For years, university professors have written and used their own textbooks. But some have questioned whether this method is beneficial to students or whether professors are using their positions to promote their own work.
Marc Gosselin-Lavigne, a former UNB student said he supports using one’s own text provided it is actually the best book for the job. For example, like one he was provided in a microeconomics course he took.
“I’m not sure [my professor] could have taught the course with an off-the-shelf textbook…His book was very different from a normal micro[economics] textbook.”
He also added that it sometimes helps with a course, as the professor is more likely to rely on a textbook which they have intimate knowledge of rather than asking students to buy a $100 textbook they’ll use once.
Here at St. Thomas University, we have also an example of self-published texts being used in the Political Science department with The Canadian Regime, a book which was authored by STU professor Patrick Malcolmson, with the latest edition containing a contribution from professor Thomas Bateman, also at STU. The book is used as a standard text for the first-year courses.
“It can be negative, in that it could tempt a professor to engage a sort of shameless self-promotion,” said Bateman. “It may lead that person to emphasize their own work at the expense of other people’s works that may differ in conclusion or method.”
Bateman said he’s not opposed to it though, citing occasions where he had used some of his own material in a course before.
“I have had some of my students read my published articles in the past when they were on point with the subject in class. But I certainly don’t overdo it, and I actually feel more comfortable having students read other people’s work than my own.”
Even with the potential good it could provide, some people say it simply shouldn’t be permitted.
Caleb Burpee, a STU student, said “It’s shameless self-promotion, they’re saying ‘here, buy this textbook that I make money off of.’”
Burpee said using your own texts might also promote a single-minded viewpoint rather than offering insight into alternatives for some fields.
Bateman stands by his use of texts in limited quantities, but said his teaching leads to his writing, so it’s not a frequent occurrence.
“There’s nothing like having to teach something in order to make one learn something. What I typically do is write things that emanate from my teaching obligations rather than the other way around. I don’t teach what I publish, I publish what I teach.”
