Academic Credentials Research Articles

Taking the evolution of legal doctrine seriously: review of Katayoun Baghai, Social Systems Theory and Judicial Review: Taking Jurisprudence Seriously (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015. 188 pp. £65/£58.50)

The endeavour to take jurisprudence seriously is addressed by Baghai, a sociologist, to those within her own discipline who fail to engage with the internal understandings of law, most particularly those exhibited within the discourse that accompanies appeal court decisions, namely the discourse that helps to establish and develop legal doctrine. In effect, the book is an appeal for sociologists to assign greater attention to legal doctrine as an object of study. But such an appeal can also be interpreted as a request for theorists who study legal doctrine to take sociology seriously – namely an invitation to legal theorists to bring sociology, or at least one version of it, to bear on their study of the evolution of doctrine. This proposal faces considerable resistance from those on both sides of this divide. Whilst Hart notoriously described The Concept of Law as an essay in both analytical jurisprudence and descriptive sociology, the analytic tradition that he sponsored has sought to augment its academic credentials by moving ever closer to philosophy rather than sociology. With the important exception of Brian Leiter's arguments for ‘naturalising jurisprudence’, the general drift of analytical jurisprudence has been towards a prioritising of philosophical methods over empirical insights. And the resistance to some rapprochement has not been limited to the philosophical side of the divide. The sociology of law has a long tradition of approaching the study of law in a manner that distances itself from the self-understandings of participants in the legal system (lawyers and especially judges). This transfers in turn into hostility towards the manner in which legal philosophy has engaged with those self-understandings, with its willingness to consider, at high levels of abstraction, whether law consists of rules, norms or principles. Rather than organising insiders' views into conceptual schemes, and then examining them for their coherence and consistency, legal sociology has generated its own facts and truths about laws and lawyers, principally using empirical methods (but also other methods) and contrasting these ‘truths’ with lawyer's self-understandings, treating the latter as an inferior form of knowledge either disconnected from reality or ideological rather than descriptive. It has also noticeably failed to engage with much of the central concern of legal philosophy – the attempt to identify law as a separate entity within society. Rather than considering the existence of law as a unity, it focuses instead on parts of law as examples of more general sociological categories, such as studying the legal profession within the sociology of professions or courts, legislatures and administrative agencies within the sociology of institutions or organisations.

Copying@Scale: Using Harvesting Accounts for Collecting Correct Answers in a MOOC

This paper presents a detailed study of a form of academic dishonesty that involves the use of multiple accounts for harvesting solutions in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). It is termed CAMEO – Copying Answers using Multiple Existence Online. A person using CAMEO sets up one or more harvesting accounts for collecting correct answers; these are then submitted in the user's master account for credit.The study has three main goals: Determining the prevalence of CAMEO, studying its detailed characteristics, and inferring the motivation(s) for using it. For the physics course that we studied, about 10% of the certificate earners used this method to obtain more than 1% of their correct answers, and more than 3% of the certificate earners used it to obtain the majority (>50%) of their correct answers. We discuss two of the likely consequences of CAMEO: jeopardizing the value of MOOC certificates as academic credentials, and generating misleading conclusions in educational research. Based on our study, we suggest methods for reducing CAMEO. Although this study was conducted on a MOOC, CAMEO can be used in any learning environment that enables students to have multiple accounts.

Statement of Commissioner Gail Heriot in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights's Report, Encouraging Minority Students to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Careers

In October of 2010, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report entitled Encouraging Minority Students to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Careers. This article, written by Commissioner Gail Heriot, is her individual statement in that report. In it, she discusses empirical and other data indicating that students who receive preferential treatment in admissions (and whose academic credentials are thus significantly below the norm for that particular institution) are less likely to follow through with an intent to major in STEM than students with identical academic credentials who attend a school where those credentials put them in the broad center of the class.

The Career Pathways Landscape: Policy, Partnership, and Association Impact in Higher Education

Career Pathways: A systemic framework for connecting a series of academic credits, credentials, and work experience across the learner continuum for each student persona.Career pathways is the coll...

