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Law School

: Class Bias in Higher Education

Diverisity, Capture, and the Latest by Ken Oldfield

By Jeffrey Harrison

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Ken Oldfield, one of the editors of Resilience: Queer Professors from the Working Class, has published yet another insightful piece about the downside of elite hiring. "Our Cutting Edge Isn?t Cutting It: Why Public Administration Should Be the First Discipline to Implement a Social Class-Based Affirmative Action Plan for Hiring Professors"

It is in the latest issue of Administration and Society.

Here is the abstract: "Over the last several years, various writers and commentators have argued that as part of their affirmative action efforts, universities should enroll more students of working class origins because socioeconomic integration ensures greater social equity, democracy, and intellectual diversity. The present study shows that the justifications applied to student diversity pertain equally well to professors. This discussion proposes that if public administration were first to use socioeconomic-based affirmative action in faculty hiring, it would prove the discipline?s willingness to meet its self-imposed obligation to be ?cutting edge,? a promise studies have shown it has yet to fulfill."

I do not know much about Public Administration but before Ken decides that field is far from "cutting edge," I'd suggest he check out Law School administration and hiring. By the way, Ken is also working on a long term project, Hypocricy Studies. My own efforts to cover some of this ground are found at "Confess'n the Blues: Some Thoughts on the Class Bias in Law School Hiring," 42 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 119 (1992) and "Law Faculty Ethics: Shirking, Capture and ?The Matrix,?" 82 DETROIT MERCY LAW REVIEW 397 (2005).

Full post as published by Class Bias in Higher Education on January 17, 2010 (boomark / email).