewith another. There is
considerable variation among differentinstitutions in the same field
and even within the same field atthe same institution. ?inall;y, my
examination of the urcrent literaturesuggests that most fields are in
a state of ferment as totheir curricula, attended by a gooddeal of
internal disagreement, self-criticism,experientation,m and change.
Professional education, like othereducation, is a state of transition,
a condition which promisesto be permanent. Withthe accelerating pace
of social change and of growthof knowledge, such a condition isprobably 86
normal and, by and large,healthy.
The paragraphs wtich followpretend no comprehensivetreatment
identify of the problems of professionalcurricula. They endeavor only to
and introduce some of thoseproblems wtich seem mostrelevant for the
pUblic services of the future.
for convenience The content of educationfor most professionals may 6 be divided into four mainparts: General Education, defined asthose fields of learningoutside and beyond the immediate tasks ofthe profession or the sciences necessary for them. It serves two purposes: the cultural purpose of developing thewhole man, broadly educated,second, the semi-vocational purpose of providing abasis for understanding the full social and naturalcontext of his career work. It may be noted that the content of generaleducation differs among different professions. Thus, in professions which aregrounded in biological or natural sciences,general education includes principally humanities and socialsciences, for those grounded in social sciences, it includes principallyhumanities and the hard sciences.
Foundation Sciences, defined as thosesubjects considered essential as underpinning forprofessional study. They of course differ among different professions,and, for many, there is argument as to which sciences shouldbe so treated.
Professional Subjects, includingprofessional sciences, which constitute the core of professionalcurricula. They consist of those applied sciences andother subjects; or the grouping of a nuMber of them, which havedirect pertinence to the individual profession.
Application, or the art of synthesizingrelevant knowledge and applying it to problems.
6For this classification and some ofthe subsequent discussion,,
I am indebted to William J. McGlothlin,yhe professional, schools
(New York, The Center for Applied Research in Education, Inc.,1964),
Chapter IV. education need not beoffered in These four elementsof professional general to dpecific andfrom sequence, althoughthe order in logic--from education in abstract to aprlied--isthat shown.However, general
required throughoutthe period some professionalfields is offered and
sciences are oftencontinued at of professionaltraining; foundation instruction and practicein the same time asprofessional courses, and subjects. application are ofteninterspersed with coursesin professional
justifications for thelocation It may be noted alsothat one of the major
is the utilizationof of professional schoolsin university campuses and, to a much lesser university resources forfoundation sciences7
degree, for generaleducation. deepening The explosion ofknowledge in many fieldsand the accompanying
and specializing ofscience have had a numberof significant consequences increasing attention andtime for professional education. They have demanded essential for professional for teaching thesubstantive materials deemed specialization within most of competence; and they haveforced increasing
have been and are being the professions themselves. Some of these demands schools and the lowerdivision met by pushing requirementsback into the high prior to entry into years of college bythe vehicle of pre-requisites
professional training.
A second consequence hasbeen a continuing pressureto
because of the 7This seems to be particularlyand increasingly true professions as medicine, growing interdependence ofthe sciences and such Some medical schools, engineering, criminology, pUblichealth--but not law. moving back to their set up at or moved to bigcity hospitals are now campuses to be near thescience laboratories. 88
reduceor to restrain the expansion of--courses not directly relevant to the sciences considered essential to the profession itself. This means the limitation of study in those fields usuallycomprehended under the expression "general education". There has been some pressure in the other direction in certain of the more progressive institutions, sometimes forced upon the professional programs by the university itself.
In general, however, education for engineering, forestry, architecture, medicine and other health fields, and the natural and biologicalsciences contains only minimal treatment of social studies and humanities.A substantial fraction of these fields--such as communications through composition and speech, and economic analysis--are treated as tool courses, necessary for academic study or for practice in the majorprofessional field.
Where some academic work in the social and humanistic fields is required of students in the "hard" sciences and professions, they suffer a disadvantage in competing with major students in the former subjects.
(Of course, the same is true, in reverse, of students in the social and humanistic fields attempting to learn about the physical sciences and professions.) One escape has been the establishment of"survey"
courses for the non-majors, which areoften viewed with disdain by both professional students and professors.Another has been the searching
out of easy and superficial courses in various fields whichoffer the
minimum obstacles and effort to satisfy the non-professionalrequirements.
This situation has been aggravated and encouraged by thecompartmentation
of disciplines within the academic departments andthe focus of the
faculties of each upon their awn majors and graduate students.Visitors
from other fields (particularly professionalfields) are not invited and,
in some cases, are specifically excluded. 89
In general, this difficulty is less prevalent in fields inwhich professionalization does not begin until graduation from college. Thus, most law students have a fairly broad educational base, andthe same is true of candidates for master's degrees in social welfare, pane administration, city planning, lfbrarianship, and others. In fact, over the past several decades there has been a reversemovement in the direction of broadening the educational base in the case of some of the pUblic service professions such as the military, education itself, and diplomacy.
A third conseauence of the knowledge explosion in the sciences has been a declining emphasis upon the techniques of professionalpractice and upon the solution of practical problems ofsociety today.Application was at one time the heart of professional education. Today, the
formal teaching of it in many professional schools is demeanedand
minimized. The techniques of practice are being pushed back(perhaps
properly) to the employer through internships, apprenticeships, and
supervised initial practice. There remain a number of fields in which
the educational institutions retain programs for preparingtheir graduates
to practice.As McGlothlin suggests, these are principally the fields
in which a significant number of graduates enter practice in fairly
isolated circumstances where they have at once to make decisions on
their individual responsibility, such as medicine, dentistry, social work, 8 architecture, and, to a lesser extent, school teaching. But in most
professions, the educational institutions are devoting rather little--and
probably declining--attention to application. (For example: engineering,
law, the natural sciences, economics, city planning, business and public
8 William J. McGlothlin, a. cit., p. 23. 90
administration.)Recently, in some of thesefields, the introduction
in part inbringing of simulation techniques andthe case method has served problems of application intothe classroom.But over the long pull,
the language there is a widening gapbetween the knowledge and even
spawned and taught in theuniversities and the problemsfaced by
professionals in the society. There is reason to fearthat professional
education programs are decreasinglyeffective in bridging the gap.
scientific bases The emphasis upon thesubstantive content and the
of the professions of individual professionshas inhibited the treatment mission in the society, themselves in their largersocial setting, their
with other professions. their relations with otherfields of knowledge and catalogues and of a sampleof My brief review of a sampleof university
professions revealed the literature dealingwith education in the .ggneral of any surprisingly little attentionto: the historic development whole and its specified profession; itsobligations to the society as a organization as a profession; responses to socialproblems and demandgits
There are, in a few its social and politicalimpact; its aspirations. most cases, these fields, offerings aboutprofessional ethics, but, in
dealing with a client,not in concern the behaviorof a professional in 9 passing mention to the an organizationalcontext. Few give more than suCh policy as is clearly formation and execution ofpublic policy, even
within their particular sphereof competence. There are occasional particularly in the fields treatments of organizationand its management,
depicted in professional 90n the discrepancy betweenrole expectation as
education programs and rolerealizations in theorganizational context
The Professional in the see Ronald G. Corwinin Mark Abrahamson,
Organization (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co.,l967),pp.93-101. 91
Most of these aredirected to private of engineering,business, and law. treated as corporate organizations.Almost always, governments are within. organizations to be dealtwithor against, not worked for and in these Yet, as has beendiscussed in an earlierchapter, professionals posts in fields occupy asubstantial share of themost influential
continue to have, enormous government. They have, and will surely local, state and influence in the formationand administration of national policies ofthis country. address almost no The natural and biologicalsciences appear to
attention or teaching tothe social context oftheir professional administer products, other than aseducators, althoughthey staff and
On the other hand,the some of the mostimportant public programs.
such as ptiblichealth, programs forimblic service professionals, teaching provide some social welfare, cityplanning, and school and treatment of the broadersocial aspects oftheir various fields, Few, however, some of themdeal with organizationand its administration. Politics is a bad word deal with public policyand its development.
in these, as in otherprofessional fields. CBAFTER IV
TEE FACULTIES
professors in the natureand The crucial significanceof university
at least threeprincipal directions of the professionsis manifested in
the determlnation ofthe ways. First, they have aninfluential voice in which were discussed nature, content, and lengthof teaching programs reenforced by theacademic in the foregoing chapter. This influence, individual autonomy demand for self-government,academic freedom, and point of almostcomplete has, in some fields and someplaces, grown to the
reeearch and pUblications,indluding control. Secondly, through their and other student textbooks, as well as their awncourses, lectures,
itself and thus,indirectly contacts, they largelydefine the profession
professional practice willconsist and over the long pull,determine what
this influence isreenforced of in the future. In a good many fields, Finally, through academic control overthe institutionsof accreditation.
they, probably to through their directassociations with students,
and values, theethics, the a more limiteddegree, condition the norms of objectives and occupational aspirations,and the understandings directions of context of professionalbehavior. The extent and the
in the succeedingchapter. this third type ofinfluence are discussed usually hortatory Studies of faculties havebeen few in number and
Most of what follows maybest be rather than factualand analytical. requiring a good deal more read as a series ofgeneralized hypotheses,
available is skimpy. empirical study. The evidence currently 93
The Natural History of Professional Faculties
Most professional education originatedfrom practice rather than from research and proven knowledge. Its development has been from the street toward the ivory tower.Among the older professions in this country, it progressed from awrenticeship in operatingoffices to proprietary schools, taught by wise and experiencedpractitioners, to university campuses, themselves at firstrelying upon practitioners. Thence it has moved toward science and away frompractice, toward the theoretic and away from the applied. The younger professions, some ofwhich began on university campuses andlacked the tradition of apprenticeshipand proprietary schools, followed a similar coursefrom the vocational and applied toward the theoretic and scientific.
This trend has been matched with andmarried to another one: the
upgrading of faculty in professional fields interms of academic
standards. In the beginnings of any new professionalfield, there were
few if any teachers who had knowledge of thesubjects and also had
academic credentials. Some lacked even the bachelor's degree, and an
academic doctorate was very unusual. But establishment of professional
training on the campuses and recognition ofits respectability as a
legitimate field of academiC endeavor began aslow, sometimes halting,
but inexorable development in thedirection of academic uplifting. This
was in considerablepart necessitated by the growth of foundationsciences
and the increasing rscognition ofthe dependence of professionalpractice
upon scientificknowledge and principles. Thus engineering gradually
came to be seen, not merely asthe design and creation of structures,
relying mostly on the rule of thudb andthe lessons of experience, but
as an overlay on thedisciplines of mathematics, physics,chemistry, and 94
others. Similar logical ties were gradually established by virtuallyall professional fields: mdicine with organic chemistry, psychology, anatomy, physiology, etc.;law with political science, economics, sociology; social welfare with sociology, economics, and other social fields.
Academic background of faculty members, at least to the level of the master's degree and increasingly to the doctor's degree became more and more necessary, not alone in the foundationsciences but among the professional faculties themselves.
The movement was reenforced, particularly in recent years, bythe ever-accelerating growth of knowledge and of scientific inquiry. In face of the onslaught of new understanding and greater knowledge, what can be more fragile than appropriate and efficient ways of doing things, operating methods? The graduate of professional training may find himself out-of-date in terms of vocationalpractice ten years after his training--or five years, or tImo There is therefore growing and entirely defensible pressure in professional education toward concepts and principles rather than skills and vocationalism. "The only knowledge of permanent value is theoretical knowledge, and the broader it is the
greater are the chances that it will prove useful in practice because
it is applicable to a wider range of conditions.
Location on the campuses also had an important motivational and
social effect. For it meant and to some degree compelled thA graftal
absorption by the professional schools of the standards and values of
academia. Professional faculties in the campus environment sought the
1ReneJo Woos, "Adaptability for Survival and Growth" in Values and
Ideals of American Youth, Eli Ginzberg, ed. (New York, ColuMbia Untversity
Press, 1961), p. 12. 95
respect and esteem of their colleaguesin the more traditional disciplines, and, in varying degrees at different institutions, were compelled to match the minimal academic credentials. By and large, these did not include extensive experience in the real world, rather, their emphasis was upon academic attainment as measured by degrees and grades and subsequently by research and publications. Practical experience came in many fields to be discountedtand later systematically derogated.Experience could be a threat to objectivity and value-free inquiry. On the other hand, the research which was most highly valued was that based uponabstract theory, and studies and expertnents that were quantifiableand esoteric.
Thempressures upon the professional faculties, as upon thosein the traditional fields, were away from vocationalism, toward scienceand research.
