Courage, Risk, and Change in Higher Education

And advance praise for *Failing Our Future*!

I recently returned from the AAC&U’s conference on General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment in Providence, RI. It’s a medium-sized, but mighty, conference that draws faculty, administrators, and staff together to talk about change and the future of higher education. This year’s conference theme was “Courage,” which is what prompted me to submit a proposal in the first place.

Courage is badly needed right now. It is necessary as we confront the many challenges we are facing: from legislatures, from public perception, from demographic cliffs, and also from within. There are many aspects of our educational systems themselves that are archaic and in need of change, but it takes courage even to call attention to some of these issues, let alone begin the process of reform.

As I said in my talk on “The Courage to Change the Way We Grade,” though, courage implies risk, and risk is not evenly distributed in higher education. Our level of risk, and therefor our need for courage, is in direct proportion to our position at our institutions and our positionality with respect to our identities.

Regarding position: tenured faculty comprise the most protected group at an institution, even though they themselves have seen increased risk at a number of campuses recently. This simply means that, on the whole, tenure usually equates to less risk and therefore less need for courage when broaching the subject of change. The risk begins to get higher, though, when we think about non-tenured faculty, staff, and administrators without faculty appointment. They are asked to draw on more courage if they wish to initiate or even contribute to reform efforts.

The same goes for positionality. White men are the most privileged, least vulnerable group and should use this protection to actively pursue change. Colleagues whose identities intersect amongst other demographic categories (like race, ethnicity, disability status, gender, etc.) take on more risk and more courage is asked of them in doing this work.

I myself do not have tenure, though I do direct a teaching center and I’m a white man, which means I need to draw on these advantages to advocate for a radical reimagining of traditional, ineffective, sometimes harmful practices. Indeed, it’s my responsibility to do so.

The conference itself was great! I saw an amazing panel discussion on “What Is Effective Pedagogy in 2024” with Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Liz Norell, and Tom Tobin. These folks are teaching and learning rock stars, so it’s no surprise that the session was a good one, but I was struck by their focus on wellness and wellbeing as the most important issues we need to keep our eyes on for the near future. They’re right, of course, and we have a lot more thinking to do about how we can help our colleagues understand the role played by our courses, our learning environments, and our teaching in affecting wellbeing.

I also sat in on a mindblowing session from administrators at Michigan Tech who used principles from design thinking and community organizing to completely overhaul their Gen Ed program. I’m going to be pondering that one for quite a while.

I think my own session went pretty well too. We had a good crowd and good discussions about creating action plans for grading reform at the systems level.

Praise for my new book!

I’m grateful to have received some exciting advance praise for Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do about It over the last few weeks.

First, one of my writing heroes read an advance reading copy of the book and agreed to write a blurb. Jessica Lahey, the New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation, has this to say about it: “We have known that grades are a poor indicator of learning, let alone mastery, for a very long time and I'm thrilled Josh Eyler has written this book to explain why. This book will be an essential fixture on my list of books about best practices for education.” Jessica’s work has been hugely influential on my own, and I’m honored that she finds the book to be valuable.

And just a few days ago, another writer I really admire—Jeff Selingo—posted this on Twitter:

Jeff is the New York Times bestselling author of Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions and There is Life after College. As a writer, Jeff never pulls any punches, and he clearly communicates the complexities of our educational systems, which is something I try to emulate. Grateful for his perspective here.

Failing Our Future will be available in August, but pre-orders are still open!

Until next time…