Research in the field of higher education covers a wide range of topics: teaching and learning, assessment, management, governance and academic work just to name few. Therefore, research methods used are also diverse including the whole spectrum of quantitative and qualitative approaches. However, methodological foundation of higher education research is rarely discussed and studied.

American scholars Kezar and Talburt (2004) have analysed the use of methodologies and inquiry in higher education research in the USA. They claim that over the past three decades, researchers' approaches to studying higher education and the questions they explore have changed. In the 1960s and 1970s, the field was dominated by quantitative approaches whereas in the last decade, as modes of inquiry have expanded in educational research generally, higher educational researchers have also turned to qualitative research. Kezar and Talburt also argue that research in higher education is dominated by such disciplines as education, sociology and psychology and do not adopt methods from disciplines like anthropology, philosophy, economics or history which – according to Kezar and Talburt (2004) – have immense potential to improve the study of higher education. They critically ask that if expanding methodological approaches enhances

the quality of inquiry, how do we successfully integrate new approaches into the field of higher education research.

The purpose of the symposium is to present seven methodological approaches that are used to study higher education in six different national contexts. The aim is to discuss about the methodological stance of higher education research: does it has its own methodology or is research in higher education just borrowing methodological approaches from other disciplines? Can we say that higher education research has its own modes of inquiry? Do methodologies frame our understandings of higher education? The aim of the symposium is to raise discussion among scholars about the current status of methodologies in higher education research and also look at the future developments in the field.

References

Kezar, A & Talburt, S. 2004. Questions of research and methodology. Journal of Higher Education 75 (1), 1-6.