WHAT? Session 2.5 “Casualties and Collateral Damages: A Critical Look at Educational Entrepreneurship in LIS.” A panel with presentations and discussion with the audience.
WHEN? Wednesday January 22, 2:00 -3:30 pm.
WHERE? The conference hotel: DoubleTree Philadelphia City Center.
WHO IS CONCERNED? All LIS educators, administrators, practitioners, and students interested in participating in a discussion about the unintended consequences of educational entrepreneurship in LIS.
BACKGROUND
In the context of this session, the term entrepreneurship is understood in reference to the development of alternative business approaches in the market place.
Indubitably some of the positive outcomes of the entrepreneurial spirit in higher education is what led LIS programs to harness information and communication technologies to innovate with methods of course delivery and attendance, online student participation and faculty/student interaction, the design of online degree programs and virtual campuses, and to open the doors of our programs to a geographically distributed body of diverse students. Benefits of educational entrepreneurship are obvious in particular for administrators, who rejoice over increased enrollment and less reliance on physical facilities, and for students, who revel in the opportunity to earn a degree online while working full time and without uprooting their family. However, as a profession we have neglected to take a step back and critically look at the effects of the entrepreneurial approach in LIS education. The time has come to examine the unintended consequences of educational entrepreneurship and the possible negative outcomes of this approach.
Here are some of the topics and questions we hope will be discussed with our audience:
References
Slaughter, S. and Leslie, L. L. (1997). Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore, Md. & London, U.K.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Slaughter, S. and Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic Capitalism in the New Economy. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
WHEN? Wednesday January 22, 2:00 -3:30 pm.
WHERE? The conference hotel: DoubleTree Philadelphia City Center.
WHO IS CONCERNED? All LIS educators, administrators, practitioners, and students interested in participating in a discussion about the unintended consequences of educational entrepreneurship in LIS.
BACKGROUND
In the context of this session, the term entrepreneurship is understood in reference to the development of alternative business approaches in the market place.
Indubitably some of the positive outcomes of the entrepreneurial spirit in higher education is what led LIS programs to harness information and communication technologies to innovate with methods of course delivery and attendance, online student participation and faculty/student interaction, the design of online degree programs and virtual campuses, and to open the doors of our programs to a geographically distributed body of diverse students. Benefits of educational entrepreneurship are obvious in particular for administrators, who rejoice over increased enrollment and less reliance on physical facilities, and for students, who revel in the opportunity to earn a degree online while working full time and without uprooting their family. However, as a profession we have neglected to take a step back and critically look at the effects of the entrepreneurial approach in LIS education. The time has come to examine the unintended consequences of educational entrepreneurship and the possible negative outcomes of this approach.
Here are some of the topics and questions we hope will be discussed with our audience:
- The effects of “academic capitalism” (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997; Slaughter and Rhoades, 2004) on the hiring of LIS faculty.
- The possible end of tenure and the advent of renewable contracts for all.
- Labor
conditions for educators outside the tenure track.
- Can LIS PhDs experience a true academic career outside the tenure track?
- Can we really evaluate the professional readiness of "virtually" socialized librarians (MLS) and scholars (PhD) graduating from online MLS and PhD programs?
- Are online communities of scholars, electronically mediated mentorship, and advising of doctoral students adequate in the context of the doctoral research project?
-
Are
we recruiting and graduating too many students? Are MLS and PhD students prepared to face the precarity associated with part-time employment
or to seek alternate careers outside libraries and academia?
References
Slaughter, S. and Leslie, L. L. (1997). Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore, Md. & London, U.K.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Slaughter, S. and Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic Capitalism in the New Economy. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.