This post is a piece by philosopher Mitchell Aboulafia about the destructive emphasis on productivity in American higher education. It was published in 2018 in Chronicle Review. Here's a link to the original. The essay is a fresh take on a familiar problem in academic life, the pressure to publish or perish. He focuses in … Continue reading Mitchell Aboulafia — Higher Ed’s Real Productivity Problem
This post contains all of the material for the doctoral proseminar -- Introduction to Big Issues in the Field of Education -- that I taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Education for the last four years. The aim of this class is to give first-year doctoral students in education a grounding in some of … Continue reading Doctoral Proseminar: An Introduction to Big Issues in the Field of Education
One of the most characteristic and annoying tendencies in academic writing is the excessive use of signposting: here's what I'm going to do, here I am doing it, and here's what I just did. You can trim a lot of text from your next paper (and earn the gratitude of your readers) by just telling … Continue reading Academic Writing Issues #1: Excessive Signposting
Today I'm posting Max Weber's classic piece on "Science as a Vocation." It was originally delivered as a speech at Munich University in 1918. Its relevance for scholars today is as great as it was then, asking these questions: What does it mean to be a scientist? What are the sources and limits of scientific … Continue reading Max Weber’s “Science as a Vocation”
This is a piece I published in Aeon last year about the persistence of the five-paragraph essay, which has evolved into the five-chapter dissertation and the five-section journal article. Formalism reins supreme. Here's the link to the original. Schools and colleges in the United States are adept at teaching students how to write by the … Continue reading The Five-Paragraph Fetish
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
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 