This post contains all of the material for the class on the History of Higher Education in the US that I taught for at the Stanford Graduate School of Education for the last 15 years. In retirement I wanted to make the course available on the internet to anyone who is interested. If you are … Continue reading Course on the History of Higher Education in the U.S.
Category: Higher Education
Daniel Markovits on “The Meritocracy Trap”
In this post, which I just wrote, I look at the arguments in the new book by Daniel Markovits. It crystallizes a lot of the issues in the current debate about meritocracy and advances the argument in ways I hadn't considered before. This is not a review of the book but a teaser to get … Continue reading Daniel Markovits on “The Meritocracy Trap”
Q and A about A Perfect Mess
This is a Q and A I did with Scott Jaschik about my book, A Perfect Mess, shortly after it came out. It was published in Inside Higher Ed in 2017. ‘A Perfect Mess’ Author discusses his new book about American higher education, which suggests it may be better off today than people realize … because … Continue reading Q and A about A Perfect Mess
Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, Formalize Achievement, and Naturalize Privilege
This a new piece I recently wrote, based on a paper I presented last fall at the ISCHE conference in Berlin. It's part of a larger project that focuses on the construction of the American meritocracy, which is to say the new American aristocracy of credentials. Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, … Continue reading Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, Formalize Achievement, and Naturalize Privilege
Doctoral Dysfunction — Many Doctoral Students Today Tend to Fall into One of Two Disturbing Categories: Academic Technicians or Justice Warriors
This piece was published in Inside Higher Ed in June, 2020. Here's a link to the original. Doctoral Dysfunction Many doctoral students today are tending to fall into one of two disturbing categories: academic technician or justice warrior, writes David F. Labaree. David F. Labaree June 18, 2020 After nearly 40 years as a university … Continue reading Doctoral Dysfunction — Many Doctoral Students Today Tend to Fall into One of Two Disturbing Categories: Academic Technicians or Justice Warriors
An Unlikely Triumph: How US Higher Education Went from Rags in the 19th Century to Riches in the 20th
This is a piece I published in Aeon in October, 2017. It provides an overview of my book that came out that year, "A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education (University of Chicago Press). From the perspective of 19th-century visitors to the United States, the country’s system of higher education was a … Continue reading An Unlikely Triumph: How US Higher Education Went from Rags in the 19th Century to Riches in the 20th
Michael Lewis: Don’t Eat Fortune’s Cookie
In the last year or so, I've been reading and writing about the American meritocracy, and I'm going to be posting some of these pieces here from time to time. But today I want to post a wonderful statement on the subject by Michael Lewis, which I somehow had missed when it first came out. It's … Continue reading Michael Lewis: Don’t Eat Fortune’s Cookie
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 