To encourage greater adoption of a pedagogical innovation (service-learning), semester long faculty learning communities were established at eight institutions. These learning community experiences produced gains in participants' (N = 152) self-assessed expertise with service-learning, ability to collaborate with community partners, and…

This longitudinal study examines factors that explain differences in levels of state appropriations for higher education across states, sectors, and institutions between 1984 and 2004. The study sheds light on the complex relationship between institutional mission, state fiscal health, and state political context in explaining appropriations for…

Constructivism and intersectionality are used to explore one lesbian college student's multiple identities. These frameworks reveal how meaning-making contributes to power's influence on identity, while power shapes meaning-making. For this student, lesbian identity is a product of social class, dominant and subordinate norms, and interactions…

In the field of higher education, it has often been claimed that in culturally-diverse classes high levels of cross-cultural competence will result in better teaching performance among faculty. Unfortunately, to date this relationship has not been tested empirically. In this study, we examine the nature of this relationship using course-related…

We explore the benefits and limitations of traditional academic research, collaboration, and knowledge dissemination, and discuss the potential of blogs towards better meeting the higher education research community's needs. We present possible parameters of use, reward structures, and how the field can model this innovative means of academic…

This study considers a distinct case of a college outreach program that integrates student affairs staff, academic administrators, and faculty across campus. The authors find that social networks and critical agency help to understand the integration of these various professionals and offer a critical agency network model of enacting change.…

Using Social Cognitive Career Theory as a guide, we explored the relationship between students' participation in living-learning programs and their intention to earn a baccalaureate in STEM. We found that STEM-focused programs, in comparison to general forms, held promise in supporting students' intentions to graduate in a STEM field. (Contains 2…

A survey of 436 faculty shows the scope and nature of faculty participation in outreach and engagement, factors related to involvement, perceptions of institutional support, and types of changes they felt might expand involvement. The resulting conceptual model highlights the influence of professional, communal, and institutional factors on…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of institutional type on the moral reasoning development of 1,469 first-year students. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to account for students nested within institutions. Moral reasoning gains were related to, but not dependent upon, institutional type, with students at liberal arts…

This qualitative study focuses on institutional efforts affecting the transfer student experience at a single research institution. Findings based on interviews with institutional representatives, both faculty and staff, using the rational, natural, and open system perspectives of organizational theory, provide insights into the institutional…

While scholars have investigated the recent influx of non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF), few have talked extensively with NTTF to understand their perspectives. Using Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, we present focus group findings about job satisfaction of NTTF at 12 research universities. We highlight policies supporting teaching, job…

This paper presents two clarifying cases of socially oriented student entrepreneurship. The findings illuminate an overlooked organizational space located at the intersection of the public good and academic capitalist knowledge/learning regimes (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004) that provides students with the entrepreneurial agency to create social…

Students' educational expectations are one of the strongest predictors of their future educational attainment (Mortimer, 1996; Reynolds & Burge, 2008; Sewell & Hauser, 1980; Sewell & Shah, 1968). Thus, the growing gender gap in educational expectations partially explains the growth in the gender gap in educational attainment (Reynolds & Burge,…

Many surveys show that the non-traditional students present a higher risk of dropping out (National Audit Office, 2007; Provasnik & Planty, 2008). Nevertheless, empirical research that tries to understand this phenomenon, also in light of different institutional contexts (e.g. four years or two years, residential or non-residential) and of the…

College student persistence and dropout have been studied for decades, but little inquiry has focused on community college or private two-year college students. Although about half of first-time postsecondary students enroll in a two-year college, researchers understand little about why only approximately a quarter of these degree-seekers complete…