Science without the academic credentials

Science without the academic credentials

“I was a weird example of Art”: My Amputations as Cubist Confession

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Business Students’ Perceptions of Academic Misconduct, Credential Embellishment, and Business Unethicality

Business Students’ Perceptions of Academic Misconduct, Credential Embellishment, and Business Unethicality

An Assessment of Teaching and Learning Practices: A Questionnaire Study for Dental Educators of Karnataka.

Aims and Objectives:Faculty members of dental institutions are being asked to assume new academic duties for which they have received no formal training. To succeed in new teaching tasks, faculty development through assessment of teaching skills is essential.Materials and Methods:A Self-Assessment Questionnaire consisting 18 closed-ended questions was sent to various faculty members of dental colleges of Karnataka. A total of 210 faculty members volunteered to participate in the study. The response rate was 69.8%. Data gathered were statistically analyzed using SPSS software version 16, Chi-square test, and descriptive statistics.Results:In the present study, 27.3% of participants were unaware of andragogy, 33.3% were unaware of teachers development programs, 44.6% do not obtain student feedback after teaching, 52.6% were unaware of peer review of teaching skills, and 50% were unaware of interprofessional education initiatives.Conclusion:By incorporating teaching and learning skills, dental faculty could acquire competencies and academic credentials to become valuable contributors to the institution. This study emphasizes the areas of improvement in dental school learning environment, based on activation of prior knowledge, elaboration of new learning, learning in context, transfer of learning, and organization of knowledge toward learning.

First in the Homes of His Countrymen: George Washington's Mount Vernon in the American Imagination by Lydia Mattice Brandt

Reviewed by: First in the Homes of His Countrymen: George Washington's Mount Vernon in the American Imagination by Lydia Mattice Brandt Sarah Anne Carter First in the Homes of His Countrymen: George Washington's Mount Vernon in the American Imagination. By Lydia Mattice Brandt. (Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2016. Pp. xii, 284. $39.50, ISBN 978-0-8139-3925-4.) First in the Homes of His Countrymen: George Washington's Mount Vernon in the American Imagination explores not only how Mount Vernon became an important and flexible national symbol but also why it came to serve this purpose. Lydia Mattice Brandt's excellent book explains how this house can simultaneously be a prism for understanding and seeing changes in American culture and a palimpsest on which a wide range of ideas may be inscribed over two centuries. In five deeply researched and lucidly written chapters, Brandt offers a fascinating interdisciplinary history of public interest in George Washington's home. In chapter 1, "Prints and Pilgrimage, 1790s–1850s," she considers how the house made real the notion of Washington as a Cincinnatus-like figure, a connection that elevated his symbolic weight. Brandt tells this story by analyzing a range of prints and written sources that detail pilgrimages to Mount Vernon and by exploring how the site became a place to visit, even as it fell into disrepair. Chapter 2, "'Keep It the Home of Washington!': The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, 1854–1890," examines the women who transcended the national crisis of the Civil War to preserve Mount Vernon. While some of this ground has been covered elsewhere, the author does a fine job of tracing the specific material context of Mount Vernon as it was restored and became a popular tourist destination by the 1890s. Chapter 3, "Replicas, Replicas, Replicas: 1890s–1920s," offers a fascinating look at the desire to copy—in some cases, in full scale—Mount Vernon, suggesting a Lost Cause "vision of the Old South" (p. 95). Details associated with the house, such as the "Mount Vernon Piazza," became part of the colonial revival in U.S. domestic architecture (p. 110). Chapters 4 and 5 engage more directly with the development of the historical profession and its relationship to Mount Vernon's public and increasingly politicized image. In "Battles of 'Authenticity': Replicas and Research in the [End Page 949] 1930s," Brandt looks at how Mount Vernon's image as an example of domestic architecture spread more widely and continued to be a popular symbolic structure at fairs in the United States and abroad. At the same time, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association began to turn to male "preservation 'professionals'" with academic credentials to make the presentation of Mount Vernon's history more accurate (p. 151). Whether expansively sharing Mount Vernon as a cultural inspiration or carefully researching its details, these seemingly contradictory undertakings, Brandt argues, both emphasized the importance of the site. The final chapter looks at another dualism in the presentation of public history, the rise of social history and the increase in roadside attractions inspired by Mount Vernon, as well as Mount Vernon's rise as a popular tourist destination. In chapter 5, "'In This Changing and Troubled World': Social History and the American Roadside, 1950s–1980s," the author oscillates between analyzing the presentation of slavery at Mount Vernon—something readers have been expecting throughout her chapters addressing Mount Vernon as a racialized symbol of the Old South—and how Mount Vernon served as an inspiration for Howard Johnson's restaurants and for funeral homes across the United States. Readers may wish to hear more about Brandt's research and thoughtful analysis of the interpretation of slavery at Mount Vernon beyond the point she successfully makes, that "Exploring the history of slavery at Mount Vernon added another layer to Washington's humanity" (p. 198). This extremely clear and engaging book could be profitably assigned to upper-level undergraduates or graduate students in history, architectural history, material culture, popular culture, American studies, and museum studies. It would offer students an exciting opportunity to think through some of the expansive and untapped research possibilities involved in studying built environments in American...

