This article argues that neoliberalism is a critical public issue influencing the apparently private troubles of college students and teachers. For example, earning a college degree has become ever more important for success; yet, because of declining state support for public education, students are taking on extraordinary levels of debt. As a result, learning is being pushed aside by vocational and other considerations that result from neoliberal policy imperatives. For teachers, the decline of the tenure system means fewer full-time faculty members to do more work and fewer people who have the protection to speak out against neoliberal excess. Unless sociology teachers (along with teachers in other disciplines) do something to change the current system, higher education will continue to decline.
DumaisSusan A.WardAaryn. 2010. “Cultural Capital and First-generation College Success.” Poetics38:245–65.
7.
FischerKarinStriplingJack. 2014. “An Era of Neglect: How Public Colleges Were Crowded out, Beaten up, and Failed to Fight Back.” Chronicle of Higher Education, March3. Retrieved July3, 2014. (http://chronicle.com/article/An-Era-of-Neglect/145045/)
8.
GinderScott A.Kelly-ReidJanice E.2013. Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2012; Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2012; Graduation Rates, Selected Cohorts, 2004–09; and Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2012: First Look (Provisional Data) (NCES 2013-183). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved September23, 2014 (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch).
HowardJay. 2010. “2009 Hans O. Mauksch Address: Where Are We and How Did We Get Here? A Brief Examination of the Past, Present and Future of the Teaching and Learning Movement in Sociology.” Teaching Sociology38(2):81–92.
JohnsonAllan. 2005. The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy, rev. ed. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
16.
JohnsonAllan. 2008. The Forest and the Trees: Sociology as Life, Practice and Promise, rev. and expanded ed. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
17.
LangJames M.2005. Life on the Tenure Track: Lessons from the First Year. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
18.
McKinneyKathleenHoweryCarla B.StrandKerry J.KainEdward L.BerheideCatherine White. 2004. Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major Updated: Meeting the Challenge of Teaching Sociology in the Twenty-first Century. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
19.
NathanRebekah. 2006. My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student. New York: Penguin Books.
20.
PrestonSusanAslettJordan. 2014. “Resisting Neoliberalism from within the Academy: Subversion through an Activist Pedagogy.” Social Work Education33(4):502–18.
