Changing a curriculum is already stressful enough without finding new ways to create anxiety, discontent, and rancor. To provide a truly integrated liberal education, the author contends that educators must not only change their curricula--the courses they offer--but they must change what they do in the classroom, the kinds of papers and…

Over the last two decades in many countries, culturally responsive, multicultural and bilingual approaches to teaching have largely been replaced by standardised curricula and pedagogy, rooted in a political shift toward neoliberalism that has pushed business models of school reform. I argue that neoliberal reforms, by negating the central…

Identifies issues related to the scope and content of bargaining at three levels of state government: statewide negotiations, departmental negotiations, and delivery system negotiations. The aim of the approach is to facilitate governmental innovation and productivity. (Author/IRT)

Argues that curricular revision (in the direction implied by widespread adoption of terms such as "canon" and "theory") has been accomplished with little overhauling, in large part by adding non-White, nonmale, nonclassical writers to traditional courses. Argues that reading new works is not the same as arriving at new…

Foreign language departments tend to develop into sophisticated organizations, giving service to large numbers of students and capable of applying the best technology available. Several models of departmental organization indicate some lines of effective growth. (JB)

Argues that lack of faculty consensus, combined with a multiplication of university programs, has convinced the public that universities serve secular needs and that their priorities should be established by the marketplace. Argues the key to preserving faculty control is for the faculty to take the agenda of practicality and remake it in a…

Johnes and Johnes demonstrate use of data-envelopment analysis to construct an efficiency frontier comparing different UK university economics departments' efficiency without having to assign uniform weights to inputs and outputs. Since desirability of departmental goals cannot be compared, DEA's usefulness is limited to comparing relative…

This rejoinder to K. K. Fung's critique of the authors' data-envelopment analysis (DEA) article argues that eliminating inefficiency by competition requires perfect information, not just freedom of entry and exit. DEA provides the necessary information, but is not intended as a mechanism to replace peer review. (MLH)

Notes that many scholars see Gerald Graff as a revolutionary critic who provides a model for making fundamental changes within the discipline of English. Focuses on the historical marginalization of the fields of composition and rhetoric studies not addressed by Graff in his book "Professing Literature." (RS)

A conceptual model for agricultural education departments posits that teaching/learning is the central mission, it encompasses more than teacher preparation (e.g., extension, agricultural communications), the various parts of the department should contribute to the mission and be interrelated, and settings in which the mission is applied are of…

Noting that humans do not deal very well with differences despite thousands of years of practice, this paper argues that dealing with differences is an ethical issue for the 21st century to which speech communication departments must respond. The first part of the paper follows R. Johannesen's recommendation that ethical issues, particularly…

Compares three models of agriculture in universities: (1) the current rigid departmentalized model; (2) the integrative university with cross-disciplinary linkages and information exchange with farmers; and (3) the active learning university with students and faculty integrated in the farming environment and two-way flow of knowledge and…

Reveals how a business model--based on the work of W. Edwards Deming--helped a foreign language department chair become a better leader. Outlines seven principles for department chairs: create constancy of purpose; change and improvement are ongoing; drive out fear; work with suppliers to continually improve the quality of incoming people,…

Any university or college department that is conducting a self-study (self-evaluation) must do so in an organized and open-minded fashion. Too often persons can delude themselves into believing that they are conducting self-analysis when they are actually engaging in self-congratulations or conducting a disorganized search that will lead to…

Believes that university departments should use a business model in developing a strategic plan. Describes how to create this type of strategic plan that includes three steps: (1) developing the vision and goals; (2) marketing and evaluating the competition; and (3) using feedback and revising. (CMK)