BY FELIX A. KRONENBERG AND VERNA CASE
Recent events on campuses throughout the country, such as the coronavirus pandemic, innovations in technology and pedagogy, and changes in demographics, have created challenges for institutional leaders, faculty, students, and other constituents. We believe that such challenges can benefit from an understanding of the power of place in higher education.
Place is both simple and utterly complex. We all seem to know what it means, and yet different people, schools of thought, and academic disciplines have quite distinct definitions. Is campus the same “place” as it used to be? How does this influence how faculty teach and interact with their students? How has the college experience changed for students? How do college leaders need to think about place as they define their institutions’ futures? What advice do all of these individuals need as they consider more effective ways to teach, to create connections, and to plan for the future?
Over the summer and fall of 2021 we conducted hour-long interviews with ten college leaders about the importance of place at their institutions, using the expert interviews methodology. The collected data and analysis resulted in the creation of a concept map illustrating the factors discussed by these leaders. The interactions of many factors contribute to the power of place. For this brief article, we have simplified the concept map by blurring out details.
Most of the leaders interviewed first focused on their physical campus. As the interviews progressed, the leaders began to understand the complex nature of place at their institutions and the critical role institutional values play in defining the power of their place. By the end of the interviews, these leaders recognized that in order to effectively lead they need to consider all factors that define their place. More importantly, each leader understood that their institution’s ecosystem has a unique place in the higher education landscape. Additionally, given the events of the past several years, the college leaders comprehended that there are many factors that could be out of their control. The current context can change rapidly and might impact any or all of the factors on the concept map. While planning for such events is impossible, an in-depth understanding of the power of their institution’s place will enable them to pivot more rapidly and respond to unexpected occurrences. By sharing this understanding of the interdependence of the factors indicated in the concept map, all campus constituents can utilize the knowledge of place to better foster the educational mission of their institution.
Our results align with Cresswell’s (2019) definition of place:
“Place as an assemblage of materiality, meaning, and practice; place as a necessary social construct; place as a crossroads of roots and routes, where pasts become futures—this is where the possibilities for certain kinds of truth are formed, and this is why they are powerful.”
Each interviewed leader recognized that the power of place at their institutions is strongly influenced by a multitude of factors, including their surrounding communities, geographical locations, cultural histories and emotional attachments. These factors combine to weave a complex tapestry that make each institution unique. As we continue to analyze the interviews, we hope to refine the concept of place, and envision that it may serve as a useful tool for campus communities to imagine their institutions’ futures.
The next steps in this project include identifying additional leaders for interviews, analyzing their responses, and publishing a complete, annotated concept map. Later we will create professional development and planning tools based on the power of place. We are also interested in exploring how other stakeholder groups, such as faculty, view their institutions through the lens of place.
Felix Kronenberg is the director of the Center for Language Teaching Advancement (CeLTA) and an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University. His research interests include learning space design, sociomateriality, innovation in language education, and technology. Currently he is finishing a monograph on physical language learning spaces under contract with Bloomsbury Academic. Kronenberg served as past-president of the International Association for Language Learning Technology and as president of the South West Association for Language Learning Technology. He is an advisory board member of the Learning Spaces Collaboratory and has been a fellow for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education. He is coprincipal investigator on the 2.5 million dollar Andrew W. Mellon Foundation LCTL and Indigenous Languages Partnership grant, and principal investigator and founding director of the National Less Commonly Taught Languages Resource Center (NLRC). He has also worked as a learning spaces consultant to more than a dozen institutions.
Verna Case is Beverly F. Dolan Emeritus Professor of Biology, Davidson College. She began her higher education career at Davidson College in 1974. During her tenure at Davidson, she served for sixteen years as chair of the biology department and for seven years as an academic associate dean. In her administrative capacities, she played a major role in several building projects, as well as master and academic planning initiatives. She conducted external reviews for twenty-one higher education institutions and programs, some in collaboration with Project Kaleidoscope and Jeanne Narum. Case directed a number of institutional grants at Davidson, including grants from the Howard Hughes Institute and the National Science Foundation and was selected as a 2009–10 ACE Fellow. Recently, Case served as Davidson’s interim John and Ruth McGee Director of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program and she continues to direct the Davidson in Zambia program.
