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Networks of Trust: The Social Costs of College and What We Can Do about Them
149 pages, Paperback
Published December 10, 2024
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March 27, 2025
Interesting ideas on interacting with students/parents who are skeptical of higher education's influence.
The argument centers on Informational Trust Networks (ITN) - "complex networks of people and institutions a person trusts when she takes up what they produce and transmit as information with which to think" (3). Furthermore, within the ITN "the set of criteria someone in an information trust nework relies on to evaluate sources creates an informational ideology" (22). Disagreements occur when people have very different ITNs. Often, higher education is a catalyst for students to create new ITNs that can be distinct (and contradictory) to the ITNs from their pre-college days. To quote a long passage:
"...by working to shape, even in the background, their students' informational trust networks to align with those of this elite social class, they impose a burden on students from other classes that they do not impose on students who grew up already in that class. In particular, the transformational effects of college will be more profound and more wrenching for students from non-elite classes who may arrive on campus inhabiting different informational trust networks. These students will have to contend with the very real possibility that succeeding at college will create hard-to-bridge distance between them and their families and home communities" (50).
Laden concludes the book with suggestions on how colleges can gain and sustain the trust of those individuals with ITNs distinct from higher education. The main idea is working to foster Open-minded trust networks (OMTN) in-place of Broadly scientific trust networks (BSTN). Laden admits the two can be similar and overlap. The main difference, in my opinion, is OMTN are willing to consider non-scientific reasoning/evidence when reasoning through an issue. He terms this non-dogmatic thinking.
Overall, I like the suggestions Laden offers for higher education and think many are already part of quality teaching and learning guidelines. I do not fully adhere to his disregard of BSTN because a hallmark of scientific thinking is being open to challenges. However, I do sympathize with the notion of being open to evidence from qualitiative and/or ancedotal sources when reasoning through a topic.
The argument centers on Informational Trust Networks (ITN) - "complex networks of people and institutions a person trusts when she takes up what they produce and transmit as information with which to think" (3). Furthermore, within the ITN "the set of criteria someone in an information trust nework relies on to evaluate sources creates an informational ideology" (22). Disagreements occur when people have very different ITNs. Often, higher education is a catalyst for students to create new ITNs that can be distinct (and contradictory) to the ITNs from their pre-college days. To quote a long passage:
"...by working to shape, even in the background, their students' informational trust networks to align with those of this elite social class, they impose a burden on students from other classes that they do not impose on students who grew up already in that class. In particular, the transformational effects of college will be more profound and more wrenching for students from non-elite classes who may arrive on campus inhabiting different informational trust networks. These students will have to contend with the very real possibility that succeeding at college will create hard-to-bridge distance between them and their families and home communities" (50).
Laden concludes the book with suggestions on how colleges can gain and sustain the trust of those individuals with ITNs distinct from higher education. The main idea is working to foster Open-minded trust networks (OMTN) in-place of Broadly scientific trust networks (BSTN). Laden admits the two can be similar and overlap. The main difference, in my opinion, is OMTN are willing to consider non-scientific reasoning/evidence when reasoning through an issue. He terms this non-dogmatic thinking.
Overall, I like the suggestions Laden offers for higher education and think many are already part of quality teaching and learning guidelines. I do not fully adhere to his disregard of BSTN because a hallmark of scientific thinking is being open to challenges. However, I do sympathize with the notion of being open to evidence from qualitiative and/or ancedotal sources when reasoning through a topic.
Displaying 1 of 1 review