Despite advancements in global communication and interpersonal networks, in-person discussions and scholarly discourses often falter in the classroom--stifling innovation and preventing opportunities to foster deeper human connection. This study explores the remedy of facilitation: the art and science of enabling a group to unleash its creativity,…

American higher education relies on a taxonomy of knowledge stemming from Puritan ways of thinking and knowing--a disciplinary classification system that sorts "questions asked" and "answers possible" into epistemic categories. This paper interrogates the notion of disciplinarity to better understand the arbitrariness of…

This essay presents the creation process for an online honors course in the field of business. Highlighting engagement, critical thinking, and inclusivity as central themes, the author describes the course's inception, structure, outcomes, and post-teaching reflection. The pedagogical framework includes integrative current event assignments and…

The National Collegiate Honors Council's "Shared Principles and Practices of Honors Education" (2022) outlines the level of commitment, pedagogical innovation and inclusivity, mentoring, and intellectual leadership that honors programs and colleges expect from their faculty. These high expectations require institutional support…

Honors faculty are defined by their dedication to their craft and their enormous impact on students in every discipline. However, their role within the larger university setting is nebulous, leading to an undervaluation of their contributions to higher education in an era of negative perceptions of the industry. Honors faculty can be tenured,…

In his 1837 essay "The American Scholar," Ralph Waldo Emerson offers a challenge that is appropriate for honors practitioners today--namely, to figure out just how good a time this is to be doing the work we do. Honors students, faculty, and staff occupy every part of the institutions we call home, so we should take advantage of our…

Atypical in Alternative Break (AB) practice, an intentionally connected course was examined to understand students' perceptions of their semester-long experience. Using qualitative narrative analysis, authors analyze data from 20 AB participants to evaluate student perceptions and experiential outcomes before, during, and after their service trips…

Neither the historical antecedents of honors education in the Oxford tutorial model nor Aydelotte's implementation of honors at Swarthmore College in 1922 involves a privileging of the humanities within honors education. The signature characteristics of honors education and pedagogies are discipline-neutral. Though the historical and institutional…

The authors describe the shift from an upper-division university to a four-year school and the establishment of an honors program as a result. This essay chronicles the inaugural honors class, characterizing the pioneering aspect of its undergraduates. Reflecting on institutional history and the neighborliness of honors, authors consider the…

This essay is an invitation to consider a paradigm shift in the academy, one that allows and encourages us to bring our whole selves into our teaching and professional lives. I describe a set of values that permits and encourages the expression of a rigorously examined inner self in harmony with the traditional expression of our scholarly selves…

Using Michel Foucault's writing on discipline and training, the author suggests that processes like certification ultimately serve as covert normalizing activities that run counter to the spirit and practice of honors education. The author argues for an open, fluid, generative approach to honors program review.

As part of NCHC's tribute to Dr. Ada Long (1945-2024), this response to "Honors as Neighborhood" (1995) encourages scholars and practitioners to (re)consider the problems with conceptualizing honors programs as neighborhoods given the systemic inequalities associated with both. Drawing from experience at an R1 regional institution in the…

This essay challenges boundaries in honors that are both intentional and unavoidable. Reflecting on what appears to be an overemphasis on boundaries and gatekeeping within honors, the author urges practitioners to consider its exclusionary culture and the extent to which it circles around its stated goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The…

The long-term shift in undergraduate enrollment away from traditional humanities disciplines toward vocationally oriented majors poses a unique set of challenges for honors. While some have responded by emphasizing humanities' centrality to honors education, this essay argues the imperative that honors practitioners and administrators improve…

This essay argues that in order for honors to occupy and transform the academy it must begin by transforming itself. Drawing on Homi Bhabha's notion of "third space," the author argues that the traditional epistemic paradigms in higher education are inadequate for conceptualizing the praxis-driven work required in honors. Honors should…