Jesús F. Galaz-Fontes

Leadership, cross‐cultural contact, socio‐economic status, and formal operational reasoning about moral dilemmas among Mexican non‐literate adults and high school students

Kohlberg proposed that various cultural, social and educational factors may influence moral reasoning. As far as the authors know, participants in previous studies of moral reasoning have been, largely, educated persons, irrespective of their culture. Two studies on moral reasoning were conducted in a Mexican–United States border city. The first study found that even some unschooled, non‐literate adults reason at a high stage (formal operations, Moral 3/4). Exposure to different cultural and organizational contexts, in addition to assumption of leadership roles, was associated with such reasoning. Likewise, the second study found that high school students who were identified as leaders, especially those with cross‐cultural contact and those who were of high socio‐economic status, reasoned at higher stages than those who were not. Overall, stage of reasoning increased with age.

Gender Gaps in North American Research Productivity: Examining Faculty Publication Rates in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.

The present study addresses gender gaps in North American research productivity, which may be influenced by personal and family variables, as well as professional and work-related variables. The study was conducted as part of the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) International Survey, conducted in 2007–08. Using articles as indicator of research productivity, we analyzed the gender gap in publication rates among full-time higher education faculty in our combined sample (Canada, Mexico, and the United States). This analysis has implications for higher education policy. In terms of research productivity, the relative productivity rates of male and female academics have been a policy priority for many years to increase the cumulative rates of research activity. We found that the variables related to research intensity varied by country, providing a more nuanced understanding of the gender gap between male and female faculty.

Regionalisation of Higher Education and the Academic Profession in Asia, Europe and North America

This chapter focuses on regionalisation as one dimension of internationalisation of higher education in Asia, Europe and North America. The chapter includes four sections. The cases of Asia, Europe and North America are treated in Sects. 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4, respectively. Each section begins with a brief analysis of policies and assessment of progress of intra-regional cooperation of higher education systems in each region. Then, it provides an overview of physical mobility patterns with the region, intra-regional teaching and research activities and patterns in foreign languages usage based on major findings from the CAP surveys aggregated by region. The concluding fourth section explores the character of the international dimensions of academic activities in each region, identifies major issues concerning academic work and activities from the perspectives of regionalisation and also discusses strategies that can facilitate the regionalisation of academic work and careers.

The Divergent Worlds of Teaching and Research Among Mexican Faculty: Tendencies and Implications

This chapter analyzes the relationship between teaching and research for the case of Mexican academics. The chapter is organized in four sections. In the first one, and in a brief manner, we will discuss the way in which teaching and research might be related as well as the way in which such relationship might be studied. In the second section, we will provide a brief historical and contemporary context of Mexican higher education, paying particular attention to current public policies relevant to academic work. In the third section, we will deal with the way in which Mexican academics view their work, and data will be presented on faculty activities, use of time and productivity, academic preferences and notion of academic work, recognition and compensation, personal characteristics, and, finally, job satisfaction and commitment. It will be argued that teaching and research activities serve to differentiate two academic worlds that, in the case of Mexican higher education, are increasingly drifting apart. The chapter ends with a recapitulation of the information presented and a small set of reflections based on it.

México: A Portrait of a Managed Profession

On the basis of a national survey on academics, this chapter discusses their perception of the governance and management within the institutions in which they work. With some variation according to institutional type, academics reported moderate to less than appropriate working conditions and yet, at the same time, they expressed that such conditions have improved somehow during the last years. Mexican academics perceived an absence of clear academic criteria in academics’ appointment and promotion, as well as a relatively low influence, on their part, in key professional decisions; this situation speaks of Mexican academics as managed professionals. Academics also reported low levels of communication between management and academics, a top-down administrative style, relatively low involvement in collegial decision-making, cumbersome processes, and a low appraisal of top-level administrators as competent leaders. Nevertheless, Mexican academics expressed a high appreciation of their career, as well as high levels of job satisfaction, whose sources could be found in other aspects, more intrinsic to their work, than to the governance and management of their institutions.

Changing Biographies and Careers of Academics

Given academics’ centrality to higher education it is natural to consider, in addition to working conditions (Locke W, Teichler U (eds). The changing conditions for academic work and careers in select countries. International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel, Kassel, 2007), their personal characteristics, career trajectories, commitment and sense of identity as strategic for understanding the academic profession in general. In understanding what and how academics do their work, as well as its relevance, it is important to describe their work, as well as pertinent organizational and meta-organizational variables in detail. In addition to these aspects it is important to consider who the academics are, where they come from and, additionally, their expectations for the future. All such aspects are important to the extent that it would be natural to expect for them to have an influence in the work done by an academic. In this paper the authors take a look, after briefly commenting their data analysis approach, at findings from the 2007 CAP survey related to two key areas of full-time academics: changing biographies and changes to their academic career.