The consequences of these pressures have included the gradual reduction, in some cases, elimination, of vocational backgrounds among professional faculties and the gradual rise of purely academiccredentials.
One evidence was the replacement of part-time practitioners by full-time
teaching staff in many fields--most marked in medicine, though by no means yet complete in the medical schools.A second was the reduction
of full-time faculty whose only qualifications lay in experienceand
their replacement by usually junior faculty members whoseprimary
or sole qualifications wereacadenic. The former group are still used in
the heavy shortage fields of professional education but often asvisitors
or lecturers, decreasingly aspart of the tenure staff. At the beginning
of any new professional field, there were of course noacademically
2 qualified professors in that field. This vaccuum led to a number
2 Except in a few fields wtere a small number of professors could be
drawn from overseas countries, as in the caseof forestry. 96
of remedial steps, more or less in sequence.A first one was to borrow properly credentialled professors(or associates or assistants) from related, respected disciplines, especiallythose which could properly be considered foundational for theprofession.3These might be brought in only to teach a course ortwo on a reimbursable basis or be engaged through ajoint-appointment with an establisheddisciplinary department. These arrangements seem not to have been verydurable in most areas, partly because of theinevitable division of loyalty, dedication, and time. And often the professional school gotthe short end of the transaction since the primaryloyalty of most professors in
established disciplines was more likely to bewith the discipline than with the profession.A stabler and more reliable recourse wasto hire
credentialled professors from other fields on afull-time-tenure
basis--as mathematicians and physicists inengineering, economists
and sociologists in education, economistsin business, political
scientists in public administration, etc. Here, however, the professional
schools were at something of a disadvantagein the employment market,
and in many places still are. Most of the best young academics are
likely to prefer to stick with theprestige and future promise of
their awn discipline rather than move:Into professionaltraining.4
3Pbysicistsfor engineering; economists forbusiness (and other
fields); political scientists for public administration;sociologists
for w.elfare and criminology; etc.
I/However,there are a great many distinguishedexceptions to this
generalization--teachers, self-selected, becauseof their interest
in the problems of a given professionand often their dissatisfaction
with the purism and academism of theirdiscipline. 97
Among the majority of professions,however, the basic drive was to develop graduate programs of their awn,providing degrees appropriate to the campus environment. This meant usually master's degrees as astarter
(where the professional program itself was entirelyundergraduate), and later doctoral degrees.The doctoral degrees in eachprofessional field increasingly become dual--one a"professional" degree, designed usually for advanced occupationalpractice end managed by the professional
school or department itself; and the other,the PhD for teachers and
researchers in the field, normally managed by theuniversity and
meeting general academic standards andrequirements.5
I have found no statistical evidence to validate(or invalidate)
the hypDthRsis that professional facultiesin general are becoming
more"academized" in terms of the proportions of their faculties
who have higher academic degrees. It is possible that tendencies in
this direction among the better establined and moreprestigious schools
are balanced in net terms by the growth offaculties of lesser academic
qualifications in other, less demanding institutions. The only data I
have found shows the percentage of new full-time teacherswho have
doctor's degrees, and the proportions have been rising in somefields,
falling in others. These data, however, are misleading since in many
fields new appointees are customarily hired before, butin anticipation
5Some--by no means all--of the professionalfields in which PhD's
are now offered--usually inaddition to professional degrees are:
engineering, business, DUblic health,social welfare, criminology, public
administration, library science, agriculture,city planning, mining,
education, forestry. 98
that, they dbtain their doctorates. This is more true in the social fields than the physical ones since in the former thegraduate students are less likely to receive fellawship support and normallytake longer to com- plete their dissertations. Thus, between 1953-4 and1964-5, the propor- tion of new teachers in engineering who had doctorateswhen appointed increased from 16 per cent to 45 per cent, and, inphysical sciences, from
53 per cent to 59 per cent. On the other hand, the proportions declinedin education (from 37 to 32 per cent), in journalism (from 18 to 6 percent), in law (from 32 to 19 per cent) and in social sciences(from 42 to 28 per
N 6 cent). Undoubtedly, the quantitative demand for teachers hasoutdistanced
the supply of doctorates in some fields. Yet the drive toward academic
accomplishment and respectability seems unquestionable. Curiously, it
has probably had least influence among those professionswhich are most
historically esteemed such as medicine, dentistry, law, andarchitecture.
Here the reputations of the professional degrees of M.D.,D.D., LLB., and
B.Arch, have been sufficient to resist the encroachment of thePhD. But
those professions which are relatively new and are seekingrespect and
academic acceptance lean toward the substance and theaccoutrements of
academia. Thus a quick check of the catalogues of five majoruniversities
revealed that more than half of the professors andassociate professors--
the tenure journeymen--in principal professionalfields had PhD's and
another fifth had professional doctors' degrees.If to these are added
the LLB's and LLM's, which normally require three or more yearsof graduate
work in law school, the total with doctoral degrees ortheir near equivalent
comprised five-sixths of all the tenure professors. (See Table I)
6NationalEducation Association, Teacher Supply and Demand in
Universities, Colleges, and Junior Colleges 1963-4 and 1964-5 (Washington: _ 101~ April, 1965)0. 17. 99
TABLE I
Highest Degree Attainmentsof Professors andAssociate Professors in ProfessionalProRrams in Five Universibies*
NO Grad. Professional Professional Masters DegreeTotal Colle e or School PhD'sDoctorates LLB's LLM's 17 o 225 Business 182 18 8 o 0 o 312 Education 183 120 0 9 o 1Q4 18 399 Engineering 230 47 o 1 0 123 Law 3 34 68 17
0 20 3 60 Social Work** 19 18 0
151 21 1,119 Total 617 237 76 17
13 2 100 Percentage 55 21 7 2 of California * Based upon the1966-67 catalogues of the Universities (Berkeley), Alabama, Columbia, SouthernCalifornia, and Texas.
** Reported for only threeuniversities: California (Berkeley), ColuMbial and Southern California. 100
Consequences: The Faculties Today
There has not of course been equal progress among thefaculties of different professional schools in the direction of science and research.
Some started later and had further to go; some progressed lessrapidly than others. It seems likely that the professions closely related to disciplines associated with things, the natural and biologicalsciences, developed more rapidly in this direction than those dependent uponstudies of 22221e, the social sciences. This in turn probably reflected the more rapid development, particularlyin recent years, of the hard sciences themselves and of the popular and academic esteem in which they wereheld.
In some cases, academic development was confused and retardedbecause of disagreement and transition in concept about the properprofessional 7 content and about wtat disciplines education should be based upcn. To some extent this situation hascharacterized the development of all professionaa. education, and still does. Yet, in some fields it has been more virulent and endemic than in others.For example, city planning, early grounded in three other professional fieldsarchitecture, landscape architecture, and engineering (with a sprinkling of zoning law)gradually but haltingly moved toward more socially oriented stndies
such Els urban economics, sociology, political science, geography.Another
example is city management, once based on engineering, shiftedgradually 11aamma1
7It seems very probable that thefailure of some of the emergent
public service professions to maturearises from the lack of consensus
as to wtat the foundationdisciplines should be. For example: budgeting,
assessing, Foreign Service, to mention a few. 101
(though a still toward public administrationat the graduate level significant proportion of city managersstart from an undergraduate foundation inengineering). institutions in the There is also a widedisparity among different
distance they have traveled same professionalfield in regard to the the orientations of their along the path to scientismand research and in
established, most faculties in thisdirectiOn. In general, the best
distinguished experienced, most highly esteemedprofessional schools are not
Rather, their accent by the number of thepractitioners they produce.
and their reputation rest onthe scholarship oftheir graduates, many
In or most of whomaim toward careers ofteaching and/or research.
the faculties of theseschools are found thehighest proportions of
graduate degrees, and fromthem emanate themajority of research monographs 8 and scholarly books. faculties of individual A third type of disparityexists within the
little survey evidencerelevant professional schools.Although I have found
training in individual to the point, reading ofthe literature about with some of them professional schools and myrather limited acquaintance
difference in backgrounds leads me to believe thatthere is a considerable school and on the same and perspectives amongprofessors in the same the,newer fields ofprofessional development. campuses,particularly among
8 endpoint in the One might hypothesize,however, that there is an
Schools which have established drive toward scholarlyexcellence. need worry less about themselves at the pinnacleof academic reputation
They university acceptability andthe accoutrements ofscholarship.
noted may even move inthe other direction,engaging on their faculties
practitioners from the workingworld who lackdistinguished academic
degrees or significantexperience in teaching orresearch. 102
The older men and women are often drawnfrom a background of practical experience and are likely to have hadless academic and scientific orientation and equipment.The younger ones, recent productsof the university, most frequently have(or are about to acquire) doctoral degrees in the profession itself or in arelated foundational science.
Relatively few have much if any experience inthe practice of the vocation. Each profesional department or schoolthus becomes an arena of intergenerational difference of perspective,knowledge, aspiration and potential conflict. The differences are magnified inthose fields in which there is rapid growth of knowledge. The senior professors are likely to appear obsolescent to thejunior; indeed, in terms of academic criteria, a good many of them may beobsolescent. It should be observed, however, that this kindof situation is not unique to the professional schools. It is very nearly standard in mostbranches of
universities today--the physical sciences,the social sciences, and,
to a lesser extent, some of thehumanities. In professional schools,
the disparities are especially severebecause they have moved so
far and so fast from pure vocationalismtoward science.
Though there is not much objective data, onemight deduce certain
characteristics about professional facultiestoday in relation to their
predecessors. There has been a tremendous accretionof knowledge in
almost every field and 541 thesciences on which they rest.Very
probably, the professors by and largeknow a good deal more about the
sUbjects of their professional field andabout its scientific under-
pinning now than in the past. This does not mean, however, that
they are better teachers thanbefore--because professional schools pay
no more attention tothe teacnghi skills than do theliberal arts 103
9 schools; and this is generally very littleindeed. It seems likely tcu that the professional facultieshave less interest and less
acquaintance than their predecessors in theoperating characteristics
role andresponsibilities of the and problems ofpractitioners or in the
profession in the largersociety.
intellectual equipmentof It is probable toothat the general
higher than inearlier decades. professional facultiesis, on the average,
the growingattractiveness of This would seem areasonable deduction from in society as awhole as well as college teaching asagainst other careers
academia and the growingdemand for the rising standardsof entry into
the traditionalacademic disciplines doctoral degrees. On the other hand, the brighteststudents; still appear to be moreattractive for most of schools--though as notedearlier, they probablyoutdraw the professional
there are manyoutstanding exceptions. knowledge and of Finally, the growingsa-specialism of relevant
widespread criticismof the ?Arather surprisingexception to the
law schools. The great quality of graduateteaching is that of the reported in the NORCstudy of majority of studentsin law schools, as Aldine, 1965), rated Lawyers in theMaking (by SeymourWarkav, Chicago, "good" or "excellent". the caliber of theirclassroom teaching as The ThinkingMan's Martin Mayer, in hisarticle on "Law Schools:
"Law-school teaching is onthe average(especially Bastion" concluded that:
intelligent teachingthan is offered in the firstyear) more intense and more institution in the UnitedStates." in any other varietyof academic
(Harper's Magazine, June,1967, p. 70.) However, Mbyer himself questions Whether the qualityof the content of theeducation and its purpose. slibstance of what istaught is, in the teaching can be judgdapart from the
lawyer's jargon, atleast moot. vocations within each professionhas forced a comparablesub-specialism
include a considerable in the academic faculties. Each faculty must now
particularly-- varie# of sub-specialists,and in the larger fields
departments like education, engineering,business, medicine, law--whole
of sub-specialists. of sub-specialisms are common,each containing a variety
This situation amongprofessional facultiesis entirely comparable With the deepening to that associated earlierwith professional fission. foci among and narrowing of subject-matter,there is growing variety of
and orientations. the faculty, though notnecessarily of value systems developing And there is greater and greaterdifficulty in obtaining and
professional generalists who canview the entire field ofthe profession
as a whole.
Faculty Attitudes Toward.Employment
There have been regrettablyfew studies of trends amongprofessional
faculties in terms of theirbackgrounds in education andexperience.
Similarly, there have been fewstudies of the attitudes ofprofessional
faculties towards their fieldsof teaching, their personalaspirations,
their teaching goals, their students, theirdefinition of their fields,
which I have found lead me and like subjects.The scattered indications
(or invalidation) a few to suggest for furtherstudy and validation
hypotheses. concentrate upon College teachers tend,perhaps unavoidably, to
image;this tendency is recreating their studentproducts in their own
particularly virulent intheir treatment of theirbetter students.
researcher, and a scientist Insofar as that imageis of a scholar, a
(as distinguished from a vocationalpractitioner), their emphasis will
such a high be upon research andscholarship. This perhaps explains wty 105
proportion of the best students in theirsenior years aspire to careers of college teaching and research. (See Chapter V below.)