The Reception of George Eliot in Europe eds. by Elinor Shaffer and Catherine Brown

Reviewed by: The Reception of George Eliot in Europe eds. by Elinor Shaffer and Catherine Brown Constance M. Fulmer (bio) Elinor Shaffer and Catherine Brown, editors, The Reception of George Eliot in Europe (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), pp. lvi + 453, $244 (cloth). This volume is a valuable addition to George Eliot scholarship and to the Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe series edited by Elinor Shaffer of the University of London. In her preface to the series, Shaffer explains that her purpose is to expand the boundaries of the use of the term [End Page 262] “critical reception” in a systematic, long-term, and large-scale way (viii). She has done just that for George Eliot. This broader picture extends our knowledge of Eliot and of George Henry Lewes by helping us understand how they were viewed in various countries throughout Europe—individually and as a couple—and how their work was received during their lives and over the years up to the present. It is stimulating and informative to have in one volume such a wide array of perspectives from such a variety of scholars from seventeen European countries. Shaffer describes George Eliot as a “cosmopolitan figure, who travelled abroad in Europe” and who “had a wide European acquaintance both of leading figures in those countries and of Britons who lived abroad, and whose later novels undertake international themes of great scope and ambition” (viii). This welcome volume definitely provides the facts we need to substantiate this view of George Eliot. A striking but unfamiliar image of George Eliot on the front cover of the volume—a portrait by Sir Frederick William Burton provided by the British Museum—immediately captures the reader’s attention. Having an unfamiliar image of Eliot on the book is appropriate for a volume that contains so many fresh and thought-provoking insights that enhance our previous understanding of George Eliot and her work. First, it is impressive and encouraging to read erudite essays by twenty-four relatively unknown George Eliot scholars from all over Europe who have very impressive academic credentials. Second, the wide geographical coverage and the painstaking presentation of factual data make it abundantly clear that George Eliot, her work, and her thought are indeed cosmopolitan. The seventeen areas represented in the text include Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Italy, Spain, the Catalan Islands, Russia, Bulgaria, Czech Lands, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Greece. Each essay’s accompanying bibliography is itself a treasure house that introduces us to unknown or little-known critics and sources. Third, there is an extremely useful historical timeline from 1819, the year Eliot was born, through 2015. The first column lists relevant facts from the life and work of George Eliot and George Henry Lewes and includes their visits with authors and other influential people. It also lists stage and film adaptations of Eliot’s works, public readings, and even presentations on television. A second column lists the translations of Eliot’s works that appeared in each of the European countries, and a third column lists the critical texts published in each country. This thirty-two-page table is itself a valuable resource for Eliot scholars. The introduction and twenty chapters are well-organized and extremely informative. Each essay provides specific details of how Eliot’s contemporaries in a particular country responded to her work and offers an overview [End Page 263] of scholarly and popular responses up through the present. Each essay also describes the quantity and quality of translations of Eliot’s works published in that country and responses to Eliot’s unique intellectual, moral, historical, and literary attributes. In many ways, each chapter stands alone as a valuable analysis of the critical reception of George Eliot in one European country or area. But the cumulative effect reminds us that George Eliot was one of the best traveled of nineteenth-century British writers, that her travels play a powerful role in her writing, and that she built her reputation on her early translations of significant and controversial European texts. These twenty-four authors share a wealth of new insights and observations about George Eliot and the impact she has had on the thinking...

