The Graduate School in American Democracy. Bulletin, 1939, No. 10
Author: Bowman, Isaiah
Date: 1939-00-00
Type: Historical Materials
Subjects: Professional Education,Leadership,College Faculty,Democracy,Graduate Study,Schools of Education,Private Schools,State Departments of Education,Teacher Education,Standards,Teacher Certification,Professional Associations,Research

As never before, human welfare today depends upon the results of research, and upon the steady stream of scholars needed for the increasingly arduous demands of intellectual leadership. That unit of the educational system most directly responsible for stimulating research and for developing scholarly leadership is the graduate school. How to maintain high-grade graduate instruction and research is now one of the most pressing of all the problems connected with the national economy and culture. It has become increasingly acute in recent years because of the extraordinary demands made upon graduate schools in preparing college professors and research workers in the rapidly multiplying departments of science and art and in supplementing the work of the colleges in educating the vast number of teachers and administrators for the growing system of public and private schools. At the same time, nearly all types of professional schools, including teachers colleges, within and without the universities, have been engaged to full capacity in trying to meet the demands for advanced professional education. The staffing of these professional schools has been a task of the graduate school. The raising by State departments of education of standards of certification of high-school teachers and the increasing of requirements for licensure in many  professions have been important contributing factors in this situation. In order to help overcome difficulties arising from this expansion of graduate and research activities, a number of associations of institutions of higher education and of professional schools, during recent years, have made studies and surveys of many phases of education on the graduate level. And inasmuch as the brunt of graduate study and research in all fields finally falls on the graduate school of arts and sciences it was naturally felt that a special study of this unit was highly desirable. The results of this study will not only be helpful in laying the basis for further study of graduate work, but it will be stimulating to members of graduate school faculties, university administrators, and others immediately connected with graduate study and research. It should prove of the greatest value to the large and increasing number of young scholars whose talents are leading them in the direction of membership in university faculties and in research organizations. The orientation thus provided may help the future leaders of scholarship and investigation to see the problems of advanced study and research as a whole, in their larger purposes and relations, rather than in those which are narrow or one-sided. Agencies and individuals concerned with the cultural and scientific leadership of the United States should also gain new viewpoints of the best ways in which this country may strengthen its contributions to the world. An appendix presents the Reports of Committee Meetings. (Contains 6 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]