Encountering American higher education: First-year academic transition of international undergraduate students in the United States

This study explored how international undergraduate students perceive their academic transition into American higher education. Schlossberg’s (1984) 4S Transition Theory served as the framework for exploring what academic challenges, if any, international students experience during their first year of undergraduate studies in a new cultural and educational setting. The findings revealed that students’ academic transition into the U.S. higher education was characterized by difficulties in understanding the academic system of their new environment; overcoming educational, instructional and pedagogical differences; building social relationships with domestic students; and receiving the support necessary from the appropriate institutional services.

Ética, Desarrollo Sostenible y Responsabilidad Social desde la docencia en instituciones de educación superior latinoamericanas

El presente documento muestra los resultados de un análisis de las reflexiones vertidas por docentes y funcionarios universitarios de ocho países de América Latina, quienes participaron en las dos ediciones de un diplomado internacional, producto de la colaboración entre la Unión de Responsabilidad Social Universitaria Latinoamericana (URSULA) y la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, cuyo eje de trabajo fue el análisis del impacto que tiene la labor docente sobre el desarrollo sostenible. El estudio se desarrolló desde un enfoque mixto. Mediante un análisis de contenido se analizaron cualitativamente 410 contribuciones realizadas por quienes participaron en el diplomado y, posteriormente, se llevó a cabo un análisis de frecuencias para cuantificarlas en torno a los ámbitos y metas del Modelo de Responsabilidad Social Universitaria propuesto por URSULA. El trabajo concluye señalando que la docencia universitaria debe ser revalorada, en términos de su contribución al desarrollo sostenible, pues a través de su ejercicio se materializa la pertinencia social de la formación profesional mediante el desarrollo de prácticas y contenidos que acerquen al estudiantado a la realidad económica, social y ambiental en que viven. Palabras clave: Ethics, Sustainable Development and Social Responsability from university teaching in Latin American higher education institutions

Equitable Design and Assessment

English academic discourse in U.S. institutions rests on Eurocentric rhetoric where hidden assumptions and expectations may place transnational students at a disadvantage in instruction, assessment, and entrance into communities of practice. The author's empirical research draws on transnational students, faculty, and staff perceptions into linguistically sustaining pedagogy to bring awareness to transnational lived experience and to make recommendations for equitable instruction and assessment. Bakhtin's dialogism and negotiation and the Academic Literacies model provide theoretical frameworks to provide practical recommendations while also examining the negative discourse and deficit-based practices surrounding English learners in American higher education. A discussion of a course redesign highlights possibilities for valuing the transnational student and offering equitable pedagogy while also increasing student investment in language learning.

The Attack on Higher Education

American higher education is under attack today as never before. A growing right-wing narrative portrays academia as corrupt, irrelevant, costly, and dangerous to both students and the nation. Budget cuts, attacks on liberal arts and humanities disciplines, faculty layoffs and retrenchments, technology displacements, corporatization, and campus closings have accelerated over the past decade. In this timely volume, Ronald Musto draws on historical precedent - Henry VIII's dissolution of British monasteries in the 1530s - for his study of the current threats to American higher education. He shows how a triad of forces - authority, separateness, and innovation - enabled monasteries to succeed, and then suddenly and unexpectedly to fail. Musto applies this analogy to contemporary academia. Despite higher education's vital centrality to American culture and economy, a powerful, anti-liberal narrative is severely damaging its reputation among parents, voters, and politicians. Musto offers a comprehensive account of this narrative from the mid-twentieth century to the present, as well as a new set of arguments to counter criticisms and rebuild the image of higher education.

Teaching in the Aftermath of a Pandemic: Must an Employer Provide an Accommodation for Commuting for a Disabled Employee?

Part I of the paper discusses the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA, its requirements, and various protections for persons who suffer from a recognized disability which impacts their ability to work under certain circumstances and conditions. The context of this study is American higher education. Part II will discuss the obligation of an employer to offer a “reasonable accommodation” of the nature sought by an employee which would permit the employee to continue teaching while otherwise meeting all of the obligations imposed on faculty members under appropriate university policies. Specifically, the research question considered in Part II relates to whether “commuting” is a covered activity under the ADA which would trigger the responsibility of providing the employee with a reasonable accommodation, allowing an employee to teach in the employee’s preferred combination of online and hybrid modalities.

Teaching in the Aftermath of a Pandemic: Must an Employer Provide an Accommodation for Commuting for a Disabled Employee?

Part I of the paper discusses the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA, its requirements, and various protections for persons who suffer from a recognized disability which impacts their ability to work under certain circumstances and conditions. The context of this study is American higher education. Part II will discuss the obligation of an employer to offer a “reasonable accommodation” of the nature sought by an employee which would permit the employee to continue teaching while otherwise meeting all of the obligations imposed on faculty members under appropriate university policies. Specifically, the research question considered in Part II relates to whether “commuting” is a covered activity under the ADA which would trigger the responsibility of providing the employee with a reasonable accommodation, allowing an employee to teach in the employee’s preferred combination of online and hybrid modalities.