Professional faculties tend to concentrate onthe Objective subject matter with which the professional dealsto the neglect of the manner and purpose of applying it to real-worldproblems. This extends to a more or less systematicignoring of different kinds of employmentby different types of employers(self-employment, university or research organization, private business, government,etc.). That is, the subject matter is treated as neutral tothe purposes for wtich it may serve.
This tendency is responsive tothe demand of science for complete objectivity. It also satisfies a doubledefensive role for some teachers; an escape from therealities and problems ofprofessional practice, about which many knocr rather little;and escape from controversialsocial and political problems which mayattend the practice of theprofession--
about which they may know little more.
Professional faculties share, withtheir professions and with the
liberal arts faculties, anabhorrence for the mixing ofpolitics with
the substance of what they areteaching. This does not imply that they
shun politics and politicalparticipation in their personallives--only
that their teaching shouldnot be mixed with, or concern,politics.
Faculties generally, thoughwith some conspicuous exceptions,rate
public employment rather low onthe pecking order of employment
Institution study of attitudestoward possibilities. The recent Brookings
generally rated their the Federal service shavedthat college teachers
but for the present employment distinctlyabove the "same occupation,
Federal Government", and the samewas true of threesub-groups of 106
10 college faculties: natural scientists, social scientists, and engineers.
On the question of the comparison between Federal and private business, the college teachers, excepting the engineering faculties" gave a slight preference for Federal.Clearly, faculties are less than enamoured of emplaymen;.; in large administrative organizations. The occupational values and dis-values which they emphasized in response to the Brookings questionnaire are such as to discourage them from either public or business administration.The values which they emphasize are self- determination, freedom in their work, opportunities forself-development,
self-expression, and creativity. They do not stress as much as other groups
such factors as financial reward, fringe benefits, andsecurity.Against
Federal employment (and probably business employment aswell) their
heaviest demerits are their perceived loss of self-determination,
infringements on individual initiative, and"bureaucracy", moiling red 11 tape, waste motion, unwieldy size, etc.
The Brookings study concludes that: "By most standards, however,
college teachers do not appear to be highly drawn towardFederal employment.
. . . Certainly the general mood of the academic community is not
especially conducive to leaving academia and entering federalservice.
10 The study by Franklin P. Kilpatrick, Milton C.Cummings, Jr.,
and M. Kent Jennings appeared in two volumes, bothrablished by the
Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.: The Image of the Federal
Service; and Source Book of a Study o2 OccupationalValues and the 1page
of the Federal Service. They are referred to herein as Kilpatrick I and
Kilpatrick II, respectively. Basis for the statement above is found in
Kilpatrick I, 98-99.
11 Kilpatrick I, 68-9, and II,163-4 and 210-11. 107
More important; however, is the influence, both of a direct and a more subtle kind, which college teachers have, or can have, on the occupational outlooks of their students.1112 The principal indications which lead me to the hypotheses suggested above are not survey research. Rather, they are inferred from the writings of educators in a variety of books and professional journals, the nature of curricula which faculties have the most determinattve voice in framing, and the attitudes of students in professional or pre- professional programs. Much of the evidence, such as it is, must be drawn by inference and is essentially negative in character. It includes: the failure of the literature to mention, let alone discuss, employment considerations in various fields; the ignoring of public employment, even where large proportions of the graduates will certainly go into government, the general avoidance, in professional literature and curricula, of policy and political issues which are of vital import to the profession in question and to wtich it will certainly make a significant contribution; the avoidance of the political and governmental processes whereby public policy is made and effectuated. There is undoubtedly a great deal of variation in these matters among different fields, and one would guess that the faculties in the general professions (such as law, medicine, dentistry, engineering, and natural sciences) would have less concern about policy, political, ana governmental TiAstions than those in the public service professions (such as education; social welfare, public health, city planning). My awn reading is that the professional faculties are running
just as fast from these hard, not very scientific, prdblems as are their
colleagues in the humanities and social sciences, even though the former
12 Kilpatrick I, 99. 108
are, by and large, more deDendent upongovernmental support and more immediately faced with questions of public policy.
Herein lies a curious and possibly tragic irony.American governments--and particularly the federal government--havtcontributed tremendous support for certain professional andacademic fields, notably the natural sciences, the biologic and health sciences,engineering, and a few others. Yet among the faculties in these fields,there seems to be diminishing understanding of, or knowledgeabout, or appreciation for, government, its purposes and processes. One might hypothesize that the greater the dependency upon government,the lesser the sympathy for
it. A deeper and more threatening difficulty lies in theincreasing
specialism of science, both physical and social, andin the widening gap between the professors--the men who search fortruth--and the politicians-
administrators--the men who decide and do. As scholars proceed deeply
and narrowly into their subject matter, the problem ofconverting their
findings and their wisdom into social policybecomes ever greater. The
need for integrators, synthesizers, andtranslators grows. The development
of a high degree of intellectual specialism mayconstitute "trained
incapacity" for social decision.With some, and hopefully increasing,
exceptions, the professors have not addressedthemselves to the problems
of society seen as a whole. The divisions among disciplines and
subdisciplines, among professions andsub-professions, and between
disciplines and professions discourage a gestaltapproach. Yet no
profession and no discipline can, by itself,treat effectively with any
major social problem today, be it thecity or civil rights, or overseas
development, or poverty, or war and peace, orthe revolt of American
youth. The compartmentalization, the standards,and the incentives of 109
academia have for some timemilitated against a socialproblem orientation,
not be,In lost among the and there is little doubtthat these elements have
professors in a number of students. There are brightening signs among professional fields of addressingproblems in their totalcontext and
disciplines in attacking of aligning themselves withother professions and
and them. Hopefully we maybe balancingthe trend toward scieutism
the separation of academiafrom the real world. 110
CHAPTER V
THE STUDENTS
Obviously, the bulk of operating professionals in government and elsewhere in the future will be college and university graduates.
These will include the great majority of our career public leaders. The students are the raw material of our future pUblic leadership; and the nature, interests, abilities, and aspirations of the students must certainly be as important for American gavernance as the programs and influences which they are exposed to in their professional education.
About them, I would pose three basic questions. The first concerns the kind of specialization each student chooses, whether general or professional and, if the latter, in what kind of specialization. This question has been the object of a great variety of studies in virtually every professional field as well as of some general studies about occupationalchoice.1A
second question is what type of employment and employer the graduating
student will opt for, if he indeed has any choice?And a third is whether
he chooses a particular type of employment for a career or as a preparation
and stepping stone, a question particularly important for certain kinds
of professional employees in government.
These questions are becoming increasingly crucial for gavernment
1Suchas: Eli Ginsberg, Sol W. Ginsburg, Sidney Axelrad, John L. Herma,
Occupational Choice: An Approach to a General Theory(New York: Columbia
University Press, 1951); Anne Roe, The psychology of Occuations ( New York:
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1956); and Donald E. Super, The Psychology
of Careers: An Introduction to Vocational paglompat. (New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1957). today for at least three reasons.In the first place, themajority of
are professions, and particularly thosein heavy demand by governments, shortage fields. This seems to be true ofboth those fields we have classified as seneral--such asmedicine and all its branches,engineers,
the natural and certain kinds of socialscientists, and many others--and
The public service professions--teachers,social workers, and others. which new critical areas for public personneladministration are those for
recruits are in short supply. In these fields, selectionis a competition
is the self- among employers, notapplicants. The underlying question
field selection of potential professionals--first,for their professional
and second for their employment.
A second consideration is that, asprofessional specialization
advances and as the educationalrequirements for the differentfields
his increase, it becomes more difficultfor any individual to change
occupational field, once his initialdecision is made. That is, the
student, adolescent or young adult,by his initialdecision pretty largely
the same commits his occupational career.Changes of employers within
professional field are possibleand may be enhanced byincreasing
by career professional identification,though even this is inhibited
systems of employment inagencies, both public and private, whichgenerally
and women, their resist lateral entry.But for a great many young men
commitment for decision as to educational fieldof study constitutes a
an entire working life.
in many The third consideration,related to the second, is thrt
professional fields the basicdecisions of those who willbecome 112
professionals are made early in lifesometimes before theygraduate from high school and usually by the time they are juniorsin college. Typically, that is several years before they are prepared todiscuss employment by any particular agency. This suggests that recruitment for governmentprofes- sionals in a great many fields to be truly effectiveshould begin as early as the senior year in high school.
The Choice of Career
We have noted earlier that a large part of the process of choice of career field and of type of employer takes place well before the public recruiter approaches possible candidates. In fact, in many fields, the pool of possible applicants is so limited by the time they enter the labor market that he must take whatever he can get without any selective process whatever. This pre- employment selection has been somewhat inaccurately referred to as"self-selec- tion," though it is clear that many factors which enter into it--such as sex, intellectual ability, economic resources, personality attributes, etc.---are completely or partially beyond the discretion of the individual concerned.
It therefore behooves those interested in the nature and the quality of the public service to look behind the current hiring process to discover what kinds of people choose what fields and, to the extent possible, why; and within these general career groups, who choose governmental employment. The paragraphs that
follow draw certain salient observations and questions principally from two
significant recent studies: first, a nation-wide survey of the career plans
of college graduates of 1961, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center;
and second,a broad survey of attitudes of various groups of Americans toward 113
2 Federal employment, conducted in 1959 and1960 by the Brookings Institution. Both studies are now several years old, andit is impossible to judge how much, and in what directions, the situationshave changed s3-ce they were made,. Nonetheless, the findings are interestingand provocative of hypotheses warranting further and moreup-to-date study.
In the first place, the NORC study confirmsthe belief that higher
education is a principal vehicle--very nearlythe sine qua non--for upward
mobility in our society. Fewer than one-quarter of the fathersof the
graduating seniors had completed collegethemselves, and more than
three-fifths had not gone beyond high-school. (Davis I, 18.) The parents
of two-thirds of the graduating seniorshad incomes below ten thousand
dollars.And although, as will be shown below, asizable majority were
preparing themselves for professional careers,fewer than one-quarter
(23per cent) came from professionalfamilies. The occupations of two-fifths
service, or farm. of the parents were described asskilled or unskilled labor,
In the second place, it is clear thatthe great majority of incoming
2The findings of the NORC survey werereported in two volumes, both
by James A. Davis andboth publiched la the AldinePalishing Company,
Plans of Chicago. The first was GreatAspirations: The Graduate School
The America's College Seniors1964, herein referred to as Davis I.
second was AdergraduateCareer Decisions- Correlates of Occupational
Choice, 1965, herein referredto as Davis II. The Brookings study, earlier
referred to in Chapter IV, wasreported by FranklinP. Kilpatrick,
volumes, both published Milton C. Cummings, Jr., andM. Kent Jennings in two
The Image of the Federal in 1964 by the BrookingsInstitution in Washington:
Service and Source Book of aStudy of Occupational Valuesand the Image
herein as Kilpatrick I and of the .eFederal ... Service. They are referred to Kilpatrick II, respectively. 114
at least a rough idea of freshmen in college--allbut 8 per cent--had
most of these choices what career they aspiredto pursue, and that
In fact, all (70 per cent) were in the frofessions. (Davis II, 9-10.)
occupations, were opting but one-eighth, who chosebusiness and related
about 18 per cent for professional activities,broadly defined, since
chose arts and sciences,most of them intendingto go into teaching prior to or research. Obviously the decision processis well underway held to the college. More than half of thetotal graduating pupulation graduated--though the fields, same general careerobjective when they substantial shifts as grouped by Davis, are verybroad and could disguise
within each category. They were: sciences, social Arts and Sciences: physical sciences,geological sciences, and humanities; profession0 Professions: engineering, medicinellaw,educationand 'Other Business and Related.
Noneneless, a substantialproportion, 37 per cent,changed their
senior years, and the career field betweentheir freshman and their
All fields gained some new nature of these shiftsis of interest.
The big net gainers recruits and also lost somedefectors to other fields. and high were businessand education; bothhad relatively law losses
medicine and engineering(both of gains. The principal losers were
which fell by morethan forty percent), the physical sciences and "traders" for which losses "other professions." The other fields were
roughly equated withgains.
