The Transformation of Academic Work and the Role of AERA in Encouraging Democracy

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

The academy is currently undergoing significant changes. More contingent labor is now hired than tenure-track faculty. Budget cutbacks have forced public colleges and universities to retrench; class sizes are increasing and college enrollments are decreasing. For-profit higher education is on the rise. Faculty speech is curtailed and profit becomes a primary motive. First-generation students are being closed out of higher education while tuitions and loans increase. This session will speak to the changes that are occurring in the academy and consider what sorts of responses AERA might make in relation to those changes. The underlying premise of this session is that postsecondary education, broadly defined, is a public good and the responsibility of the faculty is to speak out on the critical issues of the day.

Sub Unit

• Presidential Session

Chair

• Constance Iloh, University of Southern California

Participants

• Kevin Kumashiro, University of San Francisco

• Gary D. Rhoades, The University of Arizona

• Estela M. Bensimon, University of Southern California

• William G. Tierney, University of Southern California