Academic Capitalism And Historically Black Colleges And Universities: Institutional Conflict

The relevance of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the current educational climate remain a critical issue. A mixed-methods case study was used to examine the conflicting concerns among faculty at a private HBCU in northeast Texas that has in recent years faced financial distress, declining enrollment, and administrative leadership turnover. The research design incorporated a two-step, critical race process that examined ‘faculty concerns’ on two hypothesized dimensions: academic capitalism versus academic autonomy. Relying on the meta-theory of institutional logics, the study examined the embedded racial structure of market-based metrics associated with HBCU faculty caught in a wave of ‘academic capitalism’ and the consequent paradox of trying to maintain their traditional role as scholastic gatekeepers. The findings suggest two institutional logics—neoliberalism at the administrative level and faculty autonomy at the academic level—were in conflict. It is recommend that HBCU stakeholders recognize the differences in institutional logics affecting faculty perceptions to mitigate the ongoing crises associated with administrators, finances, accreditation, and academic standards. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed

Competing Institutional Logics And Teaching Effectiveness In Traditional And Online University Classrooms

Relying on an institutional logics framework, we use a case study method to investigate competing inter-institutional logics effecting U.S. postsecondary teaching effectiveness ratings in traditional and online courses at a midsize Texas public university. Prior research attributes differences to instructor and student attitudes, performative characteristics, and motivation but few studies have examined evaluation outcomes in light of competing logics that contextualize administrators, faculty, and students’ practices in the qualitatively different classroom settings. Using a multilevel latent factor model, we correlated variances in students’ assessments on key institutional criteria and compare differences in students’ teaching effectiveness ratings between the two settings. We theorized that different neoliberal dispositions emerge from competing institutional logics framing actors\u27 normative assumptions in traditional and online classrooms. The findings indicate that instructors’ significantly lower evaluations in online classes were linked to competing institutional logics affecting actors’ cognitions and practices. Noteworthy was students’ assessments were not gender biased from an institutional logics perspective in either instructional field

Student perceptions and instructional evaluations: A multivariate analysis of online and face-to-face classroom settings

Authors copy of an article originally printed in Education and Information TechnologiesThis study examined students’ evaluations of faculty performance in traditional and online classes. The study design builds upon prior research that addressed socially relevant factors such as classroom environments, students’ learning goals, expected, and received grades, and more importantly, students’ ratings of instructors’ performance. The sample consists of data from a population of humanities and social sciences faculty from a medium-sized southwest undergraduate university who taught both online and traditional classes during the semester periods Fall 2010 to Spring 2012. In a traditional setting, the evaluation factors (develops rapport with students, stimulates students, challenges student learning, provides timely feedback, and teaches fundamentals), and the external factors—(course level taught and gender)—were found to significantly contribute to faculty summary scores. In an online class, students consistently rank female instructors better. However, the evaluation criteria—develops student rapport, stimulates students, provides timely feedback, and teaches fundamentals (though not ‘challenges and involves students in their learning’)—mirrored the same affects observed in the traditional classroom evaluations. The finding that “teaches fundamentals” received the largest standardized beta-coefficient in both classrooms further confirms earlier research that university students perceive course mastery as a major indicator of instructor performance regardless of gender or rank. However, the results indicate that students’ perceptions are different when attending a traditional versus online classroom setting. This infers that synchronous and asynchronous settings require different teaching styles and different evaluation criteria.Sociolog

Student perceptions and instructional evaluations:A multivariate analysis of online and face-to-face classroom settings

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