311 mixed and heterogeneous Other professions"comprehends a highly
referring to it are not very collection, so much aothat the data
foreign service, meaningful. It includr,s, forexample, librarianship, administration, social work, military, architecture,city planning, public Apparently, the majority who are lumped journalism, accounting,and nursing. public service careers. in "otherprofessions" are preparing for 115
FIGURE I 4 Anticipated Career Fields (Percentages)
Field As Freshmen As Seniors
Education 27 33 Engineering 16 9 Law 4 4 Medicine 6 3 Other Professions 18 15 Physical and Biological Sciences 9 8 Social Science and Humanities 9 11 Business 12 18 Total 101 101 But some of the individual shifts are instructive: (Davis II, 26.)
of the net gainers:
Education gained from every field, most heavily from "other professions" and engineering;
pusiness gained most from engineering and lost some to education;
Social Sciences gained most from engineering, medicne and physical sciences, while losing to education;
Humanities gained most from "other professions," engineering, medicine and physical sciences, but lost heavily to education;
Biological Sciences gained most from medicine and "other professions" and lost most to education;
Law gained most from engineering and medicine;
Of the net losers:
Other Professions gained from engineering, medicine, and physical _ sciences, but lost to almost every other field, most heavily ".education; 4 Based upon data in Davis II, 9 and Davis I, 12. n.6
Physical Sciences gained most fromengineering but lost to almost every other field;
Medicine gained slightly from engineering,but lost to every other field;
Enineering lost to every otherfield, most heavily to business.
The NORC study undertook to correlate careerchoices at freshmen and senior years wlth a variety ofdemographic, attitudinal and other characteristics, and a few of these data arediscussed below. But for the moment, it is worth noting thatthe characteristics whichassociated different kinds of freshmen with givenfields of career interest were the same ones mtich discriminatedbetween those who stayed in thefield or came into it duringcollege and those who left it. That is,"Career decisions in college tend to accentuatethe occupational differences already present at the beginning ofcollege." (Davis II,45.5) The "deviants" initially identified with a given fieldswitch out to another more fitting to than,and vice versa.
What are these characteristics ofdifferent career fields? There
is here space only to summarizesalient findings of a very few of them:
sex, academicperformance, social-economic status andoccupational
values. With regard to sex, there aresharp and expectable differences
among different fields. Engineering is almost entirely masculine,and
in law, medicine, business andphysical sciences the ratioof men
ranges from about four-fifths upward. In education, by far thelargest
field of all, 70 per cent are women,and the proportions of females
5Davis, however, notestwo exceptions: one concerns Negroesand
probably derives from inadequacy ofthe sample; the other concerns
the social sciences, where there appearsto be a genuine change in under-
standing of the nature of the fieldduring the college term. 117
in nursing and social work are evenhigher. In the other fields,
the sexes are more or less evenlymixed with a slight preponderance
of men, up to about two-thirds inthe social sciences. The shifts
during the college years, by a curiousstatistical quirk, have the 6 effect of increasing the proportionof masculinity in everyfield.
(Davis II, 46-8.)
A second characteristic analyzedin the study is the Academic
Performance Tidex (API), reflecting thestudent's intellectual capacity 7 and motivation during his college years, Entering freshmen who are
aiming for careers in the fields ofmedicine, the humanities, the social
sciences, the physical sciences andlaw tend to attain betterthan
average grade point averages. Freshmen choosing business arelikely
to have less than averageacademic success. Among the first three of
these, particularly medicine,the initial recruitmentadvantage is
strengthened during the college courseby retention of high gradestudents
and addition of new ones. But among most other fields,there is little
change. It may be noted that, exceptfor medicine, none of the
traditional wofessional fieldsranks as high as the arts andsciences.
(Davis II, 48-50).
A third characteristic, social-economicstatus (SW, was
determined on the basis of family income,occupation of head of household,
and father's education. Relatively higher status is found among
6 The paradox is explained bythe fact that education pulls womenfrom
every other field,leaving the other fields moremasculine, but education
was so feminine atthe outset that the incomingrecruits, even though most
of them are female, tend topull down its own proportionof women.
the student, 7Thiswas measured by gradepoint avarage, as reported by
adjusted for variations amongthe schools. 118
those aspiring to the "learnedprofessions," law and medicine, with the humanities and social sciencesfollowing in third and fourth places. At the bottom of the scale are engineering,education, and physical sciences, a finding which supports the"hunch" that these
fields are important channels of upwardmobility in our society--
education for women, engineering and sciencesfor men. (Davis II, 65-6.)
A fourth characteristic, and for our purposes the mostinteresting
of alloy/as the values the respondentsassociated with desirable
occupations. NORC reduced a considerable variety of potentialvalues,
developed in prior studies, to three basic ones provento be substantially
independent of each other. These are: (1) "opportunity to work with
people rather than things";(2) "opportunities to be original and
creative"; and (3) "making a lot of money." They are here referred to
simply as "people," "original," and "money." (Davis 1, 31-36.) The
findings are significant, if not surprising. "The general trend is
for the people-oriented fields . . . to attract people-oriented people
and for scientific and technological fields to beabandoned by those
who are people oriented." (Davis II, 55.) Education and the professions
associated with services to people(mostly in the "other professions"
category) are "people" fields, The sciences and humanities tend to
attract the "originals," whereas business and engineering arepredominantly
attracted by "money." The general configuration of student values as
freshmen and as seniors were as follows: IV
FIGUREII 8 OCCUPATIONALVALUES As Freshmen As Seniors Criginal Money Career Expectation people Original Money People H M L Education H M L H L L Other Professions H 14 L M H L Social Sciences H M M L H L Humanities M H L M L M Medicine M M M M L H Law M M M M L H Business M L H L M L Biological Sciences L M L L H H Physical Sciences L H M L H H Engineering L H H fields associated with There were moresignificant shifts among
occupational values than withregard to any of theother characteristics.
wtich they perceived, That is, individuals tendedto move toward fields
with their value systems. during their college careers, asmore in keeping
and engineering Seniors in education,biological sciences, business, during the freshmen years. remained in the same positiozv ...as they occpuied
professions" moved from Medium But all the otherschanged. The "other attracted persons to Low with respect to"original." 'Social Sciences ("original") and discouraged more interestedin intellectual pursuits They moved in those wto had conceivedthem as people-orientedfields.
with respect to"people" from all three respects: from High to Medium with respect Medium to High withrespect to"original"; from Medium to Low
from Medium to Low withrespect to to "money". The humanities went Low with respect ff people." Medicine and law bothmoved from Medium to
high with respect to to "original," and lawalso came to be viewed as
It change from the Medium postvre money." (Surprisingly, medicine did not sciences moved in oraY in the "money"criterion.)Finally, the physical
8 Medium; and L for Low. (Based The symbols are: H for High; M for
upon Davis II,60.) 120
one respect: from Medium to High in interestin "money."
In summary terms, one maycategorize the seniors choosingdifferent
fields as follows:
those wto value "people"orientation highly tend towardeducation and "other professions"; those who value intellectual("original") orientation highly tend toward engineering, physicalsciences, social sciences, and humanities; those who value money highly tendtoward business, law, engineering, and physical sciences.
On the other hand, the"Laws" in occupational values included:
with respect to"people," humanities, physical and biological sciences, and engineering; with respect to intellectual("original"), business, law, medicine and "other professions"; with respect to "money," education,"other professions," humanities, and social and biologicalsciences.
The most surprising finding of theNORC study was the high number
of graduating seniors who plannedto do graduate work--more than
three-quarters of the entire group and aboutfour-fifths of all the
men. In fact, "a bachelor's degree recipientis more likely to anticipate
college." postgraduate study than ahigh school student isto anticipate
total planned to begintheir (Davis I,).l2-43.)9 About one third of the one-fifth had graduate work the followingacademic year, but only suggesting that for some actually been accepted by agraduate school, planned at least, the planning was abit wishful. But the majority who
for some time in thefuture. on graduate workexpected to put it off 11. 'According to an earlier study, reportedby Burton R. Clark,
Educating the Expert Society,(San Francisco: Chandler PUblishing
Company, 1962),p.61 only 4o per cent ofhigh school seniors expected
to go to college. This compares with 77 percent of college seniors in
the NORC sample intendingto go to graduate school. 121
In only two anticipated career-fieldsdid fever than a majority anti- cipate no graduate work--pharmacy andhousewives. But that the basic indi- cation is.not far from the mark vas sUggestedin another HORC study of graduate students which found that morethan two-fifths of them begantheir 10 studies one or more years after completingtheir bachelor's degrees. In respect to immediate or delayed plansfor graduate work, there is a wide difference among career fields. In a few, such as law andmedicine, immediate graduate work is a ncessitybefore one can begin his practice, and among these the great majority plannedto begin graduate study at once.
In some, it is possible to enter uponone's career atonce at a fairly low level of responsibilities butadvancement to full journeymen'sstatus
hinges on,a graduate degree. This group includes such fields as
education, social work and many ofthe sciences. In still others, it may
not be essential but is still, bymost college seniors, seen asdesirable,
these include, for example, businessadministration, engineering, accounting,
journalism, etc.
Another significant finding, though not altogethersurprising, is
that, for the vast majority, thechoice of field of graduate studyis
definitely linked with the field of careerexpectation, that is, graduate
study is viewed as training for avacation. This is of course true of
virtually all who opt for professionalschools. It is clouded among some
of the arts and sciencesbecause substantial numbers in thosefields are
preparing themselves for careers ineducation--elementary, secondary and
college. (For example, 42 per cent of those preparingto study history
at the graduate level intendedto teach.) There are other kinds of
1 °Ibid.,p. 61. 122
discrepancies, all of themnonetheless consistent withvocational
preparing themselves for preparation.Some, studying economics, were business; some studyingpolitical science werepreparing for administrative
preparing for the careers in government; somestudying philosophy were ministry; etc. (Davis I, 54-58.)
There is a definite andrelatively high correlationbetween
school, especially academic performance in collegeand interest in graduate
That is, a much higher in plans to go on to furtherstudy immediately.
graduate school at proportion of the best studentsintends to proceed to
performance of women once.Yet, in spite of the factthat the academic
higher proportion of is on the average superiorto that of men, a much
graduate study to some time women than menprefer to put off further
patterns: in the future. This in part reflectsthe differences in career
social work, etc. the dominantly feminine fieldsof eaucation, nursing,
of the dominantly do not demand graduatedegrees for practice as do some
masculine fields of law,medicine, and dentistry.
graduate school The NORC graduating sviiorswho planned to go on to
activities they expected to carry on were asked tocheck what types of
redearch, administration, or during their careers: whether teaching,
teaching, a proportionheavily weighted service. More than half checked Above the average by those aspiring tothe career field ofeducation. At the bottom were those in thehumanities and biologicalsciences.
of law, engineering, of the scale werebusiness and the professions expected to conduct research, medicine and social work. Fewer than a quarter
education, social work, and here again, some ofthe professionslaw, However, more nursing and business-were nearthe bottom of the scale. research as than half those planning onengineering expected to do some did two-fifths of those aiming formedical schools. "Administration" attracted only one-third of the fUturegraduate students. Only law and engineering among the standardprofessions reported were abovethat
Business of mark, and for neither was thepercentage as high as half. course was very highin this dctivity, and inboth economics and political
administrative science more than half the futuregraduate students anticipated
(six per cent), responsibilities. It is significant that sofew in medicine
social work, and almost none inthe physical and biologicalsciences
checked this item, even though, asindicated earlier, verysubstantial
The service numbers of our careeradministrators come from thesefields.
activity was checked principally bythose aiming for the serviceprofessions
of medicine, social work,nursing and law. 124
The accompanying table summarizes some of the findings ofthe
NORC study with regard to the characteristics and attitudes ofthe college seniors expecting to go on to graduate work, who, asindicated earlier, constitute a considerable majority of all graduatingstudents.
It may be useful, for the understanding of the table, to indicate the bases (percentages or averages) of the entire future graduate student population on which it is premised. Of those seniors who expected to
go on to graduate school:
1. 58 per cent were male.
2. over-all data on social.and econamic status are not available.
3. 53 per cent were Protestant; 25 per cent, Catholic; 7 percent,Jewish.
II 4. 54 per cent checked, as one of their occupational values: opportunity to work with people, rather than things."
5. 23 per cent checked: "making a lot of money."
6. 53 per cent checked: "opportunities to be original and creative."
7. 54 per cent regarded themselves as "conventional."
8. 49 per cent regarded themselves as "liberal."
9. 19 per cent rated themselves in the top fifth of their classes; 44 per cent placed themselves in the bottom half of their classes.
10. 33 per cent intended to go to graduate school next year.
