The Dialogue Between Higher Education Research And Practice

This book addresses the interface between research, policy and practice in the fields of Higher Education Management and Institutional Research. It provides an overview of the current state of research and best managerial practice in the field of HE Management, so vital to the well-being of higher education, and currently at a crucial stage of evolution in so many countries of Europe and the rest of the world.

Due to continuing immigration and increasing racial and ethnic inclusiveness, higher education institutions in the United States are likely to grow ever more diverse in the 21st century. This shift holds both promise and peril: Increased inter-ethnic contact could lead to a more fruitful learning environment that encourages collaboration. On the other hand, social identity and on-campus diversity remain hotly contested issues that often raise intergroup tensions and inhibit discussion. How can we help diverse students learn from each other and gain the competencies they will need in an increasingly multicultural America? Dialogue Across Difference synthesizes three years’ worth of research from an innovative field experiment focused on improving intergroup understanding, relationships and collaboration. The result is a fascinating study of the potential of intergroup dialogue to improve relations across race and gender. First developed in the late 1980s, intergroup dialogues bring together an equal number of students from two different groups – such as people of color and white people, or women and men – to share their perspectives and learn from each other. To test the possible impact of such courses and to develop a standard of best practice, the authors of Dialogue Across Difference incorporated various theories of social psychology, higher education, communication studies and social work to design and implement a uniform curriculum in nine universities across the country. Unlike most studies on intergroup dialogue, this project employed random assignment to enroll more than 1,450 students in experimental and control groups, including in 26 dialogue courses and control groups on race and gender each. Students admitted to the dialogue courses learned about racial and gender inequalities through readings, role-play activities and personal reflections. The authors tracked students’ progress using a mixed-method approach, including longitudinal surveys, content analyses of student papers, interviews of students, and videotapes of sessions. The results are heartening: Over the course of a term, students who participated in intergroup dialogues developed more insight into how members of other groups perceive the world. They also became more thoughtful about the structural underpinnings of inequality, increased their motivation to bridge differences and intergroup empathy, and placed a greater value on diversity and collaborative action. The authors also note that the effects of such courses were evident on nearly all measures. While students did report an initial increase in negative emotions – a possible indication of the difficulty of openly addressing race and gender – that effect was no longer present a year after the course. Overall, the results are remarkably consistent and point to an optimistic conclusion: intergroup dialogue is more than mere talk. It fosters productive communication about and across differences in the service of greater collaboration for equity and justice. Ambitious and timely, Dialogue Across Difference presents a persuasive practical, theoretical and empirical account of the benefits of intergroup dialogue. The data and research presented in this volume offer a useful model for improving relations among different groups not just in the college setting but in the United States as well.

Globalization, demographic shifts, increase in student enrollments, rapid technological transformation, and market-driven environments are altering the way higher education operates today. Institutional Research and Planning in Higher Education explores the impact of these changes on decision support and the nature of institutional research in higher education. Bringing together a diverse set of global contributors, this volume covers contemporary thinking on the practices of academic planning and its impact on key issues such as access, institutional accountability, quality assurance, educational policy priorities, and the development of higher education data systems.

Feedback is a crucial element of teaching, learning and assessment. There is, however, substantial evidence that staff and students are dissatisfied with it, and there is growing impetus for change. Student Surveys have indicated that feedback is one of the most problematic aspects of the student experience, and so particularly in need of further scrutiny. Current practices waste both student learning potential and staff resources. Up until now the ways of addressing these problems has been through relatively minor interventions based on the established model of feedback providing information, but the change that is required is more fundamental and far reaching. Reconceptualising Feedback in Higher Education, coming from a think-tank composed of specialist expertise in assessment feedback, is a direct and more fundamental response to the impetus for change. Its purpose is to challenge established beliefs and practices through critical evaluation of evidence and discussion of the renewal of current feedback practices. In promoting a new conceptualisation and a repositioning of assessment feedback within an enhanced and more coherent paradigm of student learning, this book: • analyses the current issues in feedback practice and their implications for student learning. • identifies the key characteristics of effective feedback practices • explores the changes needed to feedback practice and how they can be brought about • illustrates through examples how processes to promote and sustain effective feedback practices can be embedded in modern mass higher education. Provoking academics to think afresh about the way they conceptualise and utilise feedback, this book will help those with responsibility for strategic development of assessment at an institutional level, educational developers, course management teams, researchers, tutors and student representatives.

The book provides a thorough overview of Institutional Research (IR) ? i.e. applied higher education research undertaken within universities ? in South Africa. It is a collection of essays focusing on the character and institutional setting of IR; how IR is embedded into the mechanisms of steering, shaping and reforming higher education; and what the major results were of IR in select thematic areas. The book is a valuable resource for higher education researchers and social researchers in South Africa interested in higher education. It ÿalso deserves to be read by practitioners and policymakers in the field of higher education in South Africa. It serves as an interesting case study for higher education researchers all over the world.

Though the book is a contribution to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER), it is not just about the history of the organisation as such. The contributions provide an account of the emergence of higher education as a field of study and research in Europe, its institutionalisation, and its relationships to higher education policy and practice. Furthermore, higher education research in Europe is contrasted to and contextualised by the example of higher education research and scholarship in Australia. The book is useful as an account about the emergence and development of higher education research as a field of study and research in Europe. It will be an interesting and insightful read for all scholars and young researchers wanting to know about higher education research but also for scholars in fields like history of science, disciplinary differentiation, institutionalisation of fields of knowledge and research.

This volume deals with two major and apparently opposing forces within education and society: globalization and nationalism. Globalization is often considered in economic terms - of continued growth of international trade and a concentration of wealth in corporate hands - yet it also encompasses technological, political and cultural change. The World Yearbook of Education 2005 explores the role of the education sector in our globalized knowledge economy, and considers the political implications of this in terms of monopolarity and the cultural consequences of homogenization and Americanization. The other strand of this study - nationalism - remains a persistent force within education and society in all parts of the world, and this volume examines the extent to which it can fuel conflict at all levels through prejudice and intolerance. Concentrating on the epistemological consequences of nationalism, leading international thinkers examine the extent to which it is reflected in the curricula of schools and universities around the world. Finally, the complex relationship between globalization and nationalism is explored, and contributors explore the part that educational institutions and practices play in forming both agendas. A wide range of perspectives are employed, including post-colonial discourse, classical economics and sociological theory. Nationalism and globalization are both ongoing processes, and this volume makes a case for the central role of education in both - through its potential to influence change and to act as benevolent force in shaping a global community.