Classifying Professional Preparation Programs
| Autor: | Joan S. Stark |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1998 |
| Předmět: |
Typology
Liberal arts education Social work Higher education business.industry 05 social sciences Professional development 050301 education Professional studies Education 0502 economics and business Mathematics education Organizational structure Sociology 050207 economics business 0503 education Curriculum |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of Higher Education. 69:353-383 |
| ISSN: | 1538-4640 0022-1546 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00221546.1998.11775140 |
| Popis: | Introduction As early as the eighteenth century, faculty members in colleges and universities began to gather into specialized discipline groups. Observing how these groups have evolved, curriculum theorists have noted that the nature and structure of knowledge in traditional domains, such as mathematics or history, give each discipline a distinctive character. Scholars have also noted that, over time, specialized groups of faculty have become more distinct in their interests and communication patterns. The distinctive character of each field means that appropriate and accepted techniques vary not only for inquiry but for teaching, for assessing student learning, for collegial governance, and for organizational structure. Higher education researchers now regularly take these differences into account, arguing that it is not appropriate to generalize from single disciplines, nor to draw conclusions based on data from large aggregations of disciplines. Although differences among arts and sciences disciplines that might affect research results have been extensively explored, the characteristics of heavily enrolled American undergraduate professional fields (ranging from architecture to social work) have received less attention. It is typical to find disparate fields that constitute collegiate level career studies aggregated in both research and practice. Typically, the aggregate is labeled "applied fields," "professional studies," or "the professional schools." Alternatively, research conclusions are drawn from one or two fields that may poorly represent the diversity of applied undergraduate professional training in today's universities. In part, failure to disaggregate the professional programs occurs because unique characteristics of these fields, such as linkages with practice communities and development of professional commitment, are less well known than are characteristics such as "paradigm consensus" by which the disciplines are often classified. In this article I intend to (1) propose that the professional subjects taught to undergraduates in colleges can (and should) be distinguished from one another as the major divisions of the traditional disciplines have been; (2) argue that within the set of fields that may be labeled "applied" other distinctions may be more meaningful than the hard/soft and life/nonlife divisions so often used in research-based classifications; (3) propose a new framework for differentiating and classifying the professional fields; (4) review some evidence that supports the resulting classification framework; and (5) suggest some next research endeavors that could validate the framework and produce a useful typology of the collegiate career fields based on the framework. Characteristics of Collegiate Career Studies (Professional Preparation Fields) In most colleges and universities the majority of enrollment is not in academic fields that are often considered the pure disciplines; rather, most students are enrolled in programs that aim to prepare them for professional and occupational careers. Despite recent campaigns to establish the liberal arts as the most appropriate collegiate study, many educators, students, and parents claim that career fields provide an equally appropriate, but quite different, education that meets students' needs and interests. Policymakers, as well, see education in professional fields as essential to a competitive economy and an international presence. Yet ambiguity about undergraduate professional programs has been so enduring that scholars have not even evolved a clear nomenclature for them. Although often called professional fields, some sociologists argue that they do not meet traditional criteria to be called professional as do the "learned professions" of law, medicine, and theology.(1) For example, in many cases, such as nursing and pharmacy, members are admitted by state licensing rather than directly by the professional group. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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