A Professional Professoriate: Unionization, Bureaucratization and the AAUP (Vanderbilt Issues in Higher Education) - Softcover

Hutcheson, Philo A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826513484 ISBN 13: 9780826513489

Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Starting with the question "How have professors and educational institutions responded to pressures to be professional yet act bureaucratically," Philo Hutcheson uses federal and AAUP records and surveys and blends historical research and sociological analysis to develop a full understanding of the problem. With the dramatic expansion of the professoriate following World War II came increasing tensions between the professor's perceived traditional status as an autonomous professional on the one hand and new role as a bureaucrat subject to institutional authority and responsible for departmental and committee assignments on the other. In this increasingly conflicted realm, the AAUP functioned as a key intermediary, dealing with such issues as tenure, salary, contracts, and even faculty strikes.
Hutcheson examines how tensions between the requirements of institutional bureaucracies and the norms of the academic profession resulted in contentiousness and conflict within the national AAUP, between administrators and faculty members on individual campuses, within the ranks of faculties themselves, and even deep in the consciences of many concerned individuals. The book analyzes the association's ability to respond effectively and to balance the values of collegial representation with the powers of collective bargaining. It thus offers a detailed and authoritative examination of the AAUP's search for ways to sustain professionalism while dealing with the fundamental changes in the nature of the professoriate in the post-World War II era.

About this title

About the Author

Philo A. Hutcheson is assistant professor of educational policy studies at Georgia State University. He is well known for his research and writings on historical and contemporary issues concerning the faculties of American colleges and universities and has also worked in the field of college admissions and other administrative roles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826513484
• ISBN 13: 9780826513489
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288