Queer theory taught at historically Black colleges and universities often meets with resistance from students. This article proposes a means by which to overcome this resistance. Deferring resistance involves encouraging students to approach queer theory texts in the same vein as they have approached texts earlier in the course. By building upon…

This article uses a queer narrative hermeneutic approach to interpret higher education leadership experiences of not passing. Developed through biographical narrative depictions of personal and professional experiences informed by theoretical studies of curriculum and learning and queer cultures and histories, the article distinguishes among…

This paper traces the evolution of discourses around the role of critical social theory in the field of lifelong education that have played out in the pages of the "International Journal of Lifelong Education" and elsewhere in the field, beginning with early critical theoretical discourses, a consideration of the impact of some key…

This chapter explores collegians' sexual identity formation through the lenses of feminist theory, intersectionality, poststructuralism, and queer theory.

As academic feminism has critiqued the often-violent inscriptions of institutionality, it has also produced a narrative of its role in the university fraught with difficulties of its own. The understanding of difference--as an object to be agreed upon and as the foundation for a diversity model of inclusion--that has emerged as the defining…

Higher education educators commonly understand social identities, including gender, to be fluid and dynamic. Lev's (2004) model of four components of sexual identity is commonly used to demonstrate the fluidity of sex, gender, and sexuality for individuals, but it does little to address the fixedness of those constructs. Through a multipronged…

Post-structuralism, a theory of signs for written texts, would seem an obvious resource for a field like Composition Studies that has "writing" at its center. Yet the post-structuralist turn in Composition Studies is hamstrung by the deep division between camps in the field that are committed to political critique on the one hand or to…

This essay contributes to the construction of a critically informed toolbox of diverse concepts for education policy analysis. Focusing on the context(s) of practice of the policy cycle, the article outlines an interpretative framework to grasp policy enactment across different localities, the influences bearing upon those enactments as well as…

This essay discusses an academic capitalist knowledge regime (i.e. the increasing engagement of public institutions of higher education in market-based ventures) and the alterations to teacher and student behavior and the learning environment that result. Social justice-oriented university courses are positioned as sites where democratization and…

Postmodernism has many inferences that can be applied to the theory and practice of higher educational administration. Today, in higher education administrators are continuously focused on strategies that will ensure the future of minority educational institutions. As a result postmodernism is an important factor in the future of higher…

This chapter argues that public scholarship can transcend the epistemological limitations of research universities by drawing on postmodern social theory and pragmatism in order to help solve social problems that too often expert knowledge itself has helped create.

This article concerns the usefulness of postmodernity for illuminating change in higher education associated with the new millennium. Overarching is the notion that history is not a smooth, rational, progressive unfolding of events but a series of ruptures and fragmenting disjunctures. This article asserts that when viewed in epochal terms, the…

Employing Calvin O. Schrag's response to postmodernismtransversal rationality engaged through praxial critiquethe constructive side of postmodern theories can be highlighted in higher education while at the same time answering the pundits who see little to no constructive side to postmodern theories. Using praxial critique through media literacy…

In this article, Lewin's (1951) social field theory is used as a framework for analyzing the potential for implementing scalable and sustainable e-learning initiatives in the academy. Powerful external economic and social forces coming to bear on academic leadership decisions are considered. The impacts of the emergence of the global learning…