11.-15. Of all the future graduate students: 55 per cent checked teaching; 23 per cent checked research; 32 per cent checked administration; the percentage checking "service to patients andclients" is not available. 125
FIGURE III COMPARATIVE SUNNARY OF CHARACTERISTICS OF FUTURE GRADUATEATUDENTS AMONG GRADUATING SENIORS BY SELECTED GRADUATE FIELDS"
Professions Sciences--Social & Humanities
0 4.4 A. A P.41 A General and Background Characteristics
1. Sex (Male) H L H H 2. Social-Economic Status H H 3. Religion (Protestant) L
Values and Attitudes (self-described)
4. People-Oriented H H L 5. Money-Oriented L H 6. Originality- Oriented L L H 7. Convetional IH .11 8. Liberal
9. Academic Performance
Plans and Expectations
10. Graduate School Next Year H L
Career Activities
11. Teaching L H LL L L L H L H 12. Research H HHHH 13. Service H H L L
14. Administration L . L L H . H.fL
11 Items are checked H for high, or L forlow, where the field differs by ten per cent or more above or below theaveragefor all future graduate students. Those which are unmarked fall in the middlerange. Based on Davis I, especially 183-7 and 223-232. 126
data on which it Some general observationsabout the table and the is based are appropriate.First is that incertain characteristics--where fairly there are a large numberof highs(H's) and laws (L's) there is a
activities fall in themiddle wide spread, and relativelyfew fields of predominantly male or twenty per cent. Thus, most of the fields are established professional predominantly female,particularly among the more values in fields. Likewise, there ispolarization in occupational different fields, inacademic performance, andin anticipated career
association with differentcallings activites. In contrast, religious
medicine (in both ofwhich there is not pronouncedexcepting in law and future is a relatively heavyJewishpopulation). In general, the themselves as more professionals, excepting onlyengineering, regard The range conventional than dothose going into the artsand sciences.
"liberalism," but in general a is not great amongthe fields as to
and humanitiesconsider higher proportion ofthose in social science
and most of theprofessions-- themselves liberal thanin the hard sciences, with business and excepting social workers--arelower than the meat,
Less than a third ofall engineering low among theselatter fields. their careers, and future graduate studentsanticipate administration in high figure for business this proportion would beconsiderable lower if the
(80 per cent) did not pull it up.
The Choice ofEmployer, Public orPrivate student expects is in some The selection of thekind of employer a
Thus, one would anticipate cases implicit inhis choice of fieldof study. administration expect to work that the great majoritystudying business
expect to be .employed for private business; orthat those in education
those in medicine anticipate by schools, most ofwhichare public, or that 127
private practice. The NORC study, which included aquestion as to who would be "your mostlikely employer when you beginfull-time work in your anticipated careerfield," confirmed these expectations, but it also revealed rathersurprising alternative choicesin these fields as well as in the others.(Davis I, 232 ff.)
The respondents were penmittedto check more than one typeof employer when they did not have adefinite expectation so thatthe total of
items checked considerably exceededthe number of students.
A surprising and perhaps gratifyingproportion--exactly half--
college of all the students expected aneducational employer--either a
(15 per cent) or a school (35 percent). Only one-third expected to
be employed by a privatebusiness, and only nine percent anticipated
self-employment, the traditional postureof the professional.Aside from
education, the anticipation ofpUblic employment wasrelatively low.
Fourteen per cent checked theFederal government, and only5 per cent
checked state or local government. Inasmuch as Federal employmentis
relatively stable and state andlocal employment is amongthe most
rapidly growing in the nationthis finding(which confirms the author's
impressions) is a source of some concern. State and local employment
In fact, is very low on the statusladder of future collegegraduates.
the only field for whichstate and local governments(other than
educational institutions andpublic institutions likehospitals) appear
significant as prospective employersis social welfare, but it was
of checked by only one-third ofthese. On the other hand, two-thirds
the same group checked"hospital-church-clinic-welfare organization,
engineers etc." Very probably one of thefastest growing employers of 128
in the nation are state and local governments,but only 6 per cent indicated them as prospective employers--comparedwith20 per cent for the federal government and80 percent for private business.
Private businesswas the expectation oflarge majorities of future graduate students in business,engineering, law and chemistry, and about half of those going on to studyphysics and economics
checked business employment asa probability. The only group of which'
a majoity expected self-employment wasmedicine. The Federal govern-
ment attracted a majority of only onecategory--political science--but
one-quarter or more of several fields checkedit as a prospect: law
and several of the social and physicalsciences. College education
attracted few of those preparing for theestablished professions, but
substantial proportions of virtually allthose in the arts and sciences
anticipated a career of higher education.
In order to evaluatethe different choices ofemployers in
for a few of the relation to academiccaliber, the NORC analyzed,
in the top fifth of fields, the proportions ofmale students who were
Here the picture their classes on thebasis of academic performance. attracting the highest is striking: colleges and universities are are second, proportions of the strongeststudents, research organizations
of the scale. and elementary and secondaryeducation is at the bottom
in almost every The differences are verysubstantial and are consistent
private business major graduate field. TheFederal government and
in the proportions fall in between, eachbeing somewhat below average 12 of top-level studentswhom they attract. There is not much evidence
Omar 12Unfortunately the NORCprovided no data onacademic performance
One'would guess, however, for those who checkedstate and localgovernment.
the proportions of top,grade that among those optingfor these employers
education, be very low. Students 'would, likeelementaty and secondary 129
less attractive tothe that, over-all, abusiness career is more or Business was best students than onein the federalgovernment. the superior students distinctly more attractivethan government among
the verse was truein the intending to studyengineering or business;
and the humanitiess The basic fields of education,the social sciences, has the that the academic worldthat produced them conclusion is" . . . most successfUl inits greatest attraction forthe students mho are
schools that preparedthem attract eyes; theelementary and secondary fall in between the less successfulgrade-getters; other employers
(Davis I, 238.) This evidence without much systematicdifference."
recent years, haveasserted confirms the complaintsof those who, in
is recruiting its that neither business norpublic administration
producing. On the other hand, share of the best thatthe colleges are standards of measurement are it should be bornein mind that the
an accurateindex of future themselves academicand are not necessarily spheres of activity. career potentialin other than academic
The NORC in the latespring and summer of1962 conducted a follow-
college up study ofthe same people it hadthe previous year surveyed as the findings of seniors.With regard tograduate school experience,
the plans and expectationsreported the later studygenerally confirmed 14 Nine-tenths in the earlier one,despite some significantvariations.
attending graduate schooland had been of those whodefinitely planned on In addition, admitted at the time ofthe first studyactually did so.
14 reported in NormanMiller, The findings ofthe later survey were
No. 93, June,1963. One Year AfterGraduation, NORC Report 130
FIGURE IV COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF PROSPECTIVEEMPLOYERS OF FUTURE GRADUATE STUDENTSAMONG GRADUTING SENIORS BY(ffiggeggrtiDUATEFIELDS
ftwomp=1111.1711= a . i 0 . ! .r,. .
ni 1 RJ co 0 k 0 tr4 li P 81 43 0 0 'A rd r-4 0 1 C9I rC 4-4 01 MI P4 4 V)
'OWN 66 49 21 16 135 Private Business. 7: 0 80 77 6 4 11 91 50
:
1 46 6 2 o 5 1 3 i 3 5 99 Self-Employed I 761 0 3 30 1
Research
8 . 7 2 8 Organization Dir 2 14 1 5 1 10 3 47 43 20
! 30 12 ;31 26 45 15 College 9 8 3 3 7 5 3 42
Elementary- Secondary 35 1 21088 7 2 8 6.61 ' 5 15 42 School
Federal 36 58 6 14 Government 20 2813 3 7 1 33 11 11
State or Local 13 2 5 Government 2,12 6 ill 33 3 3 3 0 3 3 6
Hospital, Church,
Welfare 1 10 Orgaidistioa,3475 0 0 66 435 1 1 2112 3
2 4 9 4 3 All other 2 5 2 5 3 2 2 3 0 1
Total INNB11133_116& LA25 _13 _2511.1_12,
-based upon Davis I,234.
* including large companies, smallcompanies, and family business. 131
expect it actuallywent on to graduate a substantialnumber who did not seniors who attendedgraduate work, so that theproportion of all the exceeded the school the first yearafter college(35 per cent) actually 15 to do so(32 per cent). proportion who expectedduring their senior year 16 plans to attendthan men. The great Women were more likelyto change their they had anticipated asseniors, majority were studyingin the same fields
biological sciences,humanities but from some fields,notably social and
shifts. By far the largest and "otherprofessions" there were substantial inquiry about futureplans net "gainer" waseducation. In response to the graduate school expected as of1962, the great majoritywho were then in suzyprising number ofdifferent to continue thefollowing year, and in a to a doctoral degree. In addition, fields, the majorityintended to proceed
did not attendgraduate school their a substantialnumber of those who starting graduate workthe second first year followingcollege planned on
college seniorswould have year. Thus, more thanhalf of the original 17 of their second yearafter college. graduate schoolexperience by the end one's confidence inthe reliability In all, the laterNORC report adds to
of the earlierreported expectations.
The Attraction ofPUblic Service decades been agrowing number of There have overthe past several
other kinds ofemployment, and a studies of prestigeof government vs.
segregated, attitudesof college few of these havefocused upon, or
15 Ibid., pp. 2-3. 16,b id., p. 14.
17Ibid. Summarized from Chapter IVand Appendix I. 132
students and graduate students. The significance of these for our purposes rests on an assumption, itself unproven but nonetheless generally reasonable, that there is an association between prestige value and recruitability for
employment. A general finding--almost a premise among political scientists4-
is that public employment has relatively low prestige among the population
at large, relative to private employment and relative to other countries.
Some recent studies have called this generalization into question. There
is some indication that the prestige of public employment has been rising
since the nineteen-twenties and is no lower than in Great Britain and 18 More meaningful for our porposes have been the some other countries, findings of studies that focussed upon particular categories of respondents
and particular kinds of public employment. Although the evidence is far
from conclusive, it seems reasonably safe to draw certain generalizations:
1. Women are more likely to be favorably disposed toward piovernment than men. (igs finding has been quite consistent in all studies which distinguished the sexes. Note also the disposition of the women college students in professional fields to moveinto public service professions such as elementary and secondary education, social work and nursing, and to opt for public employment, noted earlier.)
2. There is an inverse correlation between public service prestige And socio-economic status: those of losieellisses are distinctly more favorable than those of higher. .00.=1,.m.p......
18 See particularly Morris Janowitz, Deil Wright, and William Delaney,
Public Administration and the Public--Perspectives Toward Government in a
a Metropolitan ComTunity,(Ann Arbor: Bureau of Government and Institute of
Public Administration, University of Michigan,1958). Chapter V.
On the other hand, a series of nationwide polls conducted by Roper
showed a considerable drop between 1939 and1962 in the proportion who
would prefer government employment.Reported in Kilpatrick . . . II, op.cit.,
p.660. 133
3. There is an inverse correlation, at least 12 to thepoint of college graduation, between public service prestiria and education: those with more education hold public service in lower esteem. (This is undoubtedly a correlate, in part, of 2 above--socio-economic status--since the middle and upper classes are more likely to go further in school. As will be suggested later, however, there are other factors involved.)
4. Those more favorably disposed toward an expanded or liberal role of government hold lublis service in higheresteem.17.---..".
5. The attitudes of those in private business and in certain professions, particularly those having to do with thinfcs, such as engineering and hard sciences) are highly unfavorable to yublic employment. Confirmatory findings were more recently reported in a study of engineering students and young scientists and engineers by William Jasper in 1961 on the basis of group interviews and questionnaires. See Kilpatrick II, 659460. (Very probably, comparable attitudes would be found among some other professions, notably medicine, architegiure, and, except for attitudes toward political positions, law.
6. Public service prestifce rises wlth the level of government under consideration: federal employment ranks above state, and state above local."4"
The most comprehensive and penetrating study of occupational values
and public employment was that conducted by the Brookings Institution in the
early nineteen-sixties, already referred to. It was addressed to the
Federal level of employment only, but, if item6 above remains valid (as it
probably does), one may interpret the findings as morefavorable toward the
public servie than if the study had applied to state and localemployment
19A specific finding of the Janowitz . . . study in the Detroit area,
pp.69-70. 20 5ee Kilpatrick II, p. 313. The distinctly unfavorable attitudes of
scientists who work in government toward their governmental employment was
emphasized in a study by Clark D. Ahlberg and John C.Honey,Attitudes of
Scientists and Engineers About Their GovernmentERloyment,(Syracuse, Syracuse
University, 1950).
