scholarly journals Sustainable Justice: Community Connections, Lower Debt, and the Process of Becoming a Work College

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4046
Author(s):  
Andrew Bolger ◽  
Christopher Collins

This study presents the findings that emerged in a qualitative policy-oriented case study of an institution’s transition to a work college in the United States of America. Researchers collected 32 individual interviews, along with other observational data and institutional archives to understand the appeal of federal policy and government investment in the institution’s transition to a work college. From this data, two findings emerged that promoted the sustainability of the institution: Educational Justice Promotes Cultural Sovereignty and Academic Activism and Political Connections. What emerged in the analysis of the findings was that notions of access, affordability, dignity, sovereignty, and justice are all expressions of sustainability in higher education, which is one part of a societal ecosystem. The institution’s movement toward a work college model created a more sustainable educational model that allowed the institution to access federal policies and government investment inclined toward employability, promote its community, and develop significant political connections and advocacy. Throughout the transition, the institution exhibited profound ethical vision of higher education. This ethical vision—justice through education—stretched beyond the boundaries of the institution and into its adjacent neighborhood, city, and nation.

Author(s):  
Ute S. Lahaie ◽  
Jacqueline M. Mumford

Many universities in the United States are working to incorporate innovative 21st century skills, new active learning pedagogical approaches, and technology. Creating new physical and virtual spaces requires agile faculty professional for technology-centric experiences. Designing and offering meaningful professional development to faculty members in new virtual and physical learning technology-centric environments is a challenge. This case study explores the journey of one higher education institution in the Midwest as they implemented new technology-centric strategies, initiatives, and support. Data from faculty participants indicate the program's success and establish an agenda for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-91
Author(s):  
Angelina M. Gomez

The underrepresentation of female Administrators in higher education is not decreasing even though education continues to be a field dominated by women. The overall percentage of women leading colleges and universities in the United States remains disproportionately low at 26%. This ambiguous case study examines whether or not the Higher Education Administration continues to perpetuate gender inequalities through simplistic and, often times, unconscious hiring and mentoring practices scaffolding upon good intentions.


1968 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Coats

Few scholars would nowadays question the importance of the United States in the world of learning; but the process whereby that nation attained its present eminence still remains obscure. Among the cognoscenti, it is generally acknowledged that American scholarship had come of age by the early 1900s, whereas fifty years earlier there had been only a handful of American scholars and scientists of international repute, and the country's higher education lagged far behind its European counterpart. Yet despite the recent popularity of intellectual history and research in higher education, which has produced a veritable flood of publications touching on various aspects of this theme, the heart of the process—the emergence of the academic profession—is still inadequately documented and imperfectly understood.


Author(s):  
Rebecca S. Natow

Background: As calls for evidence-based policymaking become increasingly common, qualitative research has much to offer the policy community. However, policymakers frequently evidence a preference for quantitative research. By discounting the importance of qualitative research in the policymaking process, resulting policies and their target populations miss out on the benefits that qualitative research uniquely offers.Aims and objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine how qualitative research has been perceived and used in the US government’s rulemaking process for creating higher education regulations.Methods: This qualitative case study included data from semi-structured interviews with 34 policy actors involved in higher education rulemaking, rulemaking documents, and research reports cited in several key higher education regulations.Findings: Many policy actors viewed qualitative research favourably, but qualitative studies have seldom been cited in higher education rulemaking. Several respondents discussed validity concerns and some policymakers’ misunderstandings regarding qualitative methods. Moreover, storytelling can influence policy actors’ perspectives about the content of policies, and qualitative research was viewed as effective at identifying compelling stories. Thus, narratives derived from qualitative research may provide an opportunity for qualitative researchers to have their work considered in policymaking processes.Discussion and conclusion: Qualitative research faces challenges with gaining visibility and influence in the development of regulatory policy. However, this study has shown that qualitative research has the potential to be both useful and persuasive to policymakers. Studies that discuss relevant stories may be particularly compelling.


Author(s):  
Sean McCarthy ◽  
Audrey Barnes ◽  
Keith S Holland ◽  
Erica Lewis ◽  
Patrice Ludwig ◽  
...  

This descriptive case study provides a broad overview of JMU X-Labs, an academic maker space (in other words, a teaching lab with fabrication and digital production technologies) that hosts team-taught, project-driven multidisciplinary courses. The JMU X-Labs serves the students and faculty of James Madison University[MSR-m1] , a mid-sized, public, and undergraduate-focused university in the United States. The narrative proceeds from two different but overlapping points of view: how courses at JMU X-Labs are designed and taught; and how administration of JMU X-Labs supports them. The authors refer to specific courses, pedagogical methods, and problem-solving strategies to illustrate the narrative, and they argue throughout that pedagogy and administration are indelibly intertwined in how the organization operates. Gesturing to the broad applicability and transferability of the JMU X-Labs model, the authors mark some of areas of further research that would benefit a more robust understanding of how the organization operates and grows. Finally, the authors speculate how the dynamics of this young and growing organization may answer some core and difficult questions pertaining to innovation in higher education.[MSR-m1]James Madison University (JMU) Clearlyl referenced in abstract and opening paragraph below to explain institutional context as per reviewer request. 


Author(s):  
Michael S. Hoffman

In the past decade, enrollments in distance education, and specifically online education, have grown dramatically in the United States. According to the 2009 Sloan Report (), enrollments in online courses increased from 9.6% of total postsecondary enrollments in 2002 to 25.3% in 2009. Unfortunately, a number of barriers exist that may result in an inability of higher education institutions to provide quality online education programming in sufficient scale to meet the expected student demand. The Managing Online Education report () identifies the resistance of faculty towards teaching in an online environment as foremost among ten factors that “impede institutional efforts to expand online education programs” (p. 1). An understanding of the factors that both motivate and discourage faculty member participation in online education programs is critical if institutions are to leverage their existing faculty to meet the current and future demand for online education. This case study first presents a number of motivating and inhibiting factors and then discusses how St. Bonaventure University leveraged these factors in an attempt to boost faculty participation in online education.


2011 ◽  
pp. 365-382
Author(s):  
Xubin Cao ◽  
Eric Y. Lu ◽  
Hongyan Ma

This chapter discusses the implementation of Wi-Fi technology in higher education of the United States. It includes Wi-Fi standards, security, the adoption of the technology, Wi-Fi to support teaching and learning, and challenges of Wi-Fi implementation. The last section is a case study of Wi-Fi at Ohio University. Although Wi-Fi technology has a great promise in higher education, institutions are still at the beginning stage of adoption. Institutions need to make a long-term sustainable plan to develop instructional strategies, successful practices, and technology supports to improve teaching and learning using Wi-Fi technology


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Green ◽  
Koren A. Bedeau

The aim of this study is to examine and explore factors that impact the successful growth of student diversity at colleges and universities in the United States of America. Special emphasis is placed on America’s five decade struggle since the 1970s to increase college access and success for underserved youth. The paper reviews select federal policies and collaborative efforts by higher education institutions to diversify the population of college students, toward realizing the potential of untapped talent. In addition, the authors review and examine statistics and trends in graduation rates for undergraduate students from First-Generation (FG), Underrepresented Minority (URM) and/or Low-Income (LI) backgrounds, and highlight programs at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI) that have demonstrated improvements in graduating URM undergraduate students. Likewise, the study describes initiatives that have attempted to address the graduation gap in higher education. Readers will have an opportunity to learn about the premier national program promoting diversity and academic achievement. The study closes with a discussion and evidence for continued national interest and attention to building successful academic enrichment, support, and achievement programs for students from diverse backgrounds.


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