House Signs And Collegiate Fun

It's no secret that fun is important to American college students, but it is unusual for scholars to pay attention to how undergraduates represent and reflect on their partying. Linguist and anthropologist Chaise LaDousa explores the visual manifestations of collegiate fun in a Midwestern college town where house signs on off-campus student residences are a focal point of college culture. With names like Boot 'N Rally, The Plantation, and Crib of the Rib, house signs reproduce consequential categories of gender, sexuality, race, and faith in a medium students say is benign. Through his analysis of house signs and what students say about them, LaDousa introduces the reader to key concepts and approaches in cultural analysis.

As neoliberalism has expanded from corporations to higher education, the notion of “diversity” is increasingly seen as the contribution of individuals to an organization. By focusing on one liberal arts college, author Bonnie Urciuoli shows how schools market themselves as “diverse” communities to which all members contribute. She explores how students of color are recruited, how their lives are institutionally organized, and how they provide the faces, numbers, and stories that represent schools as diverse. In doing so, she finds that unlike students’ routine experiences of racism or other social differences, neoliberal diversity is mainly about improving schools’ images.

As scholars and administrators have sharpened their focus on higher education beyond trends in access and graduation rates for underrepresented college students, there are growing calls for understanding the experiential dimensions of college life. This contributed book explores what actually happens on campus as students from an increasingly wide range of backgrounds enroll and share space. Chapter authors investigate how students of differing socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, and racial/ethnic groups navigate academic institutions alongside each other. Rather than treat diversity as mere difference, this volume provides dynamic analyses of how students come to experience both power and marginality in their campus lives. Each chapter comprises an empirical qualitative study from scholars engaged in cutting-edge research about campus life. This exciting book provides administrators and faculty new ways to think about students’ vulnerabilities and strengths.

A revealing look at the experiences of first generation students on elite campuses and the hidden curriculum they must master in order to succeed College has long been viewed as an opportunity for advancement and mobility for talented students regardless of background. Yet for first generation students, elite universities can often seem like bastions of privilege, with unspoken academic norms and social rules. The Hidden Curriculum draws on more than one hundred in-depth interviews with students at Harvard and Georgetown to offer vital lessons about the challenges of being the first in the family to go to college, while also providing invaluable insights into the hurdles that all undergraduates face. As Rachel Gable follows two cohorts of first generation students and their continuing generation peers, she discovers surprising similarities as well as striking differences in their college experiences. She reveals how the hidden curriculum at legacy universities often catches first generation students off guard, and poignantly describes the disorienting encounters on campus that confound them and threaten to derail their success. Gable shows how first-gens are as varied as any other demographic group, and urges universities to make the most of the diverse perspectives and insights these talented students have to offer. The Hidden Curriculum gives essential guidance on the critical questions that university leaders need to consider as they strive to support first generation students on campus, and demonstrates how universities can balance historical legacies and elite status with practices and policies that are equitable and inclusive for all students.

The college experience is increasingly positioned to demonstrate its value as a worthwhile return on investment. Specific, definable activities, such as research experience, first-year experience, and experiential learning, are marketed as delivering precise skill sets in the form of an individual educational package. Through ethnography-based analysis, the contributors to this volume explore how these commodified "experiences" have turned students into consumers and given them the illusion that they are in control of their investment. They further reveal how the pressure to plan every move with a constant eye on a demonstrable return has supplanted traditional approaches to classroom education and profoundly altered the student experience.

How American campus life shapes students, and how students shape campus lore

This comprehensive handbook introduces the reader to the education system in India in terms of its structural features, its relations with society and culture, and the debates that have shaped the present-day policy ethos. The book provides an overview of major debates that have shaped India’s education systems, as well as the significant issues within higher and school education, education studies, and policies. Expert scholars provide a lucid analysis of complex themes such as the equity, access, and the quality of education. The volume also examines legal provisions and policies shaping the distribution structure and curricular issues in major areas of knowledge, as well as the provision of schools for the marginalised, economically weak, and people with disabilities. This new edition includes an analysis of the private sector’s participation in higher education and the technical and vocational education and training systems in India. This handbook will serve as a valuable resource and guide to educators and public policy practitioners seeking information about India’s contemporary educational challenges. It will also be useful to scholars and researchers of education, public policy and administration, sociology, and political studies, as well as think-tanks, the media, policy-makers, and NGOs.

This comprehensive handbook introduces the reader to the education system in India in terms of its structural features, its relations with society and culture, and the debates that have shaped present-day policy ethos. Expert scholars provide a lucid analysis of complex themes such as the equal distribution of educational opportunities, legal provisions shaping the opportunity structure, and curricular issues in major areas of knowledge. The volume provides a general overview of India’s education system and examines key and current issues that face higher and school education, the examination system, disciplines of social sciences, curriculum, teachers, law, coaching and unemployment. This handbook will serve as a valuable resource and guide to anyone seeking authentic information about India’s contemporary educational challenges in relation to its society, economy and politics. It will be useful to scholars and researchers of education, public policy and administration, sociology and political studies as well as practitioners, think-tanks, those in media, government and NGOs.