Critical Administration in Higher Education

Negotiating Political Commitment and Managerial Practice

Jay Brower, W. Benjamin Myers

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2019
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978780699
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Administration

Critical Administration: Negotiating Political Commitment and Managerial Practice in Contemporary Higher Education explores the challenges that higher education administrators face when negotiating political commitments in the day-to-day practice of university life. Jay Brower and W. Benjamin Myers have collected reflections from 12 administrators, all of whom identify as critical/cultural scholars, about how ideological commitments affect their identities as administrators and the work they conduct. Contributors reflect on how their academic training helps them understand their role as administrators in higher education in terms of central issues surrounding power, ethics, and identity, and how they entwine with managerial responsibilities. Each contributor focuses on specific experiences where their managerial duties intersect with political commitments. Ultimately, this collection provides opportunities to observe the challenges and opportunities of performing ethical leadership in contemporary higher education. Scholars of education, critical/cultural communication, and administration will find this book particularly useful.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Selling Out or Cashing In
• 2 Black Male Authority as Oxymoron?
• 3 Chair Communication as Ethical Performance
• 4 Failing to Communicate in a Communication Department
• 5 Minding the Gap
• 6 It’s Not Me, It’s You
• 7 Leading with Diversity
• 8 An Anxious Administrator
• 9 Who’s Responsible for Salving the Wounds?
• 10 The Liminal Leader
• 11 Drawing the Boundary between Faculty and Administration through Concertive Control
• 12 Feeling, Compromised
• Index
• About the Editors and Contributors