Theory and Method in Higher Education Research

Jeroen Huisman is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Belgium. He is author/editor of around 300 publications. His research interests revolve around policy and governance in higher education and organisational change and governance of higher education institutions. His most recent (co-edited) books include 25 years of transformations of higher education systems in post/Soviet countries (Palgrave, 2018) and Policy analysis of structural reforms in higher education: Processes and outcomes (Palgrave, 2017). Malcolm Tight is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK. He is the author or editor of over 50 books and over 150 journal articles and book chapters. His main research interest is in the development of higher education research (see Researching Higher Education (Open University Press, second edition, 2012) and Higher Education Research: the developing field (Bloomsbury, 2018).

In this 2019 volume in an annual series, international contributors in higher education and sociology address theory and method, with special focus on theory. Theories addressed include disability frameworks, loose coupling, pluralism, and phronesis. While much of the book is devoted to qualitative research, there is one chapter on quantitative research and one chapter on mixed methods research. Some subjects addressed are policy positions of stakeholder organizations in higher education, the use and misuse of loose coupling in higher education research, challenging whiteness through qualitative research, researching non-traditional adult students, and ethnographies of higher education. Chapter abstracts and keywords are included. Distributed in North America by Turpin Distribution.

• Chapter 1. Analysing Policy Positions of Stakeholder Organizations in Higher Education: what, how and why? Martina Vukasovic Chapter 2. Understanding Disability Frameworks in Higher Education Research; Kirsten Brown, Edlyn Peña, Ellen Broido, Lissa Stapleton & Nancy Evans Chapter 3. Diffracting the Curriculum - putting 'new' material feminism to work to reconfigure knowledge-making practices in undergraduate higher education; Carol Taylor Chapter 4. The Looseness of Loose Coupling: the use and misuse of 'loose coupling' in higher education research; Mari Elken & Martina Vukasovic Chapter 5. Higher Education Leadership and Management as Practical Reasonableness: a phronetic approach to higher education research; Greg Walker Chapter 6. Towards a Critical Whiteness Methodology: challenging whiteness through qualitative research; Chris Corces-Zimmerman & Tonia Guida Chapter 7. Mixed Methods for Research into Higher Education: solving the problem of institutionalized introspection? Markus Seyfried & Florian Reith Chapter 8. Addressing Self-Selection and Endogeneity in Higher Education Research; Xiqian Liu & Victor Borden Chapter 9. An Exploration of Rhythms in the Contemporary Academy: Time, space and affect; Fadia Dakka & Rob Smith Chapter 10. Pluralism as a Vehicle for Theory-Building in Educational Technology Research; Sonja Strydom & Magda Fourie-Malherbe Chapter 11. Internet-Mediated Research - A methodological discussion based on a study with non-traditional adult students; Leanete Dotta, Amelia Lopes & Carlinda Leite Chapter 12. Ethnographies of Higher Education and Modes of Existence: using Latour's philosophical anthropology to construct faithful accounts of higher education practice; Jonathan Tummons