Pedagogy of “Doubt” and the Attack on Colleges of Education (Part II)

Guest Blogger Morna McDermott teaches in the College of Education, Towson University. This post originally appeared  here. Supporting evidence for Part I Corporate Control of Higher Ed A Deeper Examination of the Messaging In Part One I mentioned two articles: http://edexcellence.net/articles/reforming-ed-schools-from-within and https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/teacher-prep-programs-need-to-be-accountable-too/2015/02/20/ed140f44-b8fc-11e4-aa05-1ce812b3fdd2_story.html . The first one is published by Fordham Institiute (known for a its corporate-model reforms) promoting ““Deans…

Pedagogy of “Doubt” and the Attack on Colleges of Education (Part I)

Guest Blogger Morna McDermott teaches in the College of Education, Towson University. This post originally appeared  here. Let’s Start with a Few Recent Headlines: Teacher Prep Colleges Are Failing the Teachers Study Delivers Failing Grades For Many Programs Training Teachers  States Slow to Close Faltering Teacher Ed. Programs (also see more recently: http://edexcellence.net/articles/reforming-ed-schools-from-within and https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/teacher-prep-programs-need-to-be-accountable-too/2015/02/20/ed140f44-b8fc-11e4-aa05-1ce812b3fdd2_story.html ) Traditional colleges of…

Experts and Adjuncts: The New Model for Higher Education

The American professoriate once ranged from professionals who taught a course as an adjunct—a contribution to their professions, the compensation being almost nothing—to the regular (but generally poorly paid, often relying on family fortune to sustain them) faculty who generally assumed lifetime security at institutions whose operation their colleagues dominated. That changed over the decades starting…

Let’s at Least Talk Realistically about Guns

In a comment on my recent post “Four Things to Know about the Debate over Guns,” a reader quoted John F. Kennedy and George Washington on the value of an armed citizenry as a hedge against government tyranny. Yet, in the post itself, I never suggest eliminating gun ownership. I simply present statistics. Though I…

The Truth About Charter Schools

Alan Singer is a professor of Teaching, Literacy and Leadership and the program director of graduate programs in Social Studies Education at Hofstra University. Dr. Singer is a former New York City high school social studies teacher and is editor of Social Science Docket, a joint publication of the New York and New Jersey Councils…

Shared Governance at Risk at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

We are now beginning to see the effects of the recently passed budget bill in Wisconsin that eliminated the protections of tenure and shared governance from state statute for the University of Wisconsin. The bill specifically called for deleting a provision in law “specifying that the faculty of each institution be vested with responsibility for…

National Moment of Silence for Umpqua Community College

The following came from the Faculty Association for California Community Colleges (FACCC): Dear Colleagues, Please join us this Thursday, October 8, at 11:00 a.m. for a moment of silence in solidarity with Umpqua Community College. The Faculty Association of California Community Colleges stands together with community colleges across the country in this important effort. Encourage your colleagues, students,…

Self-Promotion Indistinguishable from Stupidity

Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, is desperate to attract any acknowledgement of, never mind genuine interest in, his presidential ambitions. So, it is hardly a surprise that he would insert himself into the debate over gun access following the mass murder at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. Never mind that Jindal’s own state has…

LSU Senate Replies to Administration

Late yesterday I posted news that the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge Faculty Senate had voted by an overwhelming 39-5 margin to censure LSU Chancellor-President F. King Alexander and two other top administrators for their roles in the dismissal of tenured professor Teresa Buchanan.  The LSU administration responded with the following press release, issued…