There is general agreement among sociologists that teaching social structure is a core component of a sociological curriculum. Despite this agreement, there are few guides for instructors on how to teach this key concept. Using the sociological literacy framework, this research examines the most popular undergraduate Introduction to Sociology…

The planetary crisis facing humanity makes essential the incorporation of learning about climate change and sustainability in the university curriculum. Yet the ooting of climate change in values, knowledge systems and societal structures means that this incorporation must be more than just addition of knowledge content into a pre-existing…

Recent research has emphasized the affective components of both learning and teaching. While the former has been extensively studied, the emotional challenges faced by instructors are comparatively less so. Micro-communities, such as the one assessed in the present study, have been identified as potentially effective resiliency strategies for…

In the United States, HIV disproportionately affects people 13-45 years old, people of color, people in the south, and men who have sex with men. Given the growing number of postsecondary students within these demographic groups, this presents an equity issue and raises concerns for how higher education researchers and practitioners choose to…

The purpose of this paper is to critique current women-only coach education initiatives, before suggesting an alternative approach to dealing with gender discrimination in coaching provision. Having increased in popularity over recent years, primarily through justifications as being "safe spaces" for participants, such initiatives have…

Since the expansion of higher education, many rural students in China managed to enter urban universities. However, migrating across layers of structural constraints, those rural students faced dramatic transitions and challenges in the urban university. Drawing upon 50 rural students' narratives about their educational trajectories, I find that…

This paper describes how critical realism was operationalized to provide an explanatory framework for a small-scale qualitative study in the field of teacher education in a sub-Saharan African context. Critical realism combines a realist ontology (there is something to find out about) with a relativistic epistemology (different people will come to…

Despite the proliferation of distance education at colleges and universities and its increases in student enrollments, experts warn that unless significant changes are made, distance education's future may become threatened (Cavanaugh, 2004; Howard & Schenk, 2004; Porter, 2004; Zemsky & Massy, 2004; Carr, 2001; Carnevale, 2001). These…

This paper draws on both a theoretical understanding and a semi-autoethnographic approach of the lived experience of working class adult learners in higher education during the COVID-19 global pandemic. In particular, the paper warns of the doxic notion of current working class struggles being singularly attributed to COVID-19. Rather it is vital…

In Indian society, caste is assigned to us before birth. Caste positions individuals in a social, economic, and political hierarchy. This study explores the meaning of caste discrimination from the perspectives of individuals who experience it in their everyday lives. Many studies have focused on the causes and consequences of caste discrimination…

"What is the role of higher knowledge and education in molding the individual and in creating certain attributes of the individual?" The attributes of the individual in question are derived from Marx and they signify an individual who is autonomous, free and capable to determine her own future and discover and actualize her own kinds of…

The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the reasons for regional disparities in educational expansion in Germany (i.e., rising rates of general university entrance qualification) on the basis of theoretically relevant influencing factors: changes in school policies, changes in social structure, or general social modernization…

This book provides concrete examples of humanizing collectivist critical pedagogy, which creates a learning space with students, values their mutual-agency, and invites them to play a leading role in remaking higher education. It redefines student success to include an understanding of positionality, macro social structures, and agency. Each class…

Women's empowerment is an important goal of the educational processes around the world. Women in developing countries need support and motivation for attaining higher education and empowerment. This qualitative-exploratory study sought to explore the perceptions of Pakistani female university academics living inside predominantly patriarchal…

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…