21 First postulated by Leonard D. White inFurther Contributions on the Prestige Value.of Public Employmant,(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932), on tbe bais of a questionnatile study in ten cities. 134
as well. It segregated and separately analyzed the student populationat the high school (junior and senior), college senior, and graduate student levels. In general, the findings confirm, with regard to students, all
of the generalizations above except 4 and 6, about which it provided no
data:
female students are more favorably inclined toward federalemployment and federal employees than males; (Kilpatrick II,Chap.20)
college seniors are distinctly less favorable than high school students and etomewhat more favorable than graduate students; (Kilpatrick I, 130)
high school students from lower-income families are distinctly more favorable to federal employmentthan are those from higher- income familes, but the differences disappear in college, probably partly because the college population, on average, comes from a distinctly higher-income group;(Kilpatrick I, 105-6)
of the three major groupings of college seniors and graduatestudents reported in this study, by far the least favorable toward Federal employment were the engineers; following were those in natural sciences and then those in the social sciences. (Kilpatrick 1,108-9)
The Brookings study asked its respondents to rank Federal employment
against that in a large private business in a number of different respects.
Among the seniors and graduate students in engineering and the graduate
students in natural sciences, business ranked distinctlyhigher; among
those in social sciences and seniors in natural sciences,government
ranked higher. (Kilpatrick I, 109.) Unfortunately, the study did not
ask for comparisons with other types of employment.Business and the
Federal government together claim less than half of thecollege graduates,
and it is very probable, as indicated earlier,that the majority of the top-
grade students are aiming for college orresearch careers. (The Brookings
study itself found that forty per cent intendedto go into an educational
career.) 135
Though this finding suggests a stand-off between business and govern- ment, other questions graded by the student respondents gave business a clear preference. TheSe included: (Kilpatrick II, 251-265.)
"For a young man of ability, his best chance for really being successful
ti lies in "A person who works for the generally has a good chance to
get ahead."
"A young menof ability who starts work in has a good chance
of ending up in one of the top leveljobs."
"Most jobs in are routine and monotonous."
The only statement for which the federal government came out ontop among the students was: "Employment with offers a high degree of security." (Kilpatrick II, 251.)
It was suggested earlier that a principal reason why collegestudents are less favorable toward public employmentthan the high school population is that they are, to adealining extent, a select group,heavily weighted toward upper middle and upper income familes.But the data suggest that there are other forces at work. In the first place, there is no significant difference between the college seniors and graduates who comefrom less well to do families and those from the more affluentfamilies with regard to their attitudes toward Federal employment.Apparently the selectivity involved in deciding to go to college or the collegeexperience itself, or both, dissipated the impact of socio-economic differencesin attitudes.
And the change was generally away from a favorable attitudetoward the public employer. Secondlyy of the groups reported, the two which were least
favorable to Federal employment are engineering and thenatural sciences.
But, as noted earlier, these two include substantialnuMbers from lower- 136
middle and lower income families in thepopulation, whomone might expect tt be
favorable to public employment. They are, indeed, among the principal ave-
nues of upward mobilityin our society.
Finally, it is of interest to note the kinds ofoccupational values
the students associate withFederal employment ascompared with private
employment. In general, it may be said that their perceptionsenvision
many of the same advantagec anddisadvantages and stereotypes as those
of the population as a whole, though in somewhatdifferent proportions.
The greatest advantage associated with Federalemployment by far is"security
and fringe benefits." The greatest disadvantage is"lack of self-de-
termination." Second among the advantages is"financial reward," and
second (among some groups third orlower) among the disadvantages is "poor
financial reward." And high among the perceiveddisadvantages is "bureaucracy,
red tape." Somewhat surprisingly, only one-tenth of the collegeseniors
mentioned "worthwhile service" as an advantage. It is interesting also
that among college seniors and graduatestudents, financial reward was seen
much more often as a disadvantagethan:as an advantage, in direct contrast
with the perceptions of the public at large. (Kilpatrick I, 130-34.)
Insofar as the advantages and disadvantagesof Federal employment as
perceived by the students reflect the reasonswhy they do or do not enter
upon Federal careers, theBrookings findings are pretty discouragingfor
federal recruiters.For they suggest that those who will optfor government
are seeking security, adequate payand benefits, and pleasant environment--
and not much else.This is particularly true of the men.And those who shun
it are repelled by its perceivedlimitations upon initiative and creativity,
its red tape, and its inhibitionsagainst advancement to positions of
responsibility. The engineers mentioned security as apositive factor, int 137
but against public employment they cited poor financial reward, lack of self-advancenent and progress, and lack of self-development, self-expression and creativity. They also complained of the lack of self-determination, along with all the other groups, particularly those in the physical and social sciences. (Kilpatrick II, 574-6.)
It does not appear that the Federal government is attractive to very many aggressive, imaginative, and dedicated young college men, particularly those in some of the significant professional and scientific fields.And one doubts that the state, county and city governments are doing even as well.
It should be stressed that these are the reported serceptions of students, and there is little basis whereby one can say they are right or wrong.
Their evaluations are somewhat less critical of Federal employment than upper level business executives and professionals, somewhat more critical than the general employed public. But they constitute a crucial sector of the society since they are a sample of the pool from which our future public executives will be drawn.
Figure IVsummarizes the views ofmale and female college students on advantages anddisadliantagesof Federal employmentin comparison with high school students and with the general employed public. Obviously, the college groups in general find a good deal more to criticize about
Federal employmentthan do those in high school or those already at work.
Like the other categories, the principal advantage they perceive is
security. A somewhat smaller proportion of them, than of the other groups
consider government financially rewarding. On the other two "advantages"
listed--"interest, enjoyment, satisfaction" in the work end "travel,
leave, recreation, etc." they are higher than the other groups--but a relatively small minority considered these significant. ii 138
FIGURE IV VIEWS OF STUDENT GROUPSON BETTER AND WORSE 22 FEATURES OF FEDERAL, (afteggirMVATE, EMPLOYMENT
Graduate General High School College Students Employed Students Seniors Male Female Male Female Male Female Public
Better in Federal Employment security, stability 31 42 benefits 50 35 51 28 4o 30 26 financial reward 31 34 16 28 14 interest, enjoyment 20 1 satisfaction 9 7 12 22 13 travel, leave, 22 11 15 10 recreation 14. lo 7
Worse in Federal EWoyment lack of self- 28 22 determination 20 12 32 22 35 bureaucracy, 26 41 16 red tape 9 6 24 18 28 13 13 financial reward 23 13 32 14 lack of self- 3 advancement 17 8 21 10 15 5 lack of emphasis on merit in 15 6 3 promotion 3 3 16 8 lack of drive, 13 2 5 initiative 8 Total number 1077 answering 2 0 117 262 134 296 82
22 Based upon Kilpatrick II,572 and 227-239. 139
Among the college students, the differences in perceptions of
Federal employment between the sexes are striking. The men find far more to criticize, far less to attract, than do the women.Twice as many men found financial reward adisadvantage as found it an advantage, whereas, among the women, the proportion is almostexactly reversed.
The principa Federal attraction for the men--the only onefor a good many of themis security. Far fewer women than men listed securityand they found a number of other favorable features. And they are significantly less concerned about propects of advancement andinfringements upon individual autonomy and drive.
Concluding Observations
On the basis of the foregoing data, thegeneral prognosis for the drawing power of the public services for thefuture professionals is not encouraging.This is particularly true with respect to: state and
local employment--one of the biggestgrowth industries; the top grade
students; the general and competitive careerfields, expecially engineering
and the natural sciences; and men incomparison with women. The sex
differences are pronounced and consistent.Women, on the average, are
better students than men. Yet, for historical and social reasons; they
are less demanding andless ambitious in their careeraspirations. The
majority of them gravitatetoward the less prestigious fieldsof school
teaching, nursing, social work andlibrarianship; and the preponderance
of employment opportunities inthese fields lies in the public serviees.
This may partly explain theirgenerally more favorable viewabout public
employment.
Among those preparing for the generalprofessions, most of whom
are men, it appears thatcurrent shortages in nuMbers willbecome more iko
in quality will severe in publicemployment.And present deficiencies
is intensify. The principal attractionfor the best students in college-level teaching, followedbyresearch, and government comes last or nearly last formost of these students. The majority associated government with suchpassive values as security,fringe benefits, and pleasantness ofwork surroundings ratherthan challenge, initiative, creativity, andadvancement.
The data generally confirmthe notion that a good many young people have pretty well made uptheir minds vhat careerfields they will pursue before they getto college; the majorityhad decided as freshmen and persisted in the samegeneral line as seniors.While more than one-thirdchanged their directions duringthe college years, this was generallytoward-fields more consistent with theirbasic
occupational values. This suggests that the collegeexperience had
With regard some influence uponthe career decisions of someof them.
their college to their attitudes towardgovernmental employment during
years, the evidencesuggests that college had asomewhat negative
influence, particularly amongengineering and the sciencesand also
among the top-gradestudents in almost all fields. Perhaps the
principal influence of facultycontacts and curricula, which are
attitudes and discussed in preceding sections,is in strengthening
biases already held.
Before closing this section onsuch pessimistic notes, Ishould call
attention to four caveats about thesestudies and these conclusions.
First is that both the NORC andthe Brookings studies wereconducted in
1960 or early 1961before the Kennedyand Johnson administrations
could have a significant impact uponcollege populations. It is very 141
possible that the stances of these administrations, including the
Peace Corps and poverty programs with their emphases upon college graduates, considerably improved the image of the pliblic service generally and of the Federal service in particular.We do not know the extent of this influence nor of the (prObably) negativt influence of the Vietnam War.
Second, these studies depended upon the veracity, the reported expectations, and introspection of the respondents, and like other surveys of this kind are subject to a certain amount of skewing from various sources. However, both the NORC and the Brookings surveys were planned and executed with much sophistication and care, and their findings appear to be reliable. Most of the original NORC finding were confirmed in the follow-up survey of 1962.
Third, the samples in the studiesIthough scientifically chosen, were insufficient is size to provide reliabledata except for the largest
fields and clusters of fields.A good many professions of key
significance to governmentsuch as city planning, public administration,
public health, foreign servicewere for the most part lumped in with
others.And among the larger professions, such as engineering or
medicinelit would have been useful to learn more about the attributes
and attitudes of those heading toward specialized fields such as civil
engineering or mechanical engineering, psychiatry or public health.
Finally, the assessment of attitudes toward such huge aggregations
as Federal government or state and local government undoubtedly warps
and probably biasses realistic attitudes against realistic employment
probabilities. 142
It seemo very likely that a studentof science who might react vigorously against the federal government in generalmight at the same time think of NASA or a defense laboratory as ahighly desirable emrloyment opportunity. The same might be said of aprospective civil enginner and well reputed state highwaydepartment, a doctor and the National 23 Institutes of Health, a forester andthe US Forest Service, etc.
Obviously we need to know a great deal morethan we do about the
students who will occupy the pools fromwhich governments will draw
many of their workers andmost of their future leaders.We need also
to know about their processes of careerchoice and the influences
which steer them in one oranother direction. The information
currently available is sketchy,but it suggests that the recentand
current situations are a sourceof grave concern for thoseinterested
in strengthening the pUblicservice.
41111.111MON, 23 Evidence of such differentiationbetween attitude toward Federal
government generally and a specific agencyin one's own line of career
interest is provided for thegenerally employed pUblicin the Brookings
specific study. (Kilpatrick II, Chapter 10.)As might be expected, the
agencies prominent in the functionalfields of career generally werefavored
over other typesof Federal employment. This question was not explored
among the students.
1 1.43
CHAPTER VI
FCR RESEARCH SOME coNausIoas,PROBLEMS, AND A PROPOSAL useful here to draw At the risk of somerepetition, it may be discussed in earlier together some of the moresignificantpropositions sections of thismonograph. professional First, American societyis rapidly becoming a The fastest society, or at least onewhich is professionallyled. professional and technical growing occupationalsector consists of one-eighth of Americanworkers are people. At thepresent time about
This compares wlthone-tenth in professional andtechnical fields.
in 1950 andone-sixteenth in 1900. professionals are Second, the leaders inthe employment of of all the American governments at everylevel. More than one-third
the United States arecurrently professional andtechnical workers in include a multitudeof employed bygovernmentand this does not indirectly employed by scientists, engineers,and others who are
and grants.Furthermore, government throughcontracts, sasidies, classified as professional about one third of allgovernment employees are This is more thanthree times or technical orsimilar types ofworkers.
private sector. It is heavilyinflated the comparableproportion in the ;rofessional. However, even by school teacherswho are classified as to out, the proportionof professionals if the schoolteachers are left than double the total public employmentis nearly one-fifth, more
comparable proportionin the privatesector. appointees at or nearthe Third, leaving asidethe political
administrative leadershipof top of our publicjurisdictions, the of educationaland government is increasinglyprofessional in terms 144
experiential backgrounds. That is not to say that the public leadership as such is an administrativeprofession; rather it consists of a very wide variety of professions andprofessionals in diverse fields that are closely related to themissions of the agencies in which they lead.