Pathways to the Urban Community College Presidency

College presidents have multiple, complex roles. These roles have evolved to include an increased emphasis on external relations, regardless of institutional type, yet these leaders are also expected to hold traditional academic credentials. This study explored the experience base of urban community college presidents and found that they hold remarkably similar skill sets and experience backgrounds to other college presidents.

Crisis, What Crisis? An Overview of Professional and Academic Credentials in Canadian Public Relations

<p>This study explored the reasons for the failure of accreditation (i.e., APR, ABC) in Canadian public relations and communications. An extensive mixed-methods research design (22 in-depth interviews, 231 completed surveys, and content analysis of 600 job postings) was used to determine both the attitudes towards and tangible benefits of accreditation. It was found that the majority of practitioners are investing in applied graduate degrees (i.e, MCM, MPR, MAPC, MPC) rather than accreditation. The CPRS and IABC designations have been available in Canada since 1968, however, as of 2014 only 793 practitioners possess them. Conversely, applied graduate programs for mid-career practitioners have graduated 973 practitioners since 2001. Academic credentials and experience in public relations and communications are the most important qualifications to the industry, employers, and practitioners. The APR and ABC designations have failed to demonstrate value and relevance to the practice over the past four decades. </p>

Endangered academia: preserving the pediatric surgeon scientist

BackgroundPediatric surgery is one of the most difficult surgical fellowships to obtain. It requires stellar academic credentials and, often, dedicated time pursuing research. It is unknown, however, if pediatric surgeons maintain high academic output as faculty members. We hypothesized that the majority of pediatric surgeons do not pursue robust research activities as faculty, and therefore, over time, their academic productivity decreases. MethodsNumbers of publications, citations, H-index, and NIH funding rates were determined for 4354 surgical faculty at the top-55 NIH based departments of surgery using websites, Scopus, NIH RePORTER, and Grantome. Continuous variables were compared with ANOVA and post-hoc Bonferroni; categorical variables by χ2 test. p<0.05 was significant. ResultsIn this dataset, 321 pediatric surgery (PS) faculty represented 7.4% of the cohort. Among PS faculty, 31% were assistant professors, 24% associate professors, 31% full professors and 13% had no academic rank. PS faculty had significantly more publications, a higher H index, and more high level NIH funding early in their careers at the assistant professor level compared to general surgeons. PS faculty at the associate professor level had equivalent high level NIH funding, but lower recentness and academic power compared to general surgeons. Professors of PS rebounded slightly, with only observed deficiencies in number of citations compared to general surgeons. ConclusionsPS faculty in assistant professor ranks has higher scholarly productivity compared to equivalently ranked general surgeons. Despite some mild academic setbacks in midcareer, pediatric surgeons are able to maintain similar academic productivity to their general surgery colleagues by the time they are full professors. Level of evidence2.

The Voluntariat: A Freirean framework to understand the nature of undergraduate international (medical) experiences

Despite literature documenting limited and asymmetrical benefits along with ethical issues, short-term international volunteering is increasingly popular among North American university students as a perceived advantage when applying to professional healthcare schools or the job market. Academic institutions are also encouraging students to pursue international experiences in order to cultivate values as global citizens. These experiences are most typically limited to economically privileged students. Furthermore, international activities in developing countries often lack a pedagogy of social justice and may confirm a simplistic understanding of development. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's "liberation pedagogy" provides a framework for understanding the limitations of international volunteering, whereby the presence of privileged volunteers implementing Western models of development may hinder aspects of local movements. Regardless, university students face intense competition in accessing opportunities, such as medical school, and pay large sums to participate in volunteering to strengthen their academic credentials. We propose that these students form "the voluntariat." They simultaneously play two roles by, first, contributing to the conditions that oppress the very communities in which they volunteer and, second, by playing a role as objects of oppression by the liberal institutions of learning and employment to which they are attempting to gain access.

