Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:48:25.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Question of Balance: The Cult of Research Intensivity and the Professing of Political Science in Canada: Presidential address to the Canadian Political Science Association, Toronto, Ontario, June 2, 2006

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2006

Kim Richard Nossal
Kim Richard Nossal
Affiliation:
Queen's University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Abstract. In 1998, Tom Pocklington's presidential address examined what he believed was a progressive displacement of teaching by research in Canadian political science departments. The purpose of this address is to examine Pocklington's contentions eight years on, after dramatic increases in research funds flowing to Canadian universities. As research funds become more important to the financial health of Canadian universities, we have seen the growth in Canada of what I argue is a “cult of research intensivity.” I argue that the cult has serious implications both for the research that political scientists will do, and for our teaching of undergraduate students. However, I conclude that we need to put the reverential enthusiasm for research intensivity in broader perspective, given the perennial concerns that are expressed over the imbalance between teaching and research.

Résumé. En 1998, dans son message annuel, le président Tom Pocklington s'était penché sur ce qui lui apparaissait comme la substitution progressive de la recherche à l'enseignement dans les départements de science politique au Canada. Notre objectif ici est d'analyser les propos de Tom Pocklington quelque huit ans plus tard, à la suite des hausses impressionnantes des fonds de recherche versés aux universités canadiennes. À mesure que les subventions de recherche prennent de plus en plus d'importance pour la santé financière des universités canadiennes, nous voyons dans ce pays l'expansion de ce que j'appellerais le “ culte de la prédominance de la recherche ”. Je soutiens que ce culte a de sérieuses implications tant pour les recherches que mèneront les politologues que pour l'enseignement que nous dispenserons aux étudiants de premier cycle. Je conclus que nous devons replacer dans un contexte plus vaste cet enthousiasme à tous crins à l'égard de la recherche, étant donné les préoccupations qu'a toujours soulevées le déséquilibre entre l'enseignement et la recherche.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 735 - 754
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Martin. 1992. Impostors in the Temple: American Intellectuals Are Destroying Our Universities and Cheating Our Students of Their Futures. New York: Simon and Schuster. (Republished in 1996 as Impostors in the Temple: A Blueprint for Improving Higher Education in America. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.)
Andrew, Edward. 2005. “Education and the Funding of Research.” Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 9. Available at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v9n1.Google Scholar
Atkinson, Michael. 2003. “Why Canadian Universities Are Better Than Charged: A Response to Reg Whitaker, and to No Place to Learn.” Literary Review of Canada (January/February): 12–13.Google Scholar
Barrow, Clyde W. 1995. “Beyond the Multiversity: Fiscal Crisis and the Changing Structure of Academic Labour.” In Academic Work, ed. John Smyth. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press: 159–78.
Barzun, Jacques. 1968. The American University: How It Runs, Where It Is Going. New York: Harper and Row.
Bélanger, André-J. 1990. “Political Science: Die Frau ohne Schatten, or the Challenges of Liberalism and Nationalism.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 23: 643–52.Google Scholar
Bercuson, David, Robert Bothwell and J.L. Granatstein. 1997. Petrified Campus: The Crisis in Canada's Universities. Toronto: Random House of Canada.
Bok, Derek. 1986. Higher Learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bok, Derek. 1991. “The Improvement of Teaching.” American Council of Learned Societies. Occasional Paper 16. Available at http://www.acls.org/op16.htm.
Boyer, Ernest L. 1990. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. New York: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Buchbinder, Howard and P. Rajagopal. 1995. “Canadian Universities and the Impact of Austerity on the Academic Workplace.” In Academic Work, ed. John Smyth. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press: 60–73.
Campbell, John R. 2000. Dry Rot in the Ivory Tower. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Canadian Association of University Teachers. 2002. CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada, 2002. Ottawa: Canadian Association of University Teachers.
Canadian Association of University Teachers. 2005. Alternative Fifth Year Review of Canada Research Chairs Program. Available at http://www.caut.ca/en/publications/briefs/2005_crc_review.pdf.
Canadian Association of University Teachers. 2006. CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada, 2006. Ottawa: Canadian Association of University Teachers.
Cole, Jonathan R., Elinor G. Barber and Stephen R. Graubard, eds. 1993. The Research University in a Time of Discontent. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Corry, J.A. 1970. Farewell the Ivory Tower: Universities in Transition. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Fulford, Robert. 2002. “Forget Teaching; Research is King.” National Post, September 14.
