In this article, I offer a critical reading of the higher education field-imaginary and its orienting assumptions, inspired by decolonial and abolitionist critiques. These critiques identify the constitutive and ongoing violence that underwrites modern institutions of higher education and, thus, the higher education field itself. In so doing, they…

This paper examines how faculty and institutional characteristics shape engaged scholarship. Controlling for faculty dispositions, disciplinary differences, and institutional characteristics, the authors examined the impact of perceived institutional support for community partnerships, community-based research, and teaching on faculty engagement.…

The number of interdisciplinary, degree-granting fields in American colleges and universities has grown rapidly, with socially incorporative programs (women's studies, ethnic studies, and non-Western area studies) accounting for a large share. These fields have diffused widely over time, while other interdisciplinary fields have not. Variables…

The controversy over Ph.D. vs. Ed.D. programs in higher education is examined, including discussion of differential research requirements and the ways in which traditional disciplines dominate thinking about the study of higher education. It is concluded that each field must define its own standards for each degree. (MSE)

Previous college department rankings based on the evaluations of others in the field are examined for their weaknesses, and the requirements of an adequate institutional ranking system are discussed. (MSE)

The Biglan model and its tests are reviewed. While the model has attractive features and may even reinforce popular opinion about differences among departments or subject areas, further investigations are necessary before broad propositions or generalizations can be advanced. (MLW)

Examines the models through which different academic disciplines approach inquiry. Faculty working in different models view their work differently, apply different evaluative standards, and accept different types of values. Although the discipline is more conspicuous than the model, the latter is equally important in understanding epistemological…

Examines four postmodern forms of thought that are posing fundamental challenges to modern assumptions about knowledge; all reject absolute foundations of knowledge, which are rooted in the notion that legitimate intellectual activity is the discipline-based pursuit of knowledge of entities that exist before and independent of inquiry. Offers a…

Discussion of doctoral education looks at current trends in demand and supply; previous patterns in the nationality of doctoral degree recipients (1985-94); expansion and contraction in master's and doctoral degrees awarded, by discipline group (1976-93); and structural features of doctoral education (competition, departmental control, student…

New data on the economic benefits of attainment of a bachelor's degree, based on some corrections in statistical analyses of national longitudinal data, are reported. Results and conclusions did not change substantially, with substantial variations found among fields of study but not across institution types. (MSE)

The development of professional gerontology instruction is examined in the context of previous research on the development of professional education more generally through six stages: apprenticeship, knowledge generation, knowledge classification, knowledge teaching, formalization of teaching, and improvement of the profession. Implications for…

Feminist scholarship, as a contemporary current in academic life, is analyzed from the perspective of research on the formation of intentional intellectual communities. Interview data reveal that faculty conceive of their commitments and sense of community in ways that do not always correspond to idealized conceptions of academic organization.…