Intention to Leave Academia and Job Satisfaction Among Faculty Members: An Exploration Based on the International CAP Survey

This chapter addresses the importance of faculty job satisfaction as a key variable for understanding the intention to leave academia. It highlights the importance of working conditions and organizational variables that might influence the academics’ decision to work outside the higher education sector. As higher education has become increasingly more diverse, for both, students and professors, the academic profession has become less satisfying and more demanding, particularly for junior academics, within a context of constrained budgets and greater accountability. According to the CAP results, the 19 countries that participated in the international survey were organized into four groups depending on the percentage of academics who reported they had considered working outside higher education/research institutions, ranging from 45 % in the first group to 7 % in the fourth. In 11 out of these 19 countries, this percentage was significantly higher for junior faculty. A binary logistic regression model was built to explore the variables related to this issue. Results showed that the intention of faculty to leave their institutions was related to job satisfaction, which in turn was mediated by job stability, as well as the existence of adequate working conditions. Young faculty members were more prone than seniors to leave the academic profession. Although results of the study point only to a small and limited number of organizational variables that were significantly related to the intention to leave academia, it is contended that they are central in explaining academic job satisfaction (AJS), which in turn is related to leaving academia.

Análisis preliminar de la productividad académica en los institutos públicos tecnológicos mexicanos

Resumen Para conocer las actividades de docencia e investigacion que realizan los academicos de los institutos publicos tecnologicos ( ipt ), se recurre a la informacion de tres encuestas aplicadas en Mexico en 1992, 2000 y 2007-2008 relacionadas con tres estudios nacionales. En este primer analisis se explora cada una de las bases de datos generadas en estos estudios para conocer cuantos academicos de los institutos publicos tecnologicos participaron en la muestra, el numero de grupos atendidos, el porcentaje de tiempo dedicado a docencia e investigacion, pertenencia al Programa de Mejoramiento del Profesorado o al Sistema Nacional de Investigadores ( sni ). La informacion preliminar obtenida permite aventurarnos en el conocimiento de la productividad academica en docencia e investigacion que han tenido los academicos de estos institutos y proporciona una idea de los cambios que han ocurrido de 1992 a 2008 en estas instituciones publicas de educacion superior.

Changing employment relationships in North America: Academic work in the United States, Canada and Mexico

The notion that Canada, Mexico and the United States can be meaningfully thought of as a regional entity — i.e. North America — is a relatively new (and, as we shall see, as yet underdeveloped) notion, certainly in comparison with the rapidly unfolding idea of a European Union. Lacking a strong tradition of regional self-identification, North America can be seen as two bilateral sets of relationships with the US state, which places Canada and Mexico literarily on either side of a dominant ‘partner’, culturally and economically. Despite a long and complex history of interaction between them, it was not until the late 1980s that all three countries began to recognise that North America constitutes a natural region in the current geo-political sense of the term and that, in many ways and despite all the asymmetries between the countries, there is a natural interdependence and common set of challenges to be met ‘collectively’ both now and in the future.

Demographics, Career and Academic Self-Understanding: A Comparative View

This last chapter of the book uses an analytical approach in which academics’ demographics, career and self-understanding (values and perspectives) is understood to be a non-linear and complex function of the country in which academics work, the regulations and policies regarding higher education, and the specific institutions in which they work. Additionally, such aspects of the academic profession are seen as influenced by several global issues: a more demanding managerial environment, larger expectations for relevance and an increasing internationalization in response to global tendencies in higher education expansion, an economy more dependant on knowledge and a tendency for world-class universities. The chapter summarizes and expands the information and analysis provided in the book chapters regarding academics’ social background, gender, various family issues, age and academic career, mobility and several academic values and perspectives. The chapter ends pointing out several trends that are similar in the majority of the countries that participated in the CAP (Changing Academic Profession) project, as are the reduction in gender inequity, the improvement of the situation faced by junior academics, the increasing proportion of academics holding a doctoral degree and their relatively high satisfaction levels. Notwithstanding such similar trends, the fact remains that even in them there is considerable variation between countries, which speak of the complex environment in which nowadays contemporary academics live and work.