The international imperative for postsecondary education is growing, and the push for state and national action is acute. To remain globally competitive, the United States must expedite efforts to further develop a well educated citizenry. Each state faces its own set of demographic and economic challenges. States and institutions operate in…

The study of higher education can seem extraordinarily complex because what counts as knowledge is contestable and the higher education research community is, like Hemingway's Paris, a moveable feast. A lack of epistemological precision and field uncertainty is partly due to the fact that those who study higher education tend to work in higher…

The authors are both professional practitioners (law and social work, respectively) who entered the university as discipline-based scholars. Their respective interests in teaching and learning have led them both down a path where they have transitioned from a discipline-based orientation to organizational roles grounded primarily in teaching and…

This is a unique and groundbreaking collection of questions and answers coming from higher education institutions on diverse fields and across a wide spectrum of countries and cultures. It creates routes for further innovation, collaboration amidst the Sciences (both Natural and Social), the Humanities, and the private and public sectors of…

This article describes the process by which the faculty of the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College conceived and implemented a new doctoral program designed for senior education practitioners. The authors describe the organizational context in which decisions were made. Next, they explain…

Academic literacies research has been identified as an emerging but significant field in higher education. This article extends the discussions around methodology in academic literacies research by drawing on the current text and context debates in sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography. It uses illustrations from a recent academic literacies…

The Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE) at Hiroshima University established a program of research on the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) in 2005. The first conference of this new project was held in Hiroshima in February 2011. This conference was organized by the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan in…

This study investigates faculty members' experiences in a 20-month inquiry project that provided them with structured opportunities to (a) interview students of color about their educational journey, and (b) meet with other faculty members as a collaborative inquiry team to discuss student interview findings. Changes in faculty members were…

The nature of academic development in contemporary universities has been a recent focus in the literature. Highlighting the diversity of practices that exist under its name, "academic development" has been described by some as an ambiguous project and a fragmented field, while others suggest a more coherent project, pointing out a near…

The paper looks at the feasibility and value of the scholarship of pedagogy (SoP) in an institutional context where it is not a common practice. I will draw on my experience with other colleagues at our university concerning the constraints, shortcomings and achievements of SoP, and use this as a springboard for reflection on its transitional…

Dr. Deirdre Burke is a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton's School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, specializing in religious and genocide studies. She was a 2005 National Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy that recognized and rewarded her individual excellence in teaching in higher…

Higher education is a field of study. It does not have an integral cognate discipline that defines its extent and borders. Contributions to understanding higher education come from, among others, sociologists, historians, political theorists, economists and students of science policy and cultural studies. These were the disciplines whose exponents…

This annotated bibliography of approximately 100 items, represents a continuing effort to identify statements dealing with field study methods and problems relevant for research in formal educational settings. The bibliography emphasizes, but is not limited to, contributions by anthropologists. A thoughtful perusal of this bibliography and a study…

To sustain world preeminence, 21st century university and college leaders in the United States are redesigning their institutions organizationally and culturally to align with the direction of local and global societies and markets. The New American University enterprise model at Arizona State University has become one of the leading organization…

The relation of research to politics is described in three stages: (1) securing the contract in response to a request for proposals (RFP) format; (2) conducting the actual field research on site and in a university setting; and (3) securing final sign off on the completed research product. A second purpose of this paper is to compare the…