Leadership Dynamics in Higher Education Institutions in India

The network of higher education institutions (HEIs) has grown at a phenomenal rate in post-independence India and poses wide-ranging challenges for educational leadership. There are other important factors that impinge on the functioning of educational leader who is not only a principal, a president, or a vice chancellor. In fact, he or she is an educational leader encompassing multiple roles. The chapter elucidates the present higher education scenario of India. It portrays the nature and extent of internal and external student mobility and the challenges posed therein. It identifies the major factors affecting the HEIs and their employees in the present changing realm by way of a study conducted in the HEIs and highlights the ethical challenges faced by the educational leaders in promoting and transforming the institutions to centers of excellence.

Keeping the Promise of Distance Education

Distance education programs in the form of online instruction continue to grow in terms of enrollments as well as courses available. However, consideration of the values promoted by ideal distance and open learning systems may not be guiding the design and development of such programs. The values of access, availability, affordability, continuity, connection, independence equity can form the basis for a conversation on how a program is realizing the promise of distance education given the constraints of institutional mission, culture, and business/academic model.

Civic Value of National Service

Research from one large public university highlights that on average, of the 10,000 students who graduate, 650 students, or 8% of participating graduates, indicate ‘volunteering' or ‘taking time off' as their immediate next step post-graduation. This creates a ‘service year' opportunity. A pilot study was conducted on the civic value of national service within a population of students who graduated from one large public university and participated in at least one national service program to understand the civic value of national service. The pre-, during-, and post-service year experiences are examined with respect to ethical dilemmas and best practices within higher education leadership. Action steps for ethical best practices created by institutional leadership will foster a connection for students and national service opportunities as a pathway from college to career.

Prevalence of Campus Rape

Most administrators of colleges and universities are aware of the statistics about the prevalence of campus sexual assault and rape. Campus sexual assault and rape have the potential for ruining the lives of both victims and perpetrators. The authors suggest that educators, administrators, and strategic leadership teams need to understand how social norms theory, sports, and rape culture play into the prevalence of campus sexual assault and rape on students' ability to thrive in and complete college and the need to adopt a proactive stance whereby they can help to offset the negative outcomes for the students involved while at the same time focusing on the legal and risk management impact of neglecting to establish and/or non-enforcement of policies to both prevent and address campus sexual assault and rape. Many educators and administrators fail to understand the potential costs of Title IX violations and benefits to colleges and universities from the violence against women laws, especially the Amended Clery Act. Lastly, recommendations are forthcoming in helping leaders and risk management employees be proactive and strategically plan to reduce and address the occurrences of campus sexual assault and rapes.

Democratizing Classroom Discussion

This chapter analyzes the way Jurgen Habermas, the German critical theorist, connects the development of democracy to the educational use of discussion. It proposes an understanding of democracy that regards it as an ever widening, inclusive conversation in which teachers (as well as students) exercise their power as educators. The author explores three specific dialogic methods that can be used to democratize classrooms along the lines suggested by Habermas: the circle of voices, circular response, and chalk talk techniques. Each of these is designed to create an inclusive conversation where no one voice dominates, to hold back the reaching of a premature consensus, and to integrate the widest possible number of perspectives.

By Means of Critical Theory

So-termed non-traditional adult students have become a key target for marketing efforts in higher education, and non-conventional, accelerated paths to university-issued degrees are the lure du jour in the business of selling education programs. A key ethical challenge in our profession remains how we align the education of adults according to the higher education institutions' mission statements to the education adults seek and actually receive. In this chapter, it is argued that the realities and possibilities of socially responsible educating when institutions are accountable to myriad stakeholders. This issue is viewed through the lens of emancipatory education informed by tenets of critical theory. The argument hopes to engage the readers in problem-posing so that cross-sector, collaboratively designed education options can be considered that are contextual rather than prescriptive in nature and which align to the indigenous[1] needs of teachers, learners, institutions, and communities.

Not Possible to Destroy Opinions by Force

This chapter surveys the influence and thinking of Hannah Arendt and Che Guevara regarding education. Despite their many differences, both thinkers are surprisingly similar in seeing authority in an ideal community as self-justifying and therefore authorizing a certain amount of repression by the state. The essay turns to the later thinking of Michel Foucault and his theory of a utopian liberalism to provide individuals a way to both join in but not be subjugated by larger collectivities. The chapter concludes that universities can embrace a form of Foucault's utopianism and allow the left and right to debate their respective positions and not need to censor views except in the most extreme cases. The goal in free speech should be to make students into thinking subjects.

Faculty Socialization and Gaining Tenure

In higher education, ethical principles should guide administrators to develop policies and procedures that are just and fair to faculty, administrators, staff, and students and, as well, consider the needs of the various stakeholders affected by them. One example of a process that should be planned and carried out in an ethical way is the tenure-track process for faculty members. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss ethical issues and challenges institutions of higher education face in the tenure process and in socializing new full-time tenure track faculty members into academe. The authors discuss the acculturation process into the academy, then focus on interpersonal interactions and relationships, including mentoring and other supportive relationships and gender and minority issues that may affect the tenure process and acculturation into the academy. They conclude with future concerns and discussion of the ethical considerations for socializing faculty members into academe.

Design Thinking as a Paradigm to Support the Ethical Revival in Higher Education

The recent surge of unethical behaviour throughout all levels of higher education institutions across the world leaves little doubt of the problematic nature of ethics in higher education. The current state of ethics in universities must be seen as a call to action and must be considered a catalyst for an ethical revival in higher education leadership and administration. In the present chapter, against the background understanding of design thinking, ethics, and leadership in higher education, an argument is made for the usefulness of design thinking in moving towards the much-needed ethical revival of higher education. The fundamental premise of the present chapter is that design thinking with its emphasis on empathy is a useful paradigm for supporting the growth of an ethical mindset throughout the higher education.

Leadership Ethics in Higher Education Administration

This chapter begins with developing meaning of the word “ethics,” mainly related to rectitude, integrity, good, rely, trust, and congruent. Andragogy, defined as the art and science of helping facilitate the learning of adult individuals and organizations, is characterized as having six assumptions and eight elements, with five organizational dimensions. Peale suggests a trustworthy personal guidance censor system; Billington identifies seven characteristics of highly effective adult learning programs; McLagan asserts that time is needed to develop a system of ethical conduct; Bennis and Nanus provide a possible model of successful visionary leadership as that operates in organizations growing and flourishing economically in a “down economy.” The role of a university includes the lifelong learning needs of a total population being addressed. This chapter includes discussion of the development of the modified instructional perspectives inventory in its use in various organizations, assessing Henschke's scholarship and practice congruence, and listing its use in 30 doctoral dissertations. It concludes a story of how ethical administration conduct affected transformation of a brutal prison system into a humane one.