Increasing faculty diversity : the occupational choices of high-achieving minority students / Stephen Cole, Elinor Barber with Melissa Bolyard and Annulla Linders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cole, Stephen, 1941-

Contributor:

Barber, Elinor G.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Faculty integration--United States.

Faculty integration.

Vocational interests.

Minority college graduates--Employment.

Minority college graduates.

Minority college teachers.

United States.

Minority college teachers--United States.

Minority college graduates--Employment--United States.

Vocational interests--United States.

Physical Description:

xvi, 368 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2003.

Summary:

In recent years, colleges have successfully increased the racial diversity of their student bodies. They have been less successful, however, in diversifying their faculties. This book identifies the ways in which minority students make occupational choices, what their attitudes are toward a career in academia, and why so few become college professors. Working with a large sample of high-achieving minority students from a variety of institutions, the authors conclude that minority students are no less likely than white students to aspire to academic careers. But because minorities are less likely to go to college and less likely to earn high grades within college, few end up going to graduate school. The shortage of minority academics is not a result of the failure of educational institutions to hire them, but of the very small pool of minority Ph.D. candidates. In examining why some minorities decide to become academics, Cole and Barber conclude that same-race role models are no more effective than white role models and that affirmative action contributes to the problem by steering minority students to schools where they perform relatively poorly. The authors end with policy recommendations on how more minority students might be attracted to an academic career.

Contents:

1 The Problem 1

2 Obtaining the Data 39

3 Ethnic Differences in Occupational Choices 62

4 Influences on Initial Occupational Choice 81

5 The Influence of Academic Performance 100

6 Attitudes toward Academia 139

7 Role Models, Interaction with Faculty, and Career Aspirations / Melissa Bolyard 163

8 The Influence of School Characteristics 187

9 The Pipeline into Academia / Elizabeth Arias 213

10 Policy Recommendations 236.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-358) and indexes.

ISBN:

0674009452

OCLC:

50164804