A New Approach to Education Affirmative Action

In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the race-conscious affirmative action program at the University of Texas, this Note examines the increasingly vexing challenges posed by the current race-based university affirmative action and explores a possible alternative to this contentious practice. I argue that the Court’s 2003 affirmative action precedent, Grutter v. Bollinger, is questionable because it presents an unresolvable definitional conundrum regarding the logical endpoint of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action program. Inheriting this conundrum from Grutter, the Court’s Fisher II decision is also constitutionally untenable but nonetheless understandable against the social backdrop of escalating racial tension. With emerging social science arguments against race-conscious affirmative action and the precarious constitutional ground of it, I then propose a constitutionally-robust, two-pronged alternative in which affirmative action jurisprudence is better used to balance competing societal interests in affording equal opportunity to historically disadvantaged groups and equal treatment of all individuals. The first prong is to implement affirmative action programs in public elementary and secondary schools, in the context of the continuing school desegregation movement, to provide requisite resources and opportunities for minority students early on in their lives. The second prong is to establish a class-based affirmative action model in which universities, in addition to assessing applicants’ academic and extracurricular credentials, target such socioeconomic factors as income, wealth, family background, schooling opportunities and neighbourhood demographics to review the applicants on a truly holistic basis.

Mexican university teacher-researchers’ biliteracy beliefs and practices

AbstractThere has been a growing interest in describing higher education academic literacy. In our study, literacy is conceived as multi-layered phenomena, multiple in its character, denominated “multiliteracies” (Cope &amp; Kalantzis, 2013). Furthermore, within the multiliteracies frame, multilingual literacies (Martin-Jones &amp; Jones, 2000) are distinguished and discussed in the present paper, in particular the development of biliteracy in local academic settings. This paper explores connections between the teachers’ perceptions on literacy, teachers’ own biliteracy development as publishing authors and researchers. The research draws on the data obtained through a questionnaire applied in the first phase of the project to 100 participants from three public universities from northern, central and southern part of Mexico, which was completed by analysis of narratives gathered through interviews from a reduced sample of participants (31). The results seem to indicate that language teachers-researchers perceive their L2 literacy in wider terms, beyond mere reading-writing skills development and decodification of the text, which seems to be apparent in academics with higher academic credentials.

Maria Corinta Ferreira (1922–2003?), “Naturalist at the Museu Dr. Álvaro De Castro, Lourenço Marques [Now Maputo], Mozambique,” 1949–1974

Abstract In 1940, the naturalist Maria Corinta Ferreira decided to leave the zoology research centre of the board for colonial research (Junta de Investigaçoes Coloniais-JIC), where she felt gender discriminated as a scientist, and compete for the position of naturalist at the Museum Dr. Álvaro de Castro Museum (MAC) located in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique. By benefitting from the knowledge and the entomological collections of museums and scientific institutes in South Africa, for 25 years (1949-1974) she built up a scientific career as a researcher in entomology and achieved international recognition. As a woman, however, she never reached the upper positions in MAC’s hierarchy or in the Scientific Research Institute of Mozambique (IICM), the pretext being her formal academic credentials, notably the fact that she was given the title of Doctor on the basis of her published research, rather than upon completing a PhD.

Flying free before building my nest.