Hattie, John and H.W. Marsh. 1996. “The Relationship Between Teaching and Research: A Meta-Analysis.” Review of Educational Research 66: 507–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosios, Arthur J. and Aloysius Siow. 2004. “Unions Without Rents: Economics of Faculty Unions.” Canadian Journal of Economics 37: 28–52.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Donald. 1997. Academic Duty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Malatest, andAssociates. 2004. Fifth-Year Evaluation of the Canada Research Chairs Program: Final Evaluation Report. Canada Research Chairs Evaluation Steering Committee. Available at http://www/chairs.gc.ca/web/about/publications/fifth_year_review_e.pdf.
Miller, Henry. 1995. “States, Economies and the Changing Labour Process of Academics: Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.” In Academic Work, ed. John Smyth. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press: 40–59.
Newman, John Henry Cardinal. 1852/1907. The Idea of a University, Defined and Illustrated. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Available at http://www.newmanreader.org/works/idea/.
O'Brien, George Dennis. 1998. All the Essential Half-Truths about Higher Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Omiecinski, Teresa. 2003. “Hiring of Part-Time University Faculty on the Increase.” Education Quarterly Review 9: 9–15. Statistics Canada cat. no. 81-003XIE.Google Scholar
Orwin, Clifford. 2005. “Ending the Zellers Approach to University Education.” National Post. February 9: A15.
Piper, Martha C. 2002. “Building a Civil Society: A New Role for the Human Sciences.” 2002 Killam Annual Lecture. Available at http://www.president.ubc.ca/president/speeches/24oct02_killam.pdf.
Pocklington, Tom. 1998. “The Place of Political Science in Canadian Universities.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 31: 643–58.Google Scholar
Pocklington, Tom and Allan Tupper. 2002. No Place to Learn: Why Universities Aren't Working. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Rajagopal, Indhu. 2002. Hidden Academics: Contract Faculty in Canadian Universities. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
RE$EARCH Infosource. 2003. “Canada's Top 50 Research Universities 2003.” Available at http://www.infosource.com.
RE$EARCH Infosource. 2005. “Canada's Top 50 Research Universities 2005.” Available at http://www.infosource.com.
Ritzer, George. 1993/2000. The McDonaldization of Society: New Century Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Ritzer, George. 2002. “Enchanting McUniversity: Towards a Spectacularly Irrational University Quotidian.” In The McDonaldization of Higher Education, eds. Dennis Hayes and Robin Wynyard. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey: 19–32.
Rhodes, Frank H.T. 1993. “The Place of Teaching in the Research University.” In The Research University in a Time of Discontent, eds. Jonathan R. Cole, Elinor G. Barber and Stephen R. Graubard. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press: 179–89.
Schmidt, Sarah. 2005. “Universities Jolted by Negative Reviews: Students Report Teaching Problems, Poor Campus Life.” National Post. August 31: A12.
Slaughter, Sheila and Larry L. Leslie. 1997. Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Slaughter, Sheila and Gary Rhoades. 2004. Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, States and Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Smith, Stuart. 1991. Commission of Inquiry on Canadian University Education. Ottawa: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 1981. Annual Report, 1980–81.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2001. Annual Report, 2000–2001.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2002. President's Report on March 2002 Council Meeting. Available at http://www.sshrc.ca/web/about/council_reports/2002march_e.asp.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2004. From Granting Council to Knowledge Council: Renewing the Social Sciences and Humanities in Canada.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2005. Knowledge Council: SSHRC, 2006–2011.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2006a. “All payments by program activity architecture, fiscal year 2005–2006.” Available at http://www.sshrc.ca/web/about/stats/tables_e.asp.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2006b. “Standard Research Grants, 2006–2007.” Available at http://www.sshrc.ca/web/about/stats/tables_e.asp.
Statistics Canada. 1978a. Universities: Enrolment and Degrees, 1976. Cat. No. 81-204.
Statistics Canada. 1978b. Teachers in Universities, 1976–77. Cat. No. 81-241.
Statistics Canada. 1997. Education in Canada, 1996. Cat. No. 81-229-XPB. Ottawa: Minister of Industry.
Statistics Canada. 2004. “University Finances.” The Daily. August 19. Available at http://www.statcan.ca/english/dai-quo/.
Sykes, Charles J. 1988. ProfScam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education. Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway.
Treasury Board Secretariat. 2005. RPP 2005–2006: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Available at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/est-pre/20052006/SSHRC-CRSHC/pdf/SSHRC-CRSHCr56_e.pdf.
West, Edwin G. 1988. Higher Education in Canada: An Analysis. Vancouver: Fraser Institute.
Whitaker, Reg. 2002. “What's Wrong with Canadian Universities: A Review of No Place to Learn.” Literary Review of Canada (September): 3–6.Google Scholar