Introduction
Most countries around the world have established more institutions of higher learning and the United States of America is not an exception. The increase in number of institutions of higher learning has led to increased enrolment rates in the institutions.
Additionally, most of the universities and colleges have attracted enrolment of students from different parts of the world. However, little attention has been paid on how higher institutions of learning ought to function in order to realize an integrated community, which work together to realize their goals and objectives.
Boyer recommended six principles, which higher institutions should pursue in order to achieve the spirit of community in the institutions. According to Boyer, higher institutions of learning should foster justice, care, openness, and discipline in order to achieve a spirit of community. Personally, I believe that higher institutions of learning should embrace Boyer’s principles. Therefore, this paper explores the reasons why college should embrace Boyer’s principles and how the principles are embraced.
Reasons Why and How Colleges Can Embrace Boyer’s Principles
Boyer proposed six principles, which colleges and universities should pursue. First, Boyer suggested that a college or university should be a purposeful community. This means that as an educational institution, a college should foster cooperation between the faculty and the student fraternity in order to reinforce learning and teaching in the institutions of higher learning.
Colleges are institutions whose main role is to promote learning and to impart academic knowledge to students, as well as, the teaching staff. However, most institutions of higher learning have failed to achieve this role because students majorly aim at attaining credentials in order to secure employment. Similarly, the teaching staff is more engrossed in conducting research to enable them earn promotions in their faculties.
It is crucial for colleges to be purposeful communities because it helps to promote commitment to scholarly excellence and the pursuit for learning. Maintaining a purposeful college will also ensure active participation both in the lecture halls, as well as, in other avenues.
Failure to remain purposeful will automatically hinder the institutions from attaining a community spirit within the institutions. The community spirit can be attained if the faculty and the students join to work together in order to attain academic excellence. Some colleges have embraced a number of ways to enable them remain purposeful.
For instance, in some colleges the faculties have allocated more contact hours between the lecturers and the students. Therefore, students and lecturers are able to discuss about various issues regarding the subjects. Additionally, in order to remain purposeful the lecturers should devote more time towards mentorship. This helps to encourage students to remain active in classroom participation.
Second, Boyer proposed that a college or university should be open. According to Boyer, a college should promote freedom of speech, as well as, courteousness. Colleges should be places in which students can freely express their ideas and opinions even if the ideas are contrary to majority opinion.
Therefore, a college or university should not use censorship in order to create a safe environment for students. Rather institutions of higher learning should encourage students to engage one another in discussions, which do not violate boundaries of civility.
In order to attain an open community within the institutions of higher learning, colleges should organize events such as debates. Such programmes and events enable students to air their views in relation debate topics.
An open environment will as well enable students in colleges and universities to develop a culture of appreciating other people’s ideas and opinions without being disrespectful. Colleges and universities can achieve an open environment by establishing rules and regulations that protect the civility of all students regardless of race or gender.
The college authorities should also set consequences for the violation of the civility of its students. Therefore, such measures will help to promote an open community that allows every student to express his or her ides. Additionally, an open environment promotes exchange of ideas among students and between students and the lecturers. Similarly, an open community will inspire students and encourage the spirit of inquiry, which is instrumental to intellectual pursuit.
The third principle of Boyer states that a college or university should be a just community. According to Boyer, a college should promote justice to all its members by ensuring respect of individual’s dignity and equality put on the forefront.
Affirmation of justice within colleges and universities is a major challenge that most college authorities face. Racial prejudices, as well as, gender inequality are rampant in most campuses. Colleges can only achieve justice if the students and the staff condemn all forms of prejudices, which prevent attainment of a just community
Promotion of a just community within colleges helps to foster a sense of belonging among students. As a result, students and the teaching staff easily collaborate in order to realize their missions and visions.
Prevalence of justice within college will also help to promote freedom of expression without having any fear of victimization based on race or gender. Therefore, colleges should adopt strategies that promote equality and justice. For example, departments within a college should give equal chances to students and staff when allocating scholarships and grants for research without any forms of prejudice.
Additionally, teachers should adopt social justice instruction in order to foster a community spirit within colleges and universities (Clayton and Williams 102). Teachers should learn about their students learning styles, as well as strengths and weaknesses. This is important, because it will enable teachers to use different teaching methodologies such as facilitation to produce knowledge.
On the other hand, peer relationships among students should be encouraged in order to promote cooperation among students. Despite the challenges that most colleges face, a good number have embraced the pursuit for justice in their institutions. For instance, a number of college institutions in America such as the University of Massachusetts have formulated programmes, which aim at creating awareness about social justice.
Boyer further described a college or a university as a disciplined community in which every member remains responsible and performs duties assigned to them. A number of colleges have adopted rules and regulations, which should guide student’s behavior. However, a good number of colleges and universities find it rather challenging to ensure that all the rules that govern students’ behavior are respected. For example, most colleges have failed to control drug and substance abuse within the institutions.
As a disciplined community, the college administrators should ensure that they support all the laws that prohibit socially unacceptable behaviors. Additionally, students should have role models who can inspire them to remain morally upright and disciplined.
College administrators should also encourage and support the formation of organizations and clubs within their colleges. Such groupings enable students to find alternative ways of spending their leisure time. Similarly, students will learn the importance of discipline, as well as, being responsible.
