Cool Passion: Challenging Higher Education

Arthur W. Chickering is one of the leading researchers in student development theory and its implications for higher education. In 1969, he published Education and Identity, which posited seven vectors to describe the personal development of students during college. It received the 1969 American Council on Education's Eleanor Colford Morris Book Award for its contribution to higher education, and that recognition took Chickering out of Vermont and onto the national scene. Cool Passion is Chickering's candid autobiography in which he tells the story of his life and career. He recounts his childhood and adolescence in New England, detailing his school misadventures and struggles to find purpose and meaning—experiences that laid the foundation for his values and beliefs. Chickering's professional journey grew out of these experiences. The second part of the book centers on Chickering's 50-plus year career and five key contributions: civic learning and democratic engagement, assessment, pedagogy, student services, and student diversity. He and coauthors discuss these areas that reflect emerging issues in higher education as well as Chickering's major accomplishments, offering a personal perspective on the future of higher education.