The presence of paradigms in the core higher education journal literature

Abstract

Conrad, Keller, Kuh, Lincoln, and others argue that the field of higher education is limited by its theoretical foundation in functionalism. Naturalistic inquiry, constructivism, critical theory, and feminist theory are presented as alternative metatheoretical assumptions. This research uses the schema of Burrell and Morgan to gather empirical evidence of the presence of paradigms in the core higher education journal literature. Traditional and paradigmatic content analysis techniques are used in the manner of similar journal studies by Kuh and Silverman. The results confirm that the literature is fixated in objective social science and the sociology of regulation. Topics and methods of higher education research are discussed as examples of different subjective social science and radical change sociology paradigms. Conclusions are presented about the future of the knowledge base.