Geography in US Higher Education

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Geography in US Higher Education

• Growth, Change, and Development
• Sarah Witham Bednarz
• Texas AM University

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Agenda

• The US Higher Education Scene
• Context of growth, development, and change
• Geography in This Context
• Growth, development, and change
• New research funding directions
• Curriculum development opportunities
• Geographic Information Sciences

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US Higher Education Scene Background

• Complex system of public and private colleges and
  universities, two- and four- institutions,
  non-profit and for-profit
• 622 public four-year institutions
• 1,220 public and private two-year institutions
• 1,551 private four-year institutions
• 789 private two-and four-year for-profit
  institutions
• State controlled no federal authority per se

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US Higher Education Scene Background

• Extensive doctoral/research universities
• Offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs
  committed to graduate education through the
  doctorate award 50 or more doctoral degrees per
  year across at least 15 disciplines
• Intensive doctoral/research universities
• Similar but smaller in scale at least 10 PhDs
  per year across three or more disciplines
• Public comprehensive institutions
• Normal schools grown up

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US Higher Education Scene Change

• Enrollments have grown
• Expanding opportunities to new populations
• Changes in how students pursue degrees

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US Higher Education Scene Change

• Wider range of socio-economic, racial, ethnic
  groups
• Entering with a different level of academic
  preparation

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US Higher Education Scene Change

• Student access to higher education has expanded
• Changes in technology
• Changes in demography
• Changes in the demand for education

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US Higher Education Scene Status

• Sense of urgency about higher education following
  thirty years of extensive change
• Broad public support but less public investment
• Changes in funding structures
• Decline in state appropriations
• Shift to student tuition and fees
• Questions about what college students learn
• Competing purposes for higher education
• Workers vs an educated citizenry

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US Higher Education Scene Status

• Sense of urgency about higher education following
  thirty years of extensive change
• Broad public support but less public investment
• Changes in funding structures
• Decline in state appropriations
• Shift to student tuition and fees
• Questions about what college students learn
• Competing purposes for higher education
• Workers vs an educated citizenry

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US Higher Education Scene Status

• Sense of urgency about higher education following
  thirty years of extensive change
• Little connection between K-12 and 13-16 and
  beyond
• Increasing interference from policy makers
• Faculty productivity measures
• High stakes testing
• Metrics for teacher education

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US Higher Education Scene Status

• Sense of urgency about higher education following
  thirty years of extensive change
• Weak links between teaching and learning
• Changing demographics of academic workforce
• Decline in proportion of tenured faculty
• Aging population
• Disconnect between research and teaching

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US Higher Education Scene Status

• Sense of urgency about higher education following
  thirty years of extensive change
• Changes in the social charter that links higher
  education to the nation

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US Higher Education Scene Implications for
Geography

• College as high school
• Need for teaching more important than ever
• K-12 situation

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National Geography Standards

• Standards for geography K-12
• Institutionalized in state social studies
  standards
• No Child Left Behind emphasis on reading, math,
  science

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US Higher Education Scene Implications for
Geography

• College as high school
• Need for teaching more important than ever
• K-12 situation
• Demographics of faculty
• Full- time being replaced by part-time
• Need for articulation between two-and four-year
  institutions

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Whither Geography?
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Whither Geography?

• Driving Forces
• Geographic Information Sciences and related
  spatial technologies
• Shared across the mapping sciences
• Environmental sciences
• Shared across the geosciences
• Resisting Forces
• Aging faculty
• Lack of curricular relevance in some contexts

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Growth

• Geographic Information Sciences
• 179 out of 195 geography programs list GIS as a
  specialty
• Proliferation of courses, degrees, and
  certificate programs
• Issues of pedagogy
• UCGIS Model Curriculum?
• Issues of quality assurance
• buttonology vs GIScience
• Workforce issues Minorities? Women?

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Growth

• Geographic Information Sciences
• 179 out of 195 geography programs list GIS as a
  specialty
• Proliferation of courses, degrees, and
  certificate programs
• Issues of pedagogy
• UCGIS Model Curriculum?
• Issues of quality assurance
• buttonology vs GIScience
• Workforce issues Minorities? Women?

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Change

• National Science Foundation Initiatives
• Promoting interdisciplinary initiatives
• Complex environmental systems
• Synthesis for Earth, Life, and Society
• Human dimensions of global change
• Social and behavioral processes that shape and
  influence interactions
• Biocomplexity in the environment
• Integrated investigations of environmental
  systems using advanced scientific and engineering
  methods
• Human and social dynamics
• Causes and ramifications of change

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Development

• National Geography Alliances
• Association of American Geographers Shift from
  developing resources to developing faculty
• Geography Faculty Development Alliance
• Active pedagogy, inquiry-based learning, teaching
  with technology
• Course planning, student assessment,
• Grant writing, publication, tenure and promotion
  issues

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Development

• Curriculum Project

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Development

• Curriculum Project
• Global Learning for All
• American Council on Education
• Funded by Ford Foundation
• Strategies to make international/global learning
  an integral part of undergraduate education

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Conclusions

• A new landscape
• Conflicting priorities
• Scale issues
• Growing need for scholarship of learning/teaching
• Increasingly less important to policymakers