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Allan M. Hoffman and Stephen D. Spangehl (Eds.). Innovations in Higher Education: Igniting the Spark for Success. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012.200 pp. Cloth: $44.95. ISBN: 978-1-4422-0446-1.
In Innovations in Higher Education: Igniting the Spark for Success, editors Allan M. Hoffman and Stephen D. Spangehl present a. panoptic view of innovation, with descriptions of a. wide array of progressive programs from multiple facets of the higher education environment, as well as the his- torical background detailing their necessity. They define their purpose clearly as bringing "higher education professionals together as part of a. broad, national movement to encourage such dynamic effort, to motivate reflection at the precipice, and to promote fresh ideas as part of the ongoing work," largely through "institutional sharing" ef- forts (p. xv).
Divided into three sections, the book provides views of innovation from multiple vantage points in the higher education ecosystem. The most sub- stantive portion of the book appears in the over- arching accounts of key topics that administrators and professionals provide in the first section, which is where I focus this review. Sections 2 and 3 consist primarily of multiple individual case studies, which I summarize more broadly.
Incorporating the work of Michael West and James Farr ( 1990), the editors define innovation as "the sequence of activities by which a new element is introduced into a social unit, with the intention of benefiting the unit, some part of it, or the wider society" (p. xiv). Hoffman and John Holzhüter, in Chapter 1, further state that innovation is a natural part of evolutionary change, a reaction to environ- mental stimuli to ensure survival. The authors also incorporate aspects of teleological change when they describe innovations as "internally directed," connoting thoughts of rational initiatives that have been championed by key individuals (p. 4). The chapter continues...