It should not be necessary at thispoint to debate further the influence that the departments and bureausand other agencies of government excercise in the directionof public affairs.Although there is undoubtedly wide variation inthis respect among different agencies, their impact upon policy and programis almost everywhere considerable, in some cases great, and in afew, virtually exclusive.
Insofar as these public agencies are themselvespeopled and governed by professionals in various fields, this meansindirectly that the professions are exerting a great and probablygrowing influence on the course of public policy--i.e.,in its larger sense, on politics. There is here a curious paradox because almostall of the professions have self-consciously and probably sincerelydedicated themselves to rationality, to science, to objectivity, inshort, to being non-political and even anti-political. In fact, one could almost say that the very political strength of most of the professionsrests on their avowed and popularly accepted image of beingnon-political.
Insofar as the professionals areassuming places of dominance in many
of our public agencies and increasingimportance in the shaping of
public policy, it behooves us to lookat the processes whereby such
men are chosen, developedand educated, oriented, andexperienced.
The preliminary evidence of thisstudy suggests certain hypotheses:
First, may be emphasized theincreasingly direct and binding 1.45
knowledge connection between professionaleducation and career. As
requirements grow in thedifferent fields, itis becoming increasingly
from one difficult for professionallytrained people to transfer
field to another. The vocational choicesthat a budding professional
level, may become career makes in his youth, evenat the high school
commitments dor the lengthof his working life. The opportunities
the for lateral transfer from onevocation to another decline as
In most requisite educationalrequirements for eachincrease. to eleven years professional fields, theserequirements mean from four
of schooling at theuniversity level.
Second, most of theavailable evidenceindicates that government
most of the employment has a relativelylow prestige value among
competitive as between public professions, particularlythose which are
of government declines and private employment,and that the prestige
ladder. the further one hasadvanced up the educational
subject matter, Third, the pressure forincreasingly scientific
themselves accompanied by the continuingpressure fromthe professions
inhibited the for vocationally orientedmaterials,has substantially humanities and the social growth of liberal arts,including both the
producing young professionals sciences, in professionalcurricula. We are technical subjects but not far better educatedthan in the past in the social problems appreciably more knowledgeableand understanding of if they wtich they will be called uponto deal with, particularly
positions of responsibility. opt for government andreach the upper government Fourth, the bias againstpolitics and even against
faculties and the curriculaof cited above appears toextend into the
little treatment or the professional schools,there seems to be in most discussion of public problems,policy, and organization 146
professional curricula. In those professions which start with the freshmen year and include no college levelpreprofessional education, this is a particularly serious problem.
Fifth, the faculties of the professionalschools are increasingly oriented toward scientific subjects and, amongthose professions in which the government must competewith the private market, toward the values and desirability of employmentby private agencies or in private practice. In other words, there is a generalbias in many professional schools against government employmentand against teaching the kinds of subject matter which mightbe relevant to government employment.
Sixth, although there has been increasingattention to the fields of administration and management, these areusually taught with reference to private business and thesociological theories of
organization which are themselves based largely uponprivate business
models. In other words, little attention isgiven to the special and
unique problems of administration andmanagement in government agencies.
Sweeping generalizations such as theseabout allthe professions
and all professional education undoubtedlydbscure wide differences
among the different fields. For example, it may generally betrue
that the public service professionsgive more attention to gavernmental
problems and the social context ofprofessional operations than do the
general professions. Unfortunately, there has beenlittle comparative
study of different professions anddifferent professional training
prograw in these, or anyother regards.
The Malaise of the Field ofRiblic Administration
The principal, almost sole, fieldof academic educationwhich has directed its efforts specificallyto the preparation ofgovernmental leaders is that of publicadministration. The contributions of the
field to the practice of theAmerican governance in termsof concepts,
reforne, and leaders have beensubstantial.Yet in terms of numbers and
of influence it has not grownnearly in proportion to manyother
fields of academic preparation and sometoday feel it to be in serious
problems discussed in this difficulty. Its obvious relationship to the
monograph warrants a brief commentabout its somewhat specialsituation.
As has been indicated in earlierchapters, virtually all ofthe
profesaions are undergoing a period ofuncertainty, unrest, and ferment.
Their boundaries are unclear, andthe nature of their innercontent--
in terms of knowledges andskills--is the object of muchsoul-searching,
internal debate, and external as well asself criticism. In all of these
respects, public administration iscomparable.But it also suffers
a special kind ofambiguity of mission, role, content,andreputation.' It is likely that few in eitherthe academic or the"realllworld would
qualify it as either a legitimateprofession or as an academicdiscipline.
And those who wuld deny thesecredentials include a good many of
the disciples of the fielditself. In his recent report onHigher
Education for PUblic Service, JohnC. Honey states that:"Public
administration is seen as the processesof government rather than as a
"2 discipline or profession. Its posture as a disciplineis clouded by
the alleged absence of anyagreed upon central body oftheory and
411 Although its problems resemblethose of business administration
in some ways,of law in others.
2 A report for the Council onGraduate Education for PUblicAdministration,
American Society for PublicAdministration, Washington, Nov.,19680.6 148
principle which is exclusive unto itself. Rather it draws upon the concepts and methods of many otherdisciplines, particularly the social sciences. It may be noted that, inthis regard, it resembles a good many other fields of study. Its posture as a profession is clouded by the fact that most publicadministrators are in fact members
of other professions, and only a minorityhave been systematically
trained for public adminstration, associateprofessionally with other
administrators outside of their first professionalfield, or link
themselves in a professional organization ofpublic administrators.
Public adminstration, like some other fields,lacks many of the
accoutrements of an established profession: standards of entrance
into the profession; accreditation ofschools; official recognition of
degrees; licensing; a standard code ofethics. In one or another of
these respects, the problems of publicadministration are matched by
other fields wtich prefer to regardthemselves as "professional": business
administration, diplomacy, criminology, etc. But pliblic adminstration
is particularly plagued by the factthat most of its potential"members"
are first of all members of otherprofessions. If it is neither a
discipline nor a profession, one mayreasonably ask: what is it? Honey's
enveloping definition, "the processes ofgovernment", comprehends much
of the worldincludingmost of politicalscience--and is lees than
satisfying to delineate who the publicadministrators are.
A parallel difficulty has been theinability of practitioners and
scholars to agree on what the coreknowledge, skills, and orientation
of public adminstration shouldbe. As we have already noted, this is a
fairly common disease among the professions,but, for a nuMber of reasons,
it is particularly virulent inpublic administratim. Even since Herbert
A. Simon delivered his blast againstwhat he called "The Proverbs of 149
Administration".3,scholars and some practioners havefound the striking dawn of principles an entertainingpastime. In substitution, som have offered broad general 'cheories,after the style of Max Weber and
others, or very narrowly circumscribedtestable propositions, usually,
in both cases, stripped of valueconsiderations. In the first instance,
the concepts are too global, generaland abstract; in the second, too
narrow, special, and trivialto be much value to thepracticing
administrator.As in other fields, the gap betweenscholarship and
practice yawns ever wider as academiatends toward science and collegial
respectability. And it becomes more and moredifficult to identify the
central core of what public administrationis.
Public administration 'labors under two particular difficulties
relating to self-definition wtich are nearlyunique to itself. One has
to do mith policy and politics. It will be recalled that, while the
other professions areproviding the majority of leadershippersonnel
in governments, almost all of them haveself-consciously dedicated
themselves to rationality, science,objectivity--in short, to being
non-political and even anti-political.In fact, their very political
strength rests in part on their avowedand popularly accepted image of
being non-political. Major exceptionsto this divorce from politics
are law, which for historicaland other reasons has long constituted
a special case in thisregard, and pUblic administration. Since sabout
1940, the doctrine of non-separability of publicadministration from
politics and policy has been a tenet ofmost academic leaders in the
field. It is possible that this refusal to espouse adivorce of the 11411. 3In Adminstrative Behavior N.Y.,The McMillan Co., 1947, Ch.2 150
quarter-century, been a reason field from politics has,for the past field of study and for its wayward growth as arespected, independent
of many of the practice. By the same token,the growing interests non-political areas ofsystems younger scholarsin the field in the adminstrative analysis, operations research,sensitivity training,
professional stature behavior, etc. may regain someof the academic and
sacrificed to the interestin politics.
administration is that is Zle other specialdifficulty of public
professions--in espousing has run against thetimes--and the other well as generalism as againstspecialism. Most of the scholars, as
public adminstration the practitioners whoidentify themselves with the information and like to view it as a processof synthesis wherein and welded into a views of specialists arebrought together, judged,
professions view themselves asspecialists, decision. The bulk of the On the and most of them havebeen subdivided intosub-specialties.
administration has refListed whole, though with someexceptions public
actual administrators such internal fission. Curiously, the majority of specialists, and in the of pUblic agenciesreached their posts as the second majority of those agencies,administration operates on anything or third rung ofthe hierarchy andis about as specialized as
else. difficulties in relating Finally, I would mentiontwo practical
First, there is, with education and career inpublic adminstration.
of a clear andindisputable only a scattering ofexceptions, an absence have consistently connection between thetwo. In the United States we
mostofourlineadminstrative positions resisted an adminstrativeclass, and other have been occupiedby functionallyspecialized peoplei.e., 151
professions. This has meant that the principal opportunities for graduates of public administration programs have been infields not yet usurped by specialized professions. They have included some
staff positions in personnel and budgeting and management analysis,
and they have also included some of the newer fields in which
professional dominance has not yet been estab17'.shed,such as housing
and urban renewal, general technical assistance, andadministration in
foreign affairs.As new fields develop, such as the Poverty Program
and the Peace Corps, people trained in public administration may move
in, but in all probability they will later become, orbe succeeded by,
persons specifically trained and specializedfor those fields. The
only group, aside from some of the staff activities,for which
education in public administration as such isspecifically linked
with career is the city-managers, and in this area,public adminstration
has been very successful.
Second, in the absence of an administrative class system,training
in administration as such is remotely useful and may even seemirrelevant
to the young graduate student.He will not assume important administrative
responsibilities until ten or fifteen or twenty yearsafter he completes
his training. Unless public hiring agencies give specialand
preferential treatment to them in terms of levelof appointment and
rapidity of advancementthere is not much incentive for giving up a
year or more for avocational degree. The Federal Management Interne
program is the best exampleof this kind of treatment. 152
The Malaise of Public Administration onthe Campuses
The first university graduate programsin public administration were launched about forty years ago. Since that time, graduate offerings have become standard fare of the academiccafeterias; more than eighty institutions now offer some kind of graduate programin public administra- tion. A majority of these emphasize themanagerial aspects of adminis-
tration and are directed mainly at youngcollege graduates before they
enter upon a government career. Most are carried on by and withindepart-
ments of political science, but in somecases there are separatedepart-
ments or colleges in publicadministration or public affairs. A few
Most offer are institutionallylinked with business administration.
only a master's degree, but ahandful of schools offer doctoratesin
this field.
There have been a number of newinitiatives on some campuses
schools have been during the fifties andsixties. A few new, separate
established (as at Pittsburgh,Western Reserve, Washington,Oregon,
have been sig- Texas, and elsewhere) and someof the existing programs
nificantly enlarged andredirected (as at Harvard,Syracuse, Princeton
students attracted by these and others).Yet the number of graduate of the growing schools remains very small,whether measured in terns
education for other fields needs of government orof the expansion of
the campuses has suffered and professions. Public administration on It has suffered also from some of thedifficulties mentioned earlier.
environment, particularly from some problems peculiarto the academic universities which have not and in some casesexclusively among those
school or college. Some given it separateinstitutional status as a
of these problems maybe stated briefly andcategorically. 153
There is considerable resistance among somefaculty members, particularly in the arts and sciences, againstadmitting the training of public administrators as'a proper objectiveof university education.
The argument, which most of the professionshave at one time or another confronted in their efforts to invade the campuses,is particularly virulent where the effort is pursued withinacademic departments and not in separate schools. In the face of limited resources,training for public administration often comesoff a poor third against thedemands for general education for a growingproportion of society and thedemands for producing at the graduatelevel teachers and professors forthe future.
