Lara M. Ravitch, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA

In the last decade, corporate entities have begun to approach universities to implement joint ESL teaching ventures. Many of these universities already have their own English language programs, and the decision of the university to partner with a corporation is fraught with concern for existing faculty and administrators.

University Partnerships With the Corporate Sector: Faculty Experiences With For-Profit Matriculation Pathway Programs is the first academic book to address the increasingly urgent concern of privatization and outsourcing in university-based intensive English programs (IEPs) in the United States, specifically concerning those private enterprises which offer pathway programs geared toward expedited matriculation for enrolled international students. It provides much-needed information and analysis in a thorough but accessible format. The research is qualitative, narrative based, and focused on the experiences of educators who have worked in these programs.

Chapter 1 provides a concise and insightful review of literature related to privatization and outsourcing in various areas of education, including both K–12 and higher education. Winkle provides a convincing argument that the privatization of university-based ESL is related to similar occurrences in areas such as cafeteria services, university bookstores, and library cataloguing. He also relates the increasing use of adjuncts to this kind of corporatization and provides some helpful global context. While these scenarios are likely to be familiar to many higher education professionals, the thorough analysis of a wide range of issues is thought-provoking and certainly contains information from fields that ESL administrators may not be acquainted with.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the history of corporate partnerships that aim to provide matriculation pathways and increased enrollment of international students as well as a more detailed investigation of existing research related to the problems of commodification and marginalization of university-based ESL programs. The basic review of IEP structure and accreditation, and of the various organizations related to IEPs, would be useful to new administrators and administrators working with IEPs but without a strong background in ESL, as will the review of studies related to the marginalization of English language programs. There is also a brief but very helpful overview of the four corporate entities currently involved in joint venture partnerships with U.S. universities.

Chapter 3 relates an initial exploratory study performed by Winkle that led to his dissertation, which was the basis for this volume, and his methodology is described in detail in Chapter 4. Beyond its specific discussion of this study, this chapter serves as a clear and concise introduction to the methodology of narrative inquiry. This approach, which Winkle contrasts with objective research, focuses on the stories that individuals create to make sense of their experiences. The participants' stories are collected by the researcher, who then "restories" them, focusing on particularly salient issues. In the case of this book, they were originally recast as monologues and vetted by the participants through lengthy interactions with Winkle. Then, each participant's monologue was analyzed and coded, and prominent issues were identified. Finally, the co-created narratives were abridged and integrated into an analysis framed by Winkle and written in his voice, with quotes and paraphrases from the narrative used for support and exemplification.

Chapters 5–8 describe and discuss the narratives of 12 teachers and administrators. Chapter 5 provides an analysis of a variety of administrative perspectives. The narratives are very nuanced, allowing the reader to see a wide range of both positive and negative aspects of the joint partnerships. The border-crossers (those who had both teaching and administrative roles), described in Chapter 6, come across as more optimistic about the partnerships. While each border-crosser has some concerns, and the narratives again show clearly the areas of conflict in each participant’s experience, this chapter presents a group of educators who have been pleased with opportunities for advancement and are generally satisfied with their current situation.

In Chapter 7, three ESL teachers’ experiences are described, with common themes including stressful and traumatic initial transitions to the corporate partnership and ultimate opinions of the new program that ranged from satisfaction with teacher control of classroom decision making to concerns about loss of program quality.

Finally, Chapter 8 relates the experiences of two faculty members from academic disciplines teaching in pathway programs. These faculty teach sheltered content courses to international students who have not met the language proficiency requirement to take the classes with domestic students. Although the credit granted for these courses is equivalent to the credit that fully matriculated students earn, the interviews in this chapter reveal a lack of support for these faculty members in learning how to work with international students, a lack of preparation in pathway students compared to other students, and lower status for (typically non-tenure-track) academic faculty members teaching in pathway programs as compared to those teaching in their own departments.

In Chapters 9 and 10, the results and future implications of Winkle’s research are discussed. The clear and well-organized discussion of each participant’s experience in Chapters 5–8, along with reflections in those chapters, allows the reader to easily predict the conclusions discussed in Chapter 9. However, some areas of particular emphasis, such as the potential for loss of program accreditation and impact on student enrollment, are discussed in great detail, which could be helpful to readers who are interested in the institutional level. The book concludes with Chapter 10, in which Winkle provides several cogent suggestions for improvements to pathway programs as well as questions about whether such programs are beneficial or necessary. Then he gives a number of suggestions for future research as this topic has been quite underexplored. He concludes with a description of possible alternatives to corporate partnerships and examples of several universities that have successfully implemented such alternatives. It is worth noting, however, that one of the universities, George Mason, has since entered into a corporate joint partnership.

In sum, this volume tells a compelling story about a very current issue through rigorous qualitative research. The narrative approach is engaging, even for readers disinclined toward serious research, but at the same time this is a serious and valuable investigation into the experiences of faculty and administrators in corporate pathway programs.

Lara Ravitch received her MA in language teaching (Russian and TESOL) from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She has held teaching and administrative positions in K–12, community college, and university contexts. She is currently an instructor and program coordinator at the American English Institute at the University of Oregon.