This inquiry into the nature of feminist solidarity in the academic sciences is guided by the intra-activity of gendered bodies in teaching-intensive faculty positions. It uses diffractive methodology to examine how response-able research practice can account for enactment of social discourse through agential cuts. Over the course of a two-year…

In this article, I pick up established critical explorations of the role and use of theory in higher education research, focusing on the theoretical affordances of the work of Bruno Latour, one of the architects of actor-network theory. Actor-network theory is increasingly widely used within education research, although Latour has moved away from…

The unique nature of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented many typical graduate assistantships from occurring due to school-building closures, virtual classes, and stay-at-home orders. As such, the authors address the increase of 'shadowing' graduate assistantships at a large land-grant institution. To uphold the governmental stay-at-home regulations…

We conducted a semester-long ethnographic study of group work in a physics class that implemented the investigative science learning environment approach. Students' conversations were videotaped while they were engaged in group learning activities. Our primary research goal was to better understand what factors made some groups more effective than…

This study retrospectively examines the emergence and development of a new class of full-time non-tenure track employees in a large land grant research university in the U.S., which created the employment category in 1980. We employ cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to explore how this class of employees became institutionalized within…

In this article, we use grounded practical theory to develop a practical theory for using "difficult data" in Language and Social Interaction university classes. "Difficult data" are transcribed, audio/video-recorded data that contain language and ideologies that could be offensive, bigoted, or otherwise disturbing. We provide…

This critical autoethnography interprets my internal migration experience in China. Using Bourdieu's capital, field and habitus toolkit, I investigated my cultural capital transformation and habitus formulation when being educated in secondary schools and universities after internal migration to the city. Taking my lived experience as an example,…

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed South African historically disadvantaged institutions, that had not yet reached advanced levels of technology use in teaching and learning, to find immediate solutions to salvage the disrupted academic year. Interactions with students, which had predominantly been face-to-face, shifted to various online…

This article reports the findings of a longitudinal study exploring the process of learning to teach modern languages in the changing landscape of teacher education. It employs a postmodern critical ethnographic methodology to examine the experiences of a group of student teachers over the course of a one-year postgraduate teacher education…

Using auto-ethnography, I write my story as Mexican international student in the role of pre-service teacher in Australia. I focus on exploring my socio-political status and its relationship to assuming a position to respond to education policies about working with students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, and teaching…

Being labeled as "abnormal, or deviant, or not being one of the rest of us" has real effects for one's life chances. Trans* people are one such group who have continually been codified as abnormal, abject, weird, deceptive, and social pariahs. The purpose of the following study was to explore how the concepts of passing, realness, and…

This paper explores how bureaucracy impedes the implementation of higher education (HE) policy at Japanese universities. Administrative systems employ Weberian legal-rational bureaucratic practices that are central to the institutional identity of a university. Rather than the means to internationalisation and reform in general, these systems…

This article details the principles and practices animating an "ethnographic" method of teaching social theory. As opposed to the traditional "survey" approach that aims to introduce students to the historical breadth of social thought, the primary objective of teaching ethnographically is to cultivate students as participant…

Social practice theory addresses both theoretical and method/ological agendas. To date priority has been given to the former, with writing on the latter tending often to be an afterthought to theoretical expositions or fieldwork accounts. This article gives sustained attention to the method/ological corollaries of a social practice perspective. It…

Previous research about college students' social media usage emphasizes social media "practices," often ignoring the "content" that students' post. Increasing knowledge about the language that college students use to describe their intimate relationships can inform student affairs practice. Using a digital ethnographic data…