The world of academia is an interesting one.  It's composed of many parts, but the three primary parts are the teachers, the administrators, and the learners.  All three parts are necessary to the healthy functioning of academia. We need the teachers to disseminate the knowledge, the learners to absorb the disseminated knowledge (and pay for their absorption), and the administrators to manage the money and business side of things.  This is great that we've got so many ideas and values in one system. That's a really valuable part of academia.  The problem is, sometimes this system falls apart because people are out of touch with realities aside from their own.

Moving through our worlds, we experience events from our own unique perspectives.  It's like we each walk around the world with goggles on, seeing the same things through those goggles, except everyone's goggles are tinted a different color.  Mine would be pink, of course.  So I'd see the whole world as tinted pink, but my colleague might see the world tinted blue.  Seeing the same things, just slightly differently.  That's how academia works.  The teachers, the learners, and the administrators each wear a different colored goggle, everyone seeing the same thing, but seeing it slightly differently.  

The teachers see academia as a noble profession, the purpose of which is to learn for learning's sake, research, and experimentation.  They see their profession as one of developing knowledge and disseminating knowledge in a fluid and flexible manner.  They see their field as a continually progressing one. Most prioritize research and publication over teaching and meeting the needs of learners.  As they feel that they are doing the learners a favor by sharing their knowledge, they expect that learners are mature adults who are equally interested in learning for learning's sake, and for the betterment of themselves as human beings and contributors to the world.  They expect that administrators are supporters of their missions to teach for learning's sake and to disseminate knowledge to anyone who wants to know, and that administrators will allow flexibility in pursuit of this mission.

The administrators see academia as a business.  While they appreciate that the business is to educate and to develop knowledge, they see this as a pursuit that must be funded.  Thus, they see research as a way of increasing revenue through grants and notoriety.  They see educating learners as a way of making money to fund more research for more notoriety, and to fund improvements of the educational setting so that more learners can be educated thereby increasing the money made by the school and so on.  The administrators see teachers as a product and learners as the consumers. Administrators expect that learners will pay for their education, follow the policies created by administrators, and ultimately, if they do this sufficiently, gain a degree.  They also expect that learners who gain degrees will donate back to the school some of the money that they make as a result of their degree.  Of teachers, administrators expect that they too will follow administrator-created policies.  They also expect that the teachers will find money of their own to put into the school and that if they do not find that money, they may be limited in what they may request of administrators.

The learners tend to be a more internally diverse group.  Some of them are in academia for the sake of learning.  Usually they are the Philosophy majors, the English majors, the History majors.  They enjoy learning, and especially enjoy learning from the teachers.  They are willing to pay the administrators and follow the policies because it is a small cost for the opportunity to learn. These students align more with the teachers.  Some learners, though, align more with the administrators.  They seek knowledge through academia as the degree that can come from academia is a product that they can then sell to employers.  They are willing to do work, and learn, but only if learning is going to gain them something: employment.  Learning is not their main priority in seeking an education, sustaining their lives through an ultimate income is.  These students align with the administrators begrudgingly as they understand the necessity of policy and money in academia, but do not see that policy or prices, are created with them in mind. Learners expect that administrators will consider their needs and values when they create policy, and that the cost of their education will be assessed fairly.  Learners expect that teachers will provide them with as much knowledge as necessary to gain a degree, but no more that, as more knowledge is often burdensome.

All three parties are aligned toward the same goal of education, but with different perspectives on the purpose of education, and the expectations that they can have for their counterparts.  This is where the education system collapses.  This is why none of these parties feels satisfied with their role and the abilities of the other parties to meet their expectations.  There is a fundamental lack of communication between these parties and until each party recognizes that they are seeing the same things through their goggles as the others, but that their goggles are tinted only one of three colors, academia will continue to flounder to the disadvantage of all.

Keep on thinking,

Josie