This article exemplifies the advantages that researchers have if they apply visual methods and in particular photo-elicitation to qualitative research. The research context is post-compulsory education with the field of study being a new vocational degree programme, and the theoretical content of the article draws on the work of Goffman, alongside…

This paper presents a critique of an article that explores the internationalisation of the curriculum. First, to facilitate critical reflection, the main Western paradigms of positivism, interpretivism, critical theory and postmodernism are described and the differences between them emphasised. The article focused on in this paper can be situated…

Military student veterans' distinct life pathways often make it difficult for educational researchers to adequately capture and represent the challenges and opportunities they face in college. Thus, student veteran educational programs and policies are often built on inaccurate notions about their experiences and identities. Using Veteran Critical…

University-led STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) outreach forms one potential avenue to address the continuing decline of tertiary student enrollments. Yet to-date the impact of these programs is not well understood, due to an historical emphasis on "delivering the goods" that obscures debate on which outreach…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to explore the strategies needed to increase student retention rates and decrease dropout rates in a higher education organization. The problem addressed in the study was the lack of strategies that managers use to increase retention rates and decrease dropout rates in a higher education…

Many factors influence students' progress in higher education. However, the students' own voices are seldom heard. Using a qualitative approach, the study explored students' own experiences of the factors that have influenced their studying. Research has indicated that students' experiences are often related to their approaches to learning.…

This chapter provides a conceptual model that institutional research professionals can use to develop contextual intelligence of issues of interest in higher education with the use of case studies from peer institutions. The model draws from the metaphor of the "divided brain" and how the two hemispheres must work together with both…

Higher education (HE) research often draws on a range of qualitative research approaches. However, some methods developed in other fields are underutilised in HE research, even though they could be of great use for answering particular kinds of research questions, or for involving students more actively in the research process. In this article, we…

This article offers interview responses from Thomas Hébert, a professor of gifted and talented education in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina. Hébert was previously a faculty member at the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia. He has more than a decade of K-12 classroom experiences working with gifted…

Context/Background: Currently, chances for English learners (ELs) to reach higher education in the United States are slim. Almost half of ELs do not attend postsecondary education (PSE), and access to four-year college is particularly limited, but we do not exactly know why. Purpose: To examine what inhibits ELs' four-year-college access in the…

In the higher education literature, there seems to be a growing consensus that contemporary higher education institutions (HEIs) are trapped in conformity. From a new institutional perspective, higher education scholars argue that HEIs tend to comply with widely endorsed institutionalized values (e.g. academic excellence) and this widespread…

In recent years, "post-qualitative new empiricist" research has been gaining ground. Such work questions the humanist ontological and epistemological orientation of much mainstream qualitative inquiry and insists on the need to take into account the more-and-other-than-human. Post-qualitative research draws on an eclectic range of…

This article investigates dilemmas in the archiving and sharing of qualitative data in educational research, critically engaging with practices and debates from across the social sciences. Ethical, epistemological and methodological challenges are examined in reference to open access agendas, the politics of knowledge production, and…

We appeal to critical race theory and intersectionality to examine achievement gaps at a large public university in the American southwest from 2000 to 2015. Using white, high-income women as our reference group, we report linear combinations of marginal effects for six-year graduation rates and developmental course taking across 20 distinct…

In Higher Education (HE), writers need to regulate their writing processes in order to achieve their communicative goals. Although critical for academic success and knowledge construction, writing regulation processes have been mainly researched in compulsory education rather than in HE, with no systematic review focused on this context. The…