Preparing for a Fourfold Role

Abstract

A growing concern is evident about the prepa ration of college and university teachers. The sud den upsurge in college enrollments, Fall 1954, combined with predictions for an increasing tidal wave of students, has served to point up the sheer quantitative problem which institutions of higher education will confront in the decade ahead. While the problem of numbers is thus brought sharply into focus, it is coupled with a more continuing concern about the quality of col lege teachers. Numerous articles have appeared in the literature of higher education on the role of the college teacher, his inadequacies in fulfilling that role, and the shortcomings of various pro grams either directly intended to prepare college teachers or indirectly eventuating in the produc tion of college teachers. The preparation of qualified personnel has been confounded by the fact that institutions which prepare college teachers have not been too sure just what they are supposed to produce. The problem is complicated by the diversity of educa tional institutions in this country and by the va riety of ideas, often conflicting, held by college personnel generally, from president to instructor, as to what constitutes a good teacher. Such has been the situation in California for a number of years, as in many other states. The University of California, by definition, has a ma jor responsibility, among the state's public insti tutions, for the preparation of college teachers. The California state colleges, fourand five-year institutions whose primary responsibility is the preparation of persons in various occupational areas including public school teaching, journalism, agriculture, engineering, business, and the like, have often criticized the University for not ade quately fulfilling this responsibility. Such criti cisms were voiced from time to time in semian nual meetings of the University-State College Committee on Coordination. In the spring of 1953, this critical discussion resulted in the for mation of a subcommittee on the Preparation of College Teachers, with representatives from the University of California and the state colleges. This article is concerned with the preparation of teachers for the role they will play in colleges of this California type. Many similar colleges ex ist in other states. It is likely also that what was found regarding the role of the teacher in such colleges applies in large measure to teachers in colleges and universities of more complex organ ization. At their first meeting, members of the com mittee decided that further work depended on a clear definition of the job to be done. In other words, both groups of institutions needed to know more exactly and more nearly the nature of the college teacher: what are the qualities for which the state colleges are searching in their teaching staff? The author of this article was assigned the task of securing such a definition from the colleges. As a first step in his investigation the author examined the literature for statements and reports on the characteristics of college teachers.1 Using the results of this examination, he then prepared a list of desirable characteristics of college teachers, preceded by a statement which reads as follows: Any attempt to define and list the character istics and qualifications for teachers in the Califor nia State Colleges must be prefaced by an under standing of the functions and purposes of the col leges. Briefly, these are : 1. Liberal Education for all students, including general education which leads to personal devel opment, to better understanding of self, and to socio-civic competence, plus such education as enables students to broaden and deepen their in terests, to develop appreciation of democratic values and ideas, to understand their cultural heritage, and to be better aware of the forces, scientific and social, which shape the world in which they live. 2. Education in a variety of occupations suited to the needs and interests of the students and com munities served by the colleges?teaching, busi ness, recreation, journalism, engineering, etc. 3. Pre-Professional Education for those students who wish to enter such fields as medicine, den tistry, law, etc., or who wish to pursue graduate work at the professional level in a university.