This paper reflects on the use of methods in higher education research. My point of departure is that it appears that higher education scholars -- publishing their work in what we generally see as the relevant higher education journals of our field -- make use of a limited set of methods. Whereas there may be good reasons to select certain…

Assessment and institutional research offices have too much data and too little time. Standard reporting often crowds out opportunities for innovative research. Fortunately, advancements in data science now offer a clear solution. It is equal parts technique and philosophy. The first and easiest step is to modernize data work. This column…

This paper argues that public accountability discourse and research quality processes designed to support it are associated with the validation of methodological approaches in social research which claim to capture the real condition of the social world and to remedy its ailments, supporting an expansion of representative modes of scholarship, and…

Comparative and international higher education scholarship frequently notes that technology plays a role in higher education internationalisation, but there is low consensus about how. In this paper, we offer interdisciplinary considerations to theorise technology in higher education internationalisation using three theoretical and methodological…

Institutional ethnography (IE) is a feminist approach to research focusing on the organising power of texts and language. This paper explores "how" to analyse texts in IE while considering the importance of reflexivity and accountability to feminist research. Based on a five year study of UK university audit processes, I developed a…

To build new and better higher education systems, it is vital to consider all aspects of systems in the recent past. Measures should be taken to identify and address deficiencies, of which academic isolation and the prevalence of a silo mentality is a prominent example. The central question of this paper to be answered is how to effectively combat…

Given pandemic restrictions on learning and research, autoethnography has recently garnered renewed attention as a potential alternative. Drawing on our experiences as instructor and student, we make the case that autoethnography is not only relevant to pandemic-era teaching but could also offer an effective pedagogical tool to critically engage…

This article utilizes anthropological theory to examine the existing body of ethnographic research in colleges and universities, which remains underdeveloped compared to K-12 ethnographies. I identify two parallel developments in this field: a micro-level ethnography of college and university sub-cultures and a macro-level ethnography of…

This article weighs in on the developing discourse on AI's role in higher education research through a structured dialogue between two diametrically opposed academics. Utilising a dialectical framework, the discourse transcends surface-level debates to grapple with ethical, methodological, and epistemological questions that are often overlooked,…

Within the context of Australian higher education, Open Educational Practice (OEP) requires a collective response from researchers and practitioners to instantiate novel, sustainable, scalable, and evidence-informed educational practices. This article outlines practice-led research's (PLR) role in educational research in open education and its…

Understanding how indeterminacy is different from uncertainty is crucial to posthumanism and has major implications for reconfiguring curriculum. Uncertainty has to do with "epistemology," about not knowing whether a state of affairs is or is not; for instance, one would not know whether something is here or there, now or then.…

This paper reviews the fourth decade of the "Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management," including author analyses and thematic insights from articles published from 2009 to 2018. In addition to an increase in the number of articles published, the "Journal" now publishes more articles by authors from outside Australia,…

In this second column regarding research approaches, we continue our discussion of qualitative and quantitative research focusing on the specializations of developmental education, learning assistance, and student success. Whereas the previous column discussed mixed methods as an underutilized method, similarly, design research has the potential…

Author overviews interdisciplinary and culturally relevant theoretical/conceptual frameworks and methodologies researchers and theorists have employed to examine Black women's experiences in higher education as students, administrators, and faculty. In conversation with literature and her lived experiences, the author offers three lessons for…

Purpose: Academics are at the forefront of criticisms about so-called "fake news" considered to undermine evidence-based approaches to the understanding of complex social, political, and economic issues. However, universities contribute to the production of fake news through the legitimization of measures that promote student…