Theory and Method in Higher Education Research: Volume 4

Basil Bernstein’s theoretical ideas have been called upon by far fewer higher education researchers than would be expected. We argue that the international higher education field of research is ripe for further application of Bernstein’s theoretical ideas. Through reference to our own and that of others, we illustrate five key affordances of Bernstein’s theoretical framework. First, it provides a unique approach that leads researchers to pose formerly unthinkable questions and encourages the development of new knowledge to address them. Second, Bernstein’s valuable concepts raise questions about the specific but inter-related macro- (societal), meso- (organisational) and micro- (individual) level processes involved in producing (in)equalities. Bernsteinian analysis can help to identify how inequalities emerge from and can be addressed at these levels. Third, we contend that the approach encourages empirical exploration of the ways in which education may be disruptive of the social order. Fourth, we suggest Bernstein’s concepts can be adapted to capture the complexity of intersecting inequalities in a way that allows the object of analysis to determine what inequalities are foregrounded. Finally, we argue that concepts help to orientate questions around inequality and social justice in a way that does not over-determine answers.

Studies in higher education tend to use different methods and methodologies, from documentary analysis to auto/biographical and observational studies. Most studies are either qualitative or qualitative. A mixed-methods approach has emerged in recent years, in which the qualitative approach generally plays an important role. The purpose of this chapter is to show the potential of a new methodology that is also appropriate for higher education research and widely used in the social sciences: probabilistic topic models. A probabilistic method can be used to analyse and categorise thousands of words. After collecting large sets of texts, content analysis is used to deeply analyse the meaning of these words. The huge number of texts published today pushes researchers to employ new techniques in their search for hidden structures built upon a set of core ideas. These methods are called topic modelling algorithms, with Latent Dirichlet Allocation being the basic probabilistic topic model. The application of these new techniques to the field of higher education is extremely useful, for two reasons: (1) studies in this area deal in some cases with a great volume of data and (2) these techniques allow one to devise models in a way that is unsupervised by humans (even when researchers operate on the resulting model); thus they are less subjective than other types of analyses and methods used for qualitative purposes. This chapter shows the foundations and recent applications of the technique in the higher education field, as well as challenges related to this new technique.

If the core purpose of transformative education is to challenge and reposition knowledge through a range of opportunities, then surfacing and attending to forms of student misconceptions (for example, through confusion, disequilibrium) are a necessary part of learning and teaching. We have come to understand that arriving at a clear view of a concept may involve a process of working through a range of misconceptions about a phenomenon or experience that may or may not create a threshold experience in a learner. We argue that the journey through conceptual change and thresholds requires a more nuanced emphasis on liminal spaces, where misconceptions and thresholds may reside. We offer a revised thresholds concept generic model that helps to identify student misconceptions as cycles within and through pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal spaces. Two practice examples demonstrate the application of this model: (1) teaching and learning botanical literacy through a technology-rich, real-time mobile app and (2) embedding and measuring cultural competence as a graduate learning outcome in Australian universities. Each context offers a specific emphasis on highlighting the need to make all liminal learning spaces safer, as learners surface and engage with conceptual change. The conclusion suggests that conceptual change in student learning offers a form of threshold misconception.

Due to the diversity of academics engaging with research into higher education, there is no single methodological approach or method that would embody higher education research. In this chapter, we put forward the case that this is a good thing and argue that higher education research can benefit from fusing existing methodological and theoretical paradigms with more creative, playful and artistic approaches, more commonly associated with sociological or anthropological research and performance-based disciplines. In order to frame this attitude of creativity, playfulness and openness, we start by providing a brief delineation of the research field and methods of higher education research. In this context we introduce the Deleuzoguattarian concept of rhizomes and assemblages to provide the grounding for what we mean by creativity and playfulness, which leads to our proposal of a renewed approach to research into higher education. We draw upon our own work on embodied academic identity and trainee teachers’ perceptions of their placement experiences in order to critically explore the benefits and potential pitfalls of incorporating this creativity and playfulness into higher education research.

As researchers and analysts apply the theory of institutional logics to higher education, they may choose from a variety of methods and analytical techniques by which to proceed. This chapter focuses on qualitative document analysis as one helpful approach to capturing logics–organising principles and underlying theories of action–in colleges and universities. It builds on the recent call to mobilise the institutional logics perspective for higher education research by offering a conceptual framework for qualitative document analysis, and an example of analytical and coding procedures applied to documentary materials on financing and resourcing strategies of US public research universities. The chapter concludes with implications for theory as gleaned from using this method, such as its value in probing emergent combinations of multiple logics in contexts of institutional complexity, and addresses broader methodological considerations to support future work in this arena.

In this chapter, we argue from a theoretical perspective that globalisation has impacted differentiation within higher education systems. The three propositions about mechanisms affecting diversity distinguished by van Vught (environmental conditions, competition for resources and academic norms) remain the same, but the initial conditions have changed. Governmental policy, in particular, affects the degree of openness of higher education systems (positively or negatively), either through (de-)regulation or by affecting higher education institutions’ strategies for internationalisation. Thus, we add as a fourth proposition that increasing institutional autonomy increases system diversity in the context of globalisation.

