Accountability, Pragmatic Aims, and the American University

Ana M. Martínez-Alemán is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership & Higher Education Administration at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College.

"Finally, the higher education community has a clear work that brings thoughtfulness to university accountability! Martínez-Alemán brings presidents and provosts to their senses with a concise, insightful guide through the uses and abuses of accountability that have pervaded -- and often derailed -- the American research university in its missions and societal influence. This work is both useful and hopeful in fusing philosophical analysis with the vitality of academic institutions."-- John Thelin, University Research Professor in Higher Education & Public Policy, University of Kentucky"This book offers us a reading of how the moral and democratic purposes of research universities have changed. In an era in which "public accountability" strictly has come to mean accounting, and what counts as knowledge is constrained by scientism and profit, it is refreshing to see Martínez-Alemán’s unabashedly moral and political defense of higher education’s democratic possibilities."-- Benjamin Baez, Associate Professor of Higher Education, Florida International University

• 1. Introduction: Accountability and the University’s Democratic Imperatives2. The Historic Purposes of Higher Learning in America and the Challenge of Accountability3. Postsecondary Teaching 4. The Rise of Managerialism 5. The Academic Profession and Undergraduate Teaching6. Higher Learning in the 21st Century University7. Conclusions