21st Century Scholar

Kurt Vonnegut once said to a group of eager writing students, “Probably all of you are good enough to make it as writers. But it’s likely that only one of you has what it takes to endure the constant rejection.” I’m not sure I would reduce academic life to such a straightforward statement, but he’s [...]

As I approached this May 7 blog post I was all set to write about AERA 2013, a phenomenal career-changing experience. I left San Francisco feeling refreshed in my purpose as an emerging scholar in the field of postsecondary education. But shortly after I returned home I was reminded by another unfortunate incident of my [...]

As May approaches, Ph.D. candidates are scrambling to submit dissertation chapters to their committee chairs. At the same time, many have heard or are eagerly waiting to hear from search committees regarding potential jobs. Some even have job offers. During a hectic time, the negotiation process only adds to the hubbub. Here’s some advice: Take [...]

On the first day of school, two students started fighting. One student tried to escape. The two ran from the first to third floor. A crowd followed them. Just before the fight stopped, a security guard’s head slammed through a window in my classroom’s door. She never returned to school. A few days later, someone [...]

The truth is, the spaces and occupations we belong to can hurt us. Such a notion is no stranger to any profession, much less to anyone working in academe. Yet I wonder why pain and healing seem to be almost taboo topics in this arena. Perhaps because the nature of our work is almost machine-like, [...]

Earlier this year Forbes offered a list of The Least Stressful Jobs of 2013. I shared it with some colleagues and the list has made the rounds on Facebook. Professors replied with anger, outrage, and disbelief. So many of us responded the author of the list had to respond to our responses. She hedged a [...]

Yesterday we left off having discussed two disruptive criteria. Today, we will continue with four other criteria. Let’s rejoin Ms. Interviewer and Mario … Ms. Interviewer: Mario, welcome back. Let’s continue. Here is a question that captures the third criterion: Is/was the disruptive innovation produced outside the established value network of traditional colleges and universities? [...]

Clayton Christensen’s examples of disruptive innovations in the private sector show they are usually brought to market by new organizations that, well, disrupt the market. Both these characteristics fit well with breakthrough business model innovation on the adapted Tucker framework I have been discussing. So, in this sense, disruptive innovation is not a framework in [...]

The framework I described and adapted from Robert B. Tucker, in yesterday’s blog, is applicable to higher education. Let’s review a few examples. Historically, the community college stands as a key innovation in the industry. Interestingly, the birth and maturation of this new breakthrough business model did not signal the death of traditional four-year institutions [...]

Innovation is a “hot topic” in higher education, but what does innovation really mean? All colleges want to be seen as innovative. But the implications of truly creating or adopting an innovation in higher education necessitate that we move beyond journalistic hyperbole and the administrative and trustee habit of promoting their institutions as innovative because [...]