What the Public Values Most: Elevating Teaching, Empowering Faculty, and Building Trust in Higher Education

Seminar participation is limited to 25 people.

The public expects high-quality college teaching, yet we, in higher education, have not sufficiently examined the connections between teaching and public skepticism about the value of higher education. This persists even though teaching is at the core of all institutional missions and increasingly represents students’ primary (often sole) college experience. During this seminar session, participants will be guided in an exploration of the relationship between college teaching and public trust in higher education. We will critically interrogate where college teaching is located within the value systems and common practices in higher education and how this may influence public trust. Through engaging with and sharing their own promising strategies and models, participants will leave the session with new ideas and concrete next steps to elevate college teaching and empower faculty as agents of deep change in service of restoring public trust in higher education.