I spent the first 17 years of my scientific life as a freelance naturalist, with no more academic credentials than a bachelor's degree in library and information science. It was challenging, but I found it intellectually rewarding, and I enjoyed exploring my scientific passion without facing the pressure and uncertainty typically endured by trainees pursuing academic careers. I was able to simply let my creativity develop. Then, 7 years ago, my career took a turn when I attended a conference about bearded vultures, which led me to earn my Ph.D. at the age of 38. Now, as a postdoc pursuing an academic research career, I am taking advantage of all that I learned during my years as an independent scientist. ![Figure][1] ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “My emotional attachment to these birds of prey and to conservation never faded.” I took this unconventional path because of the poor employment prospects for biologists in Spain in the 1980s, which deterred me from studying science. But I had become fascinated by bearded vultures as a teenager, and my emotional attachment to these birds of prey and to conservation never faded. So, after finishing my bachelor's degree, I signed a 6-month contract with the regional government to monitor bearded vulture breeding sites, and my scientific career began. Not long after, the Catalan government was seeking a naturalist to do similar work. Someone told the government officials about a passionate young naturalist who spent all his time watching vultures, and they contacted me. I worked on regional projects as a self-employed naturalist, gradually getting involved in international conservation research efforts, and finally found myself as a freelance wildlife technician for the Spanish government. As my research progressed, I published because I wanted to share my findings, not because I was hoping for an advanced degree or items for my CV. I didn't have to worry about racking up papers, the reputation of the journals I published in, or where I stood on the author list. This freedom allowed me to pursue the questions I was most interested in and to develop risky projects that might take ages to yield rewards, if any. And even though the salary of my early years did not even cover the cost of gasoline to get to the remote field sites, I felt I was the luckiest man in the world to work with the species that fascinated me most. But at that conference in 2009, an influential conservation biologist approached me after my talk. He was interested in my field studies and publications, and we continued our discussion over dinner. He was surprised that I did not have a doctorate and suggested that I prepare a Ph.D. thesis under his supervision. I was astonished: He did not know me personally, although he had read the majority of my papers. I was also excited, because a doctorate would open career doors that had previously been closed to me. It would give me access to competitive research funds, which would enable me to tackle more ambitious scientific questions and conservation challenges. So, 1 year later, I enrolled as a Ph.D. student. I worked with my adviser to select 31 of my papers, submitted them as a Ph.D. thesis, and was awarded my degree. I am now a postdoctoral researcher, with hopes of establishing my own research group. I miss my earlier freedom to some extent, but the financial security of a full-time position is a real asset, especially now that I have a family, and the tools and collaborations that academia offers are extremely rewarding. At the same time, I'm glad I took an unconventional path. I believe that if I had gone straight into academia, where bibliometrics rule the lives of today's young researchers, I would have been less adventurous in my choice of projects. Blazing my own trail before returning to academia helped me on my road to becoming a successful, fulfilled scientist. [1]: pending:yes

Assessing the CPRS Pathways to the Profession competency framework

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to assess the leadership skills and competencies defined in the Pathways to the Profession and understand the value senior corporate communications managers place on those skills and competencies and how senior-level corporate communicators demonstration of those skills and competencies.Design/methodology/approach– Institutional review board approval was obtained for a qualitative research design based on focus groups conducted in four Canadian cities with 25 senior corporate communicators, human resources professionals, and general business managers.Findings– This research has validated the competencies and credentials for senior-level corporate communications and public relations executives as highlighted in the Pathways to the Profession framework. It has also provided the profession with an understanding of the value senior public relations and organizational managers place on professional association membership and professional and academic credentials. This research is an important contribution to the growing body of knowledge on competency frameworks as professional associations, such as the Canadian Public Relations Society, take leadership positions in providing educational institutions with sets of standards for public relations and corporate communications education in Canada.Practical implications– This research will help the public relations and corporate communications profession provide guidance to educational institutions programming for senior-level public relations and communications management education based on quantifiable data on the value executives place on a particular set of skills and competencies.Originality/value– This is the first study of its kind that examines the perceived competencies and skills of Canadian senior public relations/communications management leadership. Further this research sought to assess the value of academic and professional credentials necessary for participation in executive leadership roles.

Top Managers' Academic Credentials and Firm Value

AbstractThis study investigates whether top management teams' (TMTs) academic credentials from prestigious universities can be a source of competitive advantage. We examine the academic backgrounds of 72,165 top managers in 590 non‐financial firms in South Korea from 1990 to 2006. We find that firms with a higher proportion of top managers from top universities have a higher Tobin's Q. Furthermore, this relation is stronger in challenging environments when firms face higher volatility, more growth opportunities, or financial distress, or when managers have greater discretionary power or are held accountable for their decisions. These results suggest that the effects of TMTs' human capital on firm value vary in the contexts of organizational and corporate environments. In short, our study suggests that education from elite schools is an important managerial attribute that contributes to performance.