In this multi-faceted case study of one progressive institution of adult higher education, the editors and contributors to the volume lay out significant challenges confronting not just non-traditional post-secondary colleges and universities but all institutions of higher education in today’s rapidly changing context. Contending that nontraditional institutions are especially challenged in these turbulent times, they argue that these organizations’ distinctive academic programs are among the most threatened in the landscape of higher education today. The 19 essays that make up this volume highlight and examine key creative tensions, rich interplays of emphases and values in higher education, in order to illuminate and address more intentionally the questions that we must address: Can we make constructive use of these tensions? Can we recognize what is at stake? And can we chart a course that will both respond innovatively to rapid change and sustain a vision and the purposes and principles on which that vision rests? Taken as a whole, this volume sheds light on the questions and creative tensions that can, with thoughtful attention, help to keep an alternative, progressive vision of adult higher education alive.

The emergence of remote and for-profit universities has provided increased opportunities for adult learners to obtain higher education degrees in a technologically-dependent teaching-learning environment. During the pandemic, for-profit online learning institutions experienced increases in enrollment while face-to-face institutions experienced a decrease. Higher education accreditation bodies have legitimized distance learning virtual universities as sites for adult learners, especially part-time adult learners, and made distance education an accepted way to receive a higher education degree. Driving Innovation With For-Profit Adult Higher Education Online Institutions focuses on teaching and learning in distance learning remote universities. This book explores, describes, and questions the role of these institution in the higher education landscape. This publication examines the ideas, programs, student services, and curriculum innovations that created the space for the for-profit distance education university to become a competitive force in the higher education marketplace. Covering topics such as driving achievement, internships, and part-time faculty, this book is an essential resource for university leaders, administrators, faculty, student services leadership and staff, higher education historians and researchers, accreditors and regulators, and academicians.

Ultimately, The Gig Academy is a call to arms, one that encourages non-tenure-track faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate students, and administrative and tenure-track allies to unite in a common struggle against the neoliberal Gig Academy.

Through expert analysis, this text proves that John Dewey’s views on efficiency in education are as relevant as ever. By exploring Deweyan theories of teaching and learning, the volume illustrates how they can aid educators in navigating the theoretical and practical implications of accountability, standardization, and assessment. The Contemporary Relevance of John Dewey’s Theories on Teaching and Learning deconstructs issues regarding accountability mechanisms, uniform assessment systems, and standardization processes through a Deweyan lens. Connecting the zeitgeist of the era from which Dewey’s ideas emerged and current global political, social, and economic contexts, the book emphasizes the importance of resilient systems in reconciliating the tension between standardized assessments and individual student development. Contributors provide insights from a range of settings across Pre-K, primary, secondary, and higher education and address topics including teacher agency, voice, leadership, and democracy. The volume will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and academics with an interest in philosophy of education, education policy and the impact of neoliberal agendas, as well as teaching and learning more broadly.

For Profit and For Good opens up for critical examination a sector of higher education that surprisingly is rarely scrutinized in depth: the corporate institutions that have made up the fastest growing sector of US higher education in this century. It explores in detail the development of one such institution, Walden University, from its emergence out of the social turmoil and progressive education movement of the 1960s, through the succeeding decades, characterized by changes on every front. It looks frankly at the impact of these forces on the university’s original mission and describes the university’s response to them. It investigates the idea of whether the resources and incentives of being for-profit have changed higher education in a way that benefits not only investors but also learners, their workplaces, and the larger community. Business models of management, technological developments, and changes in an ever-evolving society are issues every university faces and seeing how this institution grappled with them will be instructive. Fundamentally, this book addresses the essential ethical question of whether the for-profit sector in higher education adds value, and, if so, what that added value might be. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of the history of education, alternatives in higher education, the economics of education, education administration, reform and new developments in higher education, online learning, and policy studies in education. It is also relevant for policy makers and other managers in edubusiness.

Class in the Composition Classroom considers what college writing instructors should know about their working-class students—their backgrounds, experiences, identities, learning styles, and skills—in order to support them in the classroom, across campus, and beyond. In this volume, contributors explore the nuanced and complex meaning of “working class” and the particular values these college writers bring to the classroom. The real college experiences of veterans, rural Midwesterners, and trade unionists show that what it means to be working class is not obvious or easily definable. Resisting outdated characterizations of these students as underprepared and dispensing with a one-size-fits-all pedagogical approach, contributors address how region and education impact students, explore working-class pedagogy and the ways in which it can reify social class in teaching settings, and give voice to students’ lived experiences. As community colleges and universities seek more effective ways to serve working-class students, and as educators, parents, and politicians continue to emphasize the value of higher education for students of all financial and social backgrounds, conversations must take place among writing instructors and administrators about how best to serve and support working-class college writers. Class in the Composition Classroom will help writing instructors inside and outside the classroom prepare all their students for personal, academic, and professional communication. Contributors: Aaron Barlow, ​Cori Brewster, ​Patrick Corbett, ​Harry Denny, Cassandra Dulin, ​Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, ​Mike Edwards, ​Rebecca Fraser, ​Brett Griffiths, ​Anna Knutson, ​Liberty Kohn, ​Nancy Mack, ​Holly Middleton, ​Robert Mundy, ​Missy Nieveen Phegley, ​Jacqueline Preston, ​James E. Romesburg, ​Edie-Marie Roper, Aubrey Schiavone, Christie Toth, ​Gail G. Verdi

Democracy is neither inevitable nor guaranteed to last. To survive, democracy needs people adequately prepared to enact it. Such preparation for effective citizenship in a complex and plural world requires an adult civic education, one that goes beyond simple knowledge acquisition. It requires a transformative education to help learners become agents and co-shapers of their worlds. This book offers examples of the roles that civic education has played and can play in different communities. In this collection, scholars from around the world report and reflect on civic adult education, examining approaches, paradigms, and concepts that help us to act in culturally, ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse societies.