The last few years has seen a rise in both controversial campus speakers and vociferous student protests (the latter often in direct response to the former). Both phenomena seem symptomatic of the growing political polarization of the country as a whole—groups and individuals with hateful and offensive beliefs feel legitimized and emboldened to publicly voice their platforms, which in turn galvanizes an activist response. The college campus, which has long been a bastion of the free exchange of ideas, has become the nexus of this clash of ideals, and ignited a debate over free speech, hate speech, and censorship. In our Q&A series Spotlight On: Campus Speech, Academic Leader Today brings campus administrators expert perspectives to help understand the current challenges of campus speech issues.
There’s a long-standing tradition of informal sharing of pedagogical innovation among K-12 teachers and a whole line of research on this phenomenon, which is known as teacher leadership. The same type of informal faculty leadership exists in higher education as well, but there is very little research on this topic.
In an effort to better understand informal faculty leadership in higher education, Pete Turner, education faculty member and director of the Teacher Education Institute at Estrella Mountain Community College, conducted a study that combined faculty surveys and administrator interviews at three Landmark Learning Colleges identified by the League for Innovation in the Community College.
