"Academic Freedom" or "Bottom Line": Public College Healthcare Professionals Teaching in a Global Economy

Autor/inn/en	McKnight, Kelly; Muzzin, Linda
Titel	"Academic Freedom" or "Bottom Line": Public College Healthcare Professionals Teaching in a Global Economy
Quelle	In: College Quarterly, 17 (2014) 1, (25 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1195-4353
Schlagwörter	Public Colleges; Health Education; Global Approach; Academic Freedom; Health Behavior; Nursing Education; College Faculty; Health Programs; Interviews; Professional Autonomy; Definitions; Curriculum Design; Health Sciences; Grievance Procedures; Conflict Resolution; Clinical Teaching (Health Professions); Laboratory Training; Intellectual Property; Unions; Teacher Attitudes; Educational Practices; Teacher Surveys; Foreign Countries; Canada + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gesundheitsaufklärung; Gesundheitsbildung; Gesundheitserziehung; Globales Denken; Akademische Freiheit; Health behaviour; Gesundheitsverhalten; Pflegepädagogik; Fakultät; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Berufsfreiheit; Begriffsbestimmung; Lehrplangestaltung; Conflict solving; Konfliktlösung; Konfliktregelung; Laborkunde; Geistiges Eigentum; Lehrerverhalten; Bildungspraxis; Ausland; Kanada
Abstract	College faculty teaching in the health professions work within a unionized, neoliberal system designed to produce competent graduates trained to work in the health care hierarchy. The workers trained include community care assistants, two levels of nurses (practical nurses and baccalaureate nurses, the latter in collaboration with university nursing programs), personal support workers, medical laboratory technologists, paramedics, pharmacy technicians, dental hygienists and assistants, massage therapists, and so on. Academic freedom, a concept held close to the hearts of their university counterparts, is not a term uttered with frequency nor an implicit understanding of many college faculty. This paper explores this phenomenon, examining the conditions under which Canada's health professionals teach and construct health care curricula in public colleges. Interviews with faculty were undertaken by the first author as part of a master's thesis and in a separate project by the second author as part of a larger national study of college faculty (with Diane Meaghan). Interviews with health professional faculty mainly in Ontario explored relationships between faculty and college administration, as well as faculty perceptions of other organizations such as licensing boards influencing the daily work of constructing and teaching health care curricula. The results indicate that college faculty do have concerns regarding academic freedom, with their frustrations and fears expressed in terms of a divide between faculty and local college administration. These concerns are seen as sometimes challenging their ability to ensure the quality of graduates, as well as compromising their rights as faculty and their commitments to their profession and to their own professionalism. More specifically, faculty worried about curtailment of their freedom to design curricula and have access to appropriate resources; and to set grading standards, and in some cases, grades, in the face of relentless "student success" policies. We conclude with speculation about the future of college "academic freedom" as some colleges and programs strengthen their links with universities. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology. 1750 Finch Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario M2J 2X5, Canada. Tel: 416-491-5050; Fax: 905-479-4561; Web site: http://www.collegequarterly.ca
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10