ABSTRACT

The first volume in the Core Concepts of Higher Education series, The History of U.S. Higher Education: Methods for Understanding the Past is a unique research methods textbook that provides students with an understanding of the processes that historians use when conducting their own research. Written primarily for graduate students in higher education programs, this book explores critical methodological issues in the history of American higher education, including race, class, gender, and sexuality. Chapters include:

  • Reflective Exercises that combine theory and practice
  • Research Method Tips
  • Further Reading Suggestions.

Leading historians and those at the forefront of new research explain how historical literature is discovered and written, and provide readers with the methodological approaches to conduct historical higher education research of their own.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

section I|61 pages

Methodological Approaches

chapter 1|10 pages

“Within These Walls”

Reading and Writing Institutional Histories

chapter 4|12 pages

“No Food, no Drinks, Pencil Only”

Checklists for Conducting and Interpreting Archival Research

chapter 5|12 pages

The Literature Review as Scholarship

Using Critical Reviews and Historiography

section II|65 pages

Using a New Historical Lens

chapter 7|18 pages

Photographs as Primary Sources

chapter 8|20 pages

Quantification and Cognitive History

Applying Social Science Theory and Method to Historical Data

chapter 9|12 pages

Life History and Voice

On Standpoints and Reflexivity

section III|65 pages

Critical Examinations of Special Issues

chapter 10|13 pages

“Poor” Research

Historiographical Challenges When Socio-Economic Status is the Unit of Analysis

chapter 11|13 pages

Where is Your “Home”?

Writing the History of Asian Americans in Higher Education

chapter 12|9 pages

Beyond Black and White

Researching the History of Latinos in American Higher Education

chapter 13|15 pages

Writing through the Past

Federal Higher Education Policy