Relational thinking and spatial analyses have become highly relevant for higher education research. However, choices of research methods and specifically of statistical procedures do not often correspond to the epistemological underpinnings implied by relational perspectives. Against this background, this chapter illustrates the uses and challenges of geometric data analysis (GDA) for studying the complexities and dynamics of current spaces of higher education. GDA can be described as a set of statistical techniques that allow the identification, assessment and visualisation of complex relations in social science data. Using an investigation into the social topologies of first-year students as an example, we discuss the mathematical foundations, the step-by-step procedures of data analysis, the interpretation of results and strategies for integrating GDA into multimethod research designs. In sum, we argue that GDA does not only entail a comprehensive set of statistical instruments that permit visual analysis of relational structures, but also enables the systematic integration of qualitative and quantitative methods, hence supporting the development of innovative and coherent research designs and analytical strategies.

This chapter presents the strategy employed to develop a methodology to evaluate research collaboration networks in a higher education context. The research design comprised four successive tracks. We understand these methodological tracks as the tactics employed to organise available means to accomplish an objective. In the first track, we selected the key subjects, the ego networks and the network leaders to be analysed. In the second track, we visualised networks through graphs. In the third track, the statements of the subjects about formed networks were pursued, based on interviews. In the fourth track, case studies were researched and described. The study included qualitative and quantitative data to uncover the interactive processes of doing collaborative research inside a network. The methodology was useful to obtain visual understanding of the networks of co-authorial relations, quantitative and qualitative markers to be used in participatory evaluation of collaborative research networks, as well as an extended view of the life cycles of collaborative research networks. The main contribution of the chapter is to show a sequence of cross-disciplinary methodological steps allowing to understand different types of relations inside research network.

This chapter employs a longitudinal social network approach to research small group teaching in higher education. Longitudinal social network analyses can provide in-depth understanding of the social dynamics in small groups. Specifically, it is possible to investigate and disentangle the processes by which students make or break social connections with peers and are influenced by them, as well as how those processes relate to group compositions and personal attributes, such as achievement level. With advanced methods for modelling longitudinal social networks, researchers can identify social processes affecting small group teaching and learning.

Opportunities for professional development in online teaching are abundant. However, when the online teacher is geographically and professionally isolated from others with an interest in online teaching, use of insider research to identify areas of good online teaching practice, and those areas that require further development, affords an opportunity for self-directed professional development. Despite a plethora of methodological interpretations of autoethnography, autonetnography has until now remained no more than a methodological ideal. With my background as a registered nurse and teacher of health and social care, shifting from face-to-face teaching towards teaching online, I claim value in developing autonetnography as an insider researcher self-study, to inform my online teacher professional development needs. This chapter has two main aims: (1) to share my theoretical development of analytic autonetnography as an emerging e-research methodology and (2) to evaluate my experience of employing analytic autonetnography to research my recent online teaching practice. I will claim that whilst I have found analytic autonetnography methodologically beneficial to research my online teaching practice, I was also the author who laid the foundations, constructed and evaluated an analytic autonetnography model to test its value. Therefore, the relevance of my findings in the context of the value of analytic autonetnography as an emerging e-research methodology will remain open to debate until other researchers in the digitally mediated field experience, critique, challenge and enhance analytic autonetnography theoretically.

A growing body of education research considers practices; however, there is less focus on a methodology that enables practical analysis of practices. Use of practice theory is growing, particularly in work and organisational studies, but practice-focused studies more frequently address theoretical than methodological agenda. This chapter proposes a practice-focused, constructivist grounded theory methodology as one approach which can address this gap. After first considering the ways in which, separately and in combination, practice-theory and constructivist grounded theory can support higher education leadership and management research, the chapter considers implementation of this methodology by drawing on a study into the practice of authority in higher education leadership. It concludes by considering some implications for the ways in which practices can be understood and the affordances and limitations of this methodology.

The theory of human capital has arguably been the most influential theory impacting upon higher education policy (and educational policy in general) worldwide over the last half century or more. In more recent years it has been supplemented by social capital theory. This chapter reports on a systematic review of publications that have applied these theories in the context of higher education research, examining the origins and meanings of the theories, their application and practice, and the issues and critiques that have been raised. It concludes that while both theories have underlying faults, most notably perhaps in their treatment of human beings and their relationships as resources, they remain essential to higher education and higher education research in maintaining the interest of policy-makers and funders.

Higher education systems of small(er) countries may be less attractive to investigate, and it is likely that only a small indigenous research community is interested in and capable of researching such small systems. In this chapter, we map which studies have been carried out at the meso- and macro-levels of the Flemish higher education system since the early 2000s. It allows us to discover gaps in our understanding of that particular system. We conclude that it would be beneficial for all stakeholders involved (researchers, policymakers, institutional management) to try to align their research and practical interests and develop a research agenda that fits these interests.