The argument is strengthened in theminds of many other faculty members by their lack of acquaintancewith, understanding of, andesteem
for public administration,either as a profession or as alegitimate
public admini- field of academic pursuit. The absence of agreement among
stration professors themselves asto what is the proper andteachable
content of the field of courseweakens their case. In one respect in
which they enjoy a substantialconsensus--that publicadministration
must draw upon a number ofdifferent disciplines andprofessional fields--
they run counter to some ofthe most impregnablebarriers and prejudices
disciplines and depart- on university campuses: the compartmentation of
the ments which is at least asforbidding on the campuses as among
different functions anddepartments of governmentsthemselves.
historically the mother The discipline ofpolitical science is scientists today of public administration. But a good many political illegitimate, unwanted, regard this particularchild as an ugly duckling,
Their predominant interests and even a threat to thepurity of the strain. are toward social andpolitical theory, behavioral science,quantitative analysis, few of which have yetcontributed very much attentionto the con- sideration and analysis pf currentpublic problems and theiradministration.
pendulum The study of political sciencehas for many decades swung on a between scientism on the one handand public issues on theother, and it
But at may today bestarting a swing back from theformer to the latter.
small minority of depart- this moment, it does not appear that more than a
friendly homes for ments of political scienceprovide very hospitable and the nurture and growth ofthis particular offspring.
is be- The development andteaching of public administration
the premise that admin- leaguered from another,quite different, direction:
in business istration is a common phenomenonwherever it occurs--whether
This argues that publicadmin- or government orthe church or elsewhere.
istration should be considered asibling of businessadministration--
This theme is by no means somewhat undernourishedand decidedly junior. of new, but it hasrecently been stimullted bythe burgeoning growth research, systems 'management science," including suchtopics as operations
interest in human re- analysis, games theory, etc.;and by the increasing That these lations, more recentlylab2led "organizationaldevelopment." useful in any approaches and techniques areapplicable and potentially But a dominating or kind of administration seemsnow to bewidely agreed.
separate integrityof that branch exclusive emphasis uponthem threatens the
issues in a politicalcontext. of administrationconcerned with public administration are Experience to datesuggests that schoolsof generalized reasons--to be dominatedby a likely--for quitepragmatic, not ideological attracts the endowments,the bud- business orientation. The business side
the faculties. Such schools are gets, the fellowships,the students, and 155
no more helpfullysupportive of, and hospitableto, public administration than are departments of politicalscience.
arises from A. final problem of publicadministration on the campuses
which breed public some, not all, ofthe professional schoolsthemselves brands of administrators. The larger ones developand teach their own
administration, specificallydirected to administrationin their particular
professional fields. In the cases of the"general" professions, contribu-
ting both to the private andpublic sectors, the brandis almost invariably
based upon the business modeland takes littleaccount of the governmental public service em- scene. Even in those fieldsdirected primarily toward welfare, there ployment, such as education,public health, and social
policy-making and therelation- remains a considerablesuspicion of public deriving from the ship between administrationand politics, a suspicion professions in general. wide-spread bias againstpolitics held by the lean upon admin- Administration courses in theprofessional schools often
from observationsof istrative theory, most ofwhich has been developed
"bread-and-butter" treatments ofmid- business enterprises,augmented by routine of theparticular dle management processesin the administrative offices, etc. Of professional agenciesthemselves--schools, welfare
offer nothing whateverin the field\ course, manyprofessional curricula opportunity to study itoutside of the of administrationand little or no
These include, by andlarge, medicine,law, school or disciplineitself.
and the ntural andbiological sciences. administration as an opera- Thus, to the generalproblems of public number of othershaving to do ting, semi-professionalfield are added a
public serviceleadership on the campuses, with educationalpreparation for directed to suchpreparation is not where for the mostpart education most clearly respected as a discipline. These latter problems are 156
manifested in the question of campus organization. A great manydiscip- lines, departments, and professional schools are in the act peripherally; few or none recognize it as a principal motif. In such a milieu, should there be a separate school or center for educationfor leadership in
public policy and its administration? If so, mhat should be its role and
its relationship to political science, to aschool of administration(or
business administration), and to other schoolsand departments which pro-
duce governmental leaders?Underlying these questions oforganization are
problems of concept: the role of the university, vis avis its responsi-
bilities for the public service; the meaningand significance of theword
pUblic"; problem orientation vs.disdipline orientation; continuing educa-
tion for administrators on the campus asagainst undergraduate and
for immediate postgraduate education;the content of programs and courses
public leaders; and many others.
It is unlikely that we can find answersto questions of thiskind
which which are universally agreed, orwhidh are final and permanent, or
about where we are conclusivelycorrect. But sone hard investigations
are and where me aregoing, and some hard thinkingabout the problems
directions in and needs, now and in thefuture, and about the general
In the light which we Should be going couldbe of enormous assistance.
and the capa- of the social problemsfacing America today, the response misdirected. bilities of the universities areinadequate and very possibly
We need an assessment and someimaginative vidance. 157
A Research Proposal
The problems and limitations of publicadministration, as an academic field, have recently been the object of agreat deal of concern on the part of the Cauncil on GraduateEducation for PUblic Administration,the educational affiliate of the AmericanSociety for Public Administration.
In 1965, it commissioned apreliminary study to propose a majorresearch undertaking about education for publicadministration. This initial study, prepared by Professor John C.Honey, was published in1966 under the title,
"Higher Education for Public Service". Subsequently, the Honey report,
practitioners, was republished wi*ch commentary by anumber of scholars and
Review. That in the November,1967 issue of the Public Administration and with certain report, and the subsequentnegotiations with foundations for research governmental agencies, proposed anumber of different objects
in a broad variety and laid emphasis upon theneeds of studying education
public service andadminis- of professions whichprepared individuals for known as public adminis- tration, including but inaddition to, the field
premises were similar tothose tration. In thisregard, its central
presented earlier in thismonograph.
this report of theHoney In view of thesupport by the author of it is neither desirable proposals and of thenegotiations now underway,
and discussedherein. A few obser- nor appropriatethat they be described
vations may, however, bein order. preliminary study that In the first place,it is clear fromthis education in anyfield in its far too little isknown about professional to this aspect of relation to the publicservice. The attention given by its own educators, professional education--byits own practitioners,
non-existent in mostfields and inadequate or byoutsiders,--is sparse or 158
and whether we are in all ofthem.4Too little is knawn of where we are
correction in the future. tending to provide a soundbasis for planning and
of society Secondly, the rapidly changingand developing problems
action growing out of dictate a climate of urgencyfor such study and for upon thecapabili- it. The nation, perhaps eventhe world, is dependent significantly to ties and the vision of thoseprofessionals who provide
should be orientedprimarily its leadership. This suggests that research changes that can be made toward the future ratherthan the past, toward
of what has happenedbefore. now and soonrai:ther than esoteric reviews rather than as Empirical analyses are usefulprincipally as guidance,
applied and orientedtoward action that history. The research should be institutions, by governmental should and can be takenby educational
agencies, and, indirectly,by practitioners andstudents. that studies For this reason, a thirdconsideration is proposed:
for them be conductedby directed to individualprofessions and education
4 excellent recent seriesof reports The outstandingexception was the and World Affairs produced by theCommittee on theProfessional School (522 Fifth Avenue, under the auspicesof Education andWorld Affairs.
which were publishedin 1967, addressed New YorkCity.) These reports, affairs and pro- themselves to thereciprocal impactbetween international
Business Administration, fessional schools ineach of eight fields: Law, Medicine,Public Public Administration,Agriculture, Engineering, organized somewhatalong the lines Health, and Education.The study was and the public suggested here for thebroader study ofthe professions force of studies, wasproduced by a task service. Each study, or pair and professors inthe consisting largely ofeducational administrators
appropriate fields. 159
with their educational people who are well acquaintedwith those fields and
effectuating changes in programs and who arepotentially influential in
mechanism should be such asto those fields. That is, the research findings and recommenda- facilitate, to the maximumextent, translation of tions into action. project be entitledHigher It is suggested thatthe aver-all research
Over-all government ofthe project Education for PublicService Leadership.
distinguished representatives should be provided by acommittee including
public officialsknowledgeable of universities,professional schools, and This committee about present and futureneeds of governmentalagencies. familiar both with theuni- should operate through anexecutive director would probably versity setting and withgovernment. The project itself
the project, tobe carried require at least two years.Najor elements of
consist of the followingelements: onsimultaneously, should focussed upon public 1. needs for graduateeducation specifically affairs) policy andadministration (or public education ofprofessionals in individual studiesdirected at the 2. impact upon publicservice various fieldswhich have substantial least: leadership; theseshould include, at
agriculture; business;engineering; law; general professions: important of the medicine (includingpsychiatry) and the more para-medical professions; city planning; pUblic serviceprofessions: city management; public health;social diplomacy; education;forestry; military; welfare;
mathematics; . sciences: physical: biology; chemistry; social: economics; psychology. leadership. (undergraduate) education andpublic service 3. general above should beconducted underthe Each of thesub-studies indicated field) which (including one for eachprofessional guidance of acommittee officials in the appropriatefields, public should be composedof educators 160
at with their needsand employment, in the appropriatefields familiar
organized professionitself and at least one least onerepresenting the each of the field. Primary staff for not in any wayassociated with the even the appropriatefield of education, sub-studies shouldbe drawn from part-time in nature. Furthermore, though in some casesit might be only executive directorshould provide at least onerepresentative of the attend its meetings,etc. liaison with eachstudy group, sub-study shouldbe synthesized Findings andrecommendations of each the central review of thesub-study committee, in a reportwhich, following circulated should bepublished and widely staff, and thegeneral committee central staff fields. Finally, the among educatorsin the appropriate for review andissuance by the should prepare asynthesizing report the should include amajor emphasis upon general committee.This report preparation ofleaders forpublic over-all role ofthe universityin the that role mosteffectively; and service; obstructionsto fulfilling
strategies forovercoming them. proceed is suggested. All should A variety ofresearch methods the trends,and the about the past,the present, from understandings problems and correc- All should beoriented to prospects forthe future.
They wouldinclude: tives for thoseproblems. quantitative andqualitative, historical reviewsof thedevelopment, educational field; of thepertinent governmental of past,present, andprospective review and analysis of the privatesector, again needs and theirrelation to needs both quantitativeand qualitative; its with particularreference to content analysisof curricula relevance topublic problems; attitudes,aspirations of research onthe perspectives, faculties; survey in theirdevelopment; of students atvarious stages and of selectedpublic officials; 161
entensive study at selected representative institutions of organi- zational,procedural,and pedagogical impediments to flexible crosz-disciplinary and cross-professional programs for present and future public leaders.
It is not feasible within the confines of this preliminary monograph to lay out a complete research design or a comprehensive listing ofthe hypotheses and problems which should be investigated. In fact, many of these hypotheses and problems, as they are visualized by thewriter, have been suggested in earlier pages, particularly Chapters IIIthrough V.
Among the principal research targets should be:
1. The respective roles and performance ofpre-university education, undergraduate education, graduate education,continuing or in- service education;
professional 2. the factors influencing thechoice of educational and fields at different ages and amongdifferent social, economic, cultural groups in the population; andthe factors influencing choice of public vs. other kinds ofemployment;
3. perceptions and attitudes of teachersat the high school, college, and professional school levelstoward occupational opportunities and choices;
4 perceptions of public officials aboutthe profession for which they were trained and the adequacyof that training fortheir pUblic careers;
education 5. the socializing effects ofuniversity and professional upon the students,with particular reference toprofessional norms and standards,understandings of content and purposeof the profession, and attitudestoward public service employment;
with particular reference to 6. the content of educational programs materials and orientation towardsocial problems, management problems, and government generally;
7. government-college relationshipsin the recruitment and employ- ment of professional personnel;
8. influence and interactions ofpublic agencies, private employers, professional organizations vis avis the content of educational programs, theirorientation, and the definitionof the profes- sion itself;
9. principal career channels in governmentand between government and private employment inrelation to educationalbackground, orientation, and professionalsocialization; 162
of professors backgrounds, frames ofreference, and perceptions 10. influence upon about their field, theirobjectives, and their social problems students, again withparticular refermce to and the public service;
norms, and moresand their 11. university organization, processes, influence upon professionaleducation.
It grows from con- The list is suggestiverather than exhaustive. victions that: increasingly upondecisions the future of Americansociety will eLepend and actions taken by governments; effectiveness of theactions the mlsdom of thedecisions and the orientations ofprofession- will depend upon thecapabilitj.es and al leaders in publicoffice;
depend upon theeducation and those capabilitiesand orientations at colleges and socializationimparted in educational programs and universities.
the universities arenot doing as The list reflectstoo a suspicion that to if we are tosurvive. Yet well as they might, orought, or may have remarkably little they--and the rest ofAmerica--have given the topic
attention.