Scholarship reconsidered: A reflection

This article reflects on the book Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, by Ernest Boyer. Scholarship Reconsidered was an attempt by Boyer to redefine the role of the professoriate in terms of the concept of scholarship as perceived and enacted within the academy. The purpose of the special report was to provide a clearer meaning of scholarship within the academy itself. He recognized that the mission of U.S. higher education had changed dramatically over the past four decades. And, yet, the expectations of the professoriate held by the members within the academy, that is, faculty and administrators, had not always kept pace with these changes. The primary thesis of the special report was that the way scholarship is defined and, ultimately, rewarded will determine to a considerable extent our ability to improve higher education