A number of colleges have instituted drug and substance education to create awareness on the potential consequences. Lecturers should also take an initiative to inculcate a culture of discipline during lectures. For instance, lecturers can employ a number of techniques such as developmental discipline. Developmental discipline was “designed by Marilyn Watson together with four educators” (Elizabeth and Davies 123).
Watson and her colleagues recommended the use of indirect control method whereby a lecturer should ensure that the classroom environment enable the students to remain focused. Additionally, developmental discipline also entails teaching of social behavior. For example, a teacher should give proper directions whenever cases of conflict arise in the classroom. Similarly, teachers can model acceptable social behaviors in order to inculcate a disciplined culture among the students.
It is important for colleges to foster a disciplined community because such a community of learning will help to produce responsible scholars. In addition to this, a disciplined community will help to promote smooth running of activities, therefore making it easier for the administration to attain their goals and objectives. Discipline also enhances cooperation among the college fraternity because students will fully accept their obligations and roles.
However, students should take full responsibility for their actions in order to attain a disciplined community within colleges. Senior students should act as role models to their juniors. Therefore, it will be easier to create a culture of discipline within the colleges if each member of the college community remains responsible. It is also important to realize that self-discipline should remain paramount in order to realize a disciplined community in colleges.
A disciplined student is always far ahead of his colleagues because self-discipline enables students to remain focused. Self-discipline will enable a student to accomplish tasks as required without any form of supervision from the authorities. In most instances, self-discipline is a culture that is fostered at family level; therefore, college administration should also cooperate with parents in order to achieve a community of disciplined students.
According to Boyer, a college or university is a caring community. It is an environment where the needs of each member are taken into consideration and service to other members is nurtured and encouraged. In order to attain the other principles of a community learning members should care for one another. How students relate with one another will influence other characteristics of a community. For instance, students will practice justice only if they value and care for their colleagues.
However, attaining a caring community may be challenging to the administrators because in most colleges students put their individual interests first before others. Additionally, a number of students value their independence. Therefore, it may be difficult for such students to allow anybody to get involved in their personal affairs. However, this does not dispute the fact that each student needs to feel that their colleagues care for them.
Colleges should develop strategies that can enable students to realize the importance of caring for one another. For example, students should be encouraged to join communities within campus in which they can establish friendly relations with other students who are not their classmates.
Communities enable students to have a sense of belonging. In most instances, members of communities or clubs engage in a number of interactive activities, which help to foster interpersonal skills, as well as, team spirit (Roberts 115). As a result, students can extend gestures of love to other students who are not members of their communities or clubs. Similarly, the teaching staff within the colleges and universities should also create a good rapport with the student body to enable students to feel that they are cared for and loved.
Members of the teaching staff should foster interactions with the student fraternity during lecture hours, as well as, outside classrooms. For example, faculty members can allocate time for students to consult them. However, both students and teaching staff should maintain healthy boundaries that enhance their dignity. Most colleges have taken measures to promote a caring community within their institutions. For instance, in most colleges there are chaplains and college counselors who advise students on various matters.
Last but most important, Boyer described a college or a university as a celebrative community. A college or a university should foster its heritage, traditions, as well as, rituals that distinguish it from other institutions through celebrations. In order to foster a spirit of community in the institutions of higher learning, the administration should ensure that its traditions and heritage are maintained.
This is crucial because ceremonies and rituals help to promote a sense of belonging among the college fraternity, as well as, ensuring continuity. Ceremonies like graduations always bring members of a college together, thereby allowing for interactions that promote togetherness. Similarly, rituals and ceremonies conducted by colleges help to orient new students into the system. Celebrations also help to sustain good memories that promote a community spirit.
However, it is tricky for most institutions of higher learning to practice all their rites, rituals, and celebrations by balancing between significance and fun. For instance, most students are interested in having fun; therefore, a number of students will feel obliged to participate in such ceremonies only if they are entertaining. Colleges should adopt new ways of organizing for events, which bring their members together. The events should be coordinated in a manner that will enable students to have a reason to be part of the system.
However, if the administrators ignore the students’ needs in such activities there will be a likelihood of students developing a negative attitude towards the institution’s rituals, traditions, and celebrations. Despite the challenges of promoting a celebrative community within institutions of higher learning, a number of colleges have maintained their heritage, traditions, as well as rituals that distinctively separate them from other institutions.
Conclusion
A number of colleges have embraced Boyer’s principles to some extent. However, in order to create a difference in the society members of a college fraternity should work together to realize a purposeful, open, just, caring, disciplined, and celebrative community.
Boyer’s principles are essential to modeling students to become responsible citizens who will pursue justice and value every member of the society. Therefore, every institution of higher learning should aim at attaining a community spirit within their institutions in order to affirm the integrity of learning in institutions of higher learning.
Works Cited
Clayton, Mathew and Andrew Williams. Social Justice. New York: Willey, 2004. Print.
Elizabeth, Stacey and Gordon Davies. Quality Education at a Glance. New York: Springer, 2003. Print.
Roberts, Jan. A Community Spirit of Caring Begins With You. London: iUniverse, 2001. Print.