The problem is pretty deep when noticing it seems like apparent nit-picking. Many schools are not only in academic, but financial freefall too. You may not be able to fix the problem, but you'll at least be glad you tried.
I experienced this curriculum inertia for 40 years. Faculty do not like to move out of their comfort zone. The see curriculum building as based on what individual faculty know and like to teach. This conservative position is selfish and short sighted - faculty centered rather than student centered.
Sometimes this expresses itself as support of Kuhn’s NORMAL SCIENCE and resistance to paradigm shifts. Today politics and culture seem to be playing a bigger role in Kuhn’s dialectic. To those who argue that curriculum needs to steer clear of culture, I say that is not possible and never was possible because education drives culture change from generation to generation. (See Mead’s book Culture and Commitment. )
Diversity of perspectives should always be welcome as long as it is empirically base.
The problem is pretty deep when noticing it seems like apparent nit-picking. Many schools are not only in academic, but financial freefall too. You may not be able to fix the problem, but you'll at least be glad you tried.
IF this is typical (and I tend to think it is), is it any wonder that many conservatives are disgusted with academia?
Thanks for trying!
I experienced this curriculum inertia for 40 years. Faculty do not like to move out of their comfort zone. The see curriculum building as based on what individual faculty know and like to teach. This conservative position is selfish and short sighted - faculty centered rather than student centered.
Sometimes this expresses itself as support of Kuhn’s NORMAL SCIENCE and resistance to paradigm shifts. Today politics and culture seem to be playing a bigger role in Kuhn’s dialectic. To those who argue that curriculum needs to steer clear of culture, I say that is not possible and never was possible because education drives culture change from generation to generation. (See Mead’s book Culture and Commitment. )
Diversity of perspectives should always be welcome as long as it is empirically base.
Thanks for taking a stand. Here's an example of a Maoist struggle session from a university 20 years ago that is now commonplace across education: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-groom-commissars-maoist-struggle-session