How Scholars Trumped Teachers: Constancy and Change in University Curriculum, Teaching, and Research, 1890-1990 [Paperback]

Larry Cuban (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1999 | ISBN-10: 0807738646 | ISBN-13: 978-0807738641

Examining a century of university history, Larry Cuban tackles the age-old question: What is more important, teaching or research? Using two departments (history and medicine) at Stanford University as a case study, Cuban shows how universities have organizationally and politically subordinated teaching to research for over one hundred years. He explains how university reforms, decade after decade, not only failed to dislodge the primacy of research but actually served to strengthen it. He examines the academic work of research and teaching to determine how each has influenced university structures and processes, including curricular reform. Can the dilemma of scholars vs. teachers ever be fully reconciled?

This fascinating historical journey is a must read for all university administrators, faculty, researchers, and anyone concerned with educational reform.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Larry Cuban is Professor of Education at Stanford University. He is co-author (with David Tyack) of Tinkering Toward Utopia (1995) and author of How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in American Classrooms, 1890-1990 (1993) and Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920 (1986).

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807738646
• ISBN-13: 978-0807738641
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,409,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a former high school social studies teacher (14 years), district superintendent (7 years) and university professor (20 years). I have published op-ed pieces, scholarly articles and books on classroom teaching, history of school reform, how policy gets translated into practice, and teacher and student use of technologies in K-12 and college.

My most recent research projects have been a study of school reform in Austin (TX) 1954-2009 and of a large comprehensive high school in Mapleton (CO) being converted into several small ones between 2001-2009. The Austin book, As Good As It Gets, was published in February 2010. The Mapleton study was done with Gary Lichtenstein, Arthur Evenchik, Martin Tombari, and Kristen Pozzoboni and was also published in February 2010 with the title Against the Odds.

Currently, I am studying a high school where teachers and students have had 1:1 laptops for the past four years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faculty autonomy & administrative inertia rule, August 10, 2003

By 

Howard Aldrich (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Scholars Trumped Teachers: Constancy and Change in University Curriculum, Teaching, and Research, 1890-1990 (Paperback)

In this case study of 2 departments at Stanford University, Larry Cuban shows that, despite repeated "reforms" and the installation of new leaders, the university's basic reward structure has remained more or less the same for a century. Indeed, similar "reform" proposals have re-cycled through the university over the years, dressed up in new rhetoric but with the same result: power and influence flow to those faculty who meet the highest standards in their disciplines, rather than those most interested in pedagogy. Scholars want to teach graduate students and work on their research. When required to teach undergraduates, they want to offer small seminars in their specialty area, rather than foundational courses in their discipline. Cuban uses data from other highly selective American universities to show that the same pattern obtains elsewhere. We could read Cuban's book as a tragedy, from a student's point of view, but then, who listens to them?