Institutionalizing a Broader View of Scholarship through Boyer's Four Domains.

Abstract

In his influential book "Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate," Ernest Boyer (1990) proposed that the definition of scholarship be broadened beyond the emphasis on discovery to encompass the scholarships of integration, application, and teaching. A report by the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education reviews the major scholarly works related to the domains of scholarship. In the assumption that the achievement of three levels, structural, procedural, and incorporation, is necessary to the institutionalization of Boyer's four domains of scholarship, this study appraised the attainment of these three levels of institutionalization of Boyer's perspective by using data collected from a national sample of 1,424 faculty members at 5 types of colleges and universities in 4 academic disciplines. Findings show that all four domains of scholarship have attained structural level institutionalization. The scholarships of discovery and teaching have attained procedural level institutionalization, and the scholarships of application and integration show progress toward the achievement of this level of institutionalization. The scholarships of discovery and teaching have attained both structural and procedural level institutionalization. The potential for incorporation level institutionalization of the scholarships of application, integration, and teaching exists if changes supportive of Boyer's formulation occur in graduate education and the academic reward system and its accompanying process of scholarly assessment. The scholarship of discovery persists as the most legitimate and preferred objective of faculty scholarly engagement across the spectrum of institutions. Recommendations are advanced to further the institutionalization of Boyer's four domains. (SLD)