Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education: A Practical Introduction

An essential guide to incorporating critical research into higher education scholarship.

Winner of the Outstanding Publication Award of the Post-secondary Education Division of the American Educational Research Association

Critical theory has much to teach us about higher education. By linking critical models, methods, and research tools with an advocacy-driven vision of the central challenges facing postsecondary researchers and staff, Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education makes a significant―and long overdue―contribution to the development of the field.

The contributors argue that, far from being overly abstract, critical tools and methods are central to contemporary scholarship and can have practical policy implications when brought to the study of higher education. They argue that critical research design and critical theories help scholars see beyond the normative models and frameworks that have long limited our understanding of students, faculty, institutions, the organization and governance of higher education, and the policies that shape the postsecondary arena.

A rigorous and invaluable guide for researchers seeking innovative approaches to higher education and the morass of traditionally functionalist, rational, and neoliberal thinking that mars the field, this book is also essential for instructors who wish to incorporate the lessons of critical scholarship into their course development, curriculum, and pedagogy.

Ana M. Martínez Alemán, EdD (ARLINGTON, MA), is a professor and associate dean for faculty and academics at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. She is a coeditor of Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education: A Practical Introduction and a coauthor of Technology and Engagement: Making Technology Work for First Generation College Students.

Brian Pusser is an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia and an affiliate of the Center for Urban Education. He is the coeditor of Universities and the Public Sphere: Knowledge Creation and State Building in the Era of Globalization.

Estela Mara Bensimon teaches at the Center for the Study of Higehr Education at Pennsylvania State University. She is co-director of the Organizational Structures and Policies Project for the National center for Postecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.