Cultures of Undergraduate Teaching at Research Universities

Teaching-oriented faculty have received scant attention as a distinctive cultural force. Even among those who would speak on their behalf, undergraduate teachers have been treated as little more than a dependable workforce whose interests are best served by top-down proposals for enhanced recognition and reward. Findings from a five-campus study suggest a more complex reality. Of particular interest is an explicitly oppositional culture that questions both the Scholarship of Teaching model and the ethos of competitive achievement. These views echo the longstanding populist tradition within American higher education and represent a potential counterforce to the recent narrowing of faculty roles.