Themes in Action and Research
This page is intended to be a hub of research, publications, presentations, newspaper articles, and web links related to the main themes of our work. It also demonstrates the ways in which our efforts, through projects, policy impact work, and publications, relate to the connected efforts of other organizations.
For convenience, the information has been sorted into content areas. We believe a number of societal issues connect in multiple ways so you will find Access and Equity in Higher Education, Civic Engagement, Deliberative Dialogue, Diversity, and Higher Education for the Public Good, as well as general information links.
Click to view information on each of our research topics:
Access and Equity in Higher Education
Higher Education for the Public Good
National Forum Research Agenda
The National Forum invokes a rigorous and action-minded research agenda to achieve our mission. Increasing awareness, understanding, commitment, and action relative to the public service role of higher education necessitates understanding of needs and values of the diverse higher education stakeholders. For the past several years, the National Forum has been developing, adapting, refining, and sharing a vision of Higher Education as a Public Good through a vibrant research agenda to create and share specialized knowledge that informs policy, daily decision-making and future research about the role of higher education in the United States. Our current research projects intersect the project themes of the National Forum, while keeping in mind our core approaches to research including, dialogue and mixed method research, social change, an intergenerational agenda in the National Forum.
Dialogue and mixed-method research. From here, our goal is to influence people, institutions, and systems through engaging individuals in a dialogic model where we move from increasing awareness, to understanding, to a commitment to the issue, to change. We have a commitment to working with and giving back to communities with which we collaborate on research projects. For example, our Access to Democracy research focuses on local communities and community members’ perspectives about "who is college for?"
To capture the diverse perspectives of the complex web of stakeholders in higher education, multiple research methods are often necessary. Using multiple approaches, often to complement the dialogic model, allows us to find out where people stand on an issue, but also how they came to form that perspective. Multiple methods, specifically those that offer community voices to concerns, furnish the information necessary to find paths to solutions.
National and local social change. With our research findings, implications, and recommendations, we strive to impact society at many levels through policy, community reports and scholarly publication. The multiple levels of impact honor the nuances and complexities of the issues facing higher education and society. Each of the research projects shared in this model has its own set of goals, timeline, tasks, and distribution expectations. Please see each research team leader for a specific research agenda for each project.
We commit to working with and giving back to communities in our research projects. Our Access to Democracy research focuses on local communities and community members’ perspectives about "who is college for?" Our community profiles (statistics and relevant points of interest), community members’ perspectives, and analyses of our findings are shared with each specific community in hard copy and through an interactive website. A reciprocal process of information sharing between community members and our research team is paramount.
Intergenerational Scholars. Our goal is to foster the next generation of scholars who will advance the field of higher education and its relationship with society. Graduate students from the Center for Higher and Postsecondary Education are encouraged to utilize Forum research for their coursework, to write and to present papers at higher education conferences, and publish research in order to further disseminate the work.
Many of our projects are guided and developed with graduate student interests in mind, other projects aim to bring together multiple levels of scholars. Our immigration project aims to bring together scholars and students at multiple levels committed to immigrant education. In addition, we have a commitment to bring scholars together through initiatives such as our Rising Scholar program, where new and seasoned scholars come together in discussion, share research, and create action plans that confront issues of higher education and the public good. We foster a mutual respect for the work of others, no matter where one is in his or her career. We support this exchange as ways to further young ideas, and create new knowledge.
Further, the research findings from our projects can be found on our website and are emailed to various constituencies, including various higher education stakeholders (such as legislators, administrators, faculty, and community members). We also utilize current and previous research to help inform public policy initiatives, as was demonstrated by our involvement with the Michigan Lt. Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and Economic Development.
We support the University’s stance on affirmative action. In addition to valuing structural diversity, we also value diverse perspectives and multiple research methods. This is reflected in our short and long-term programmatic goals and research agenda.
Research Agenda
Our goal is to collect, analyze, and disseminate our research findings through an iterative process in collaboration with the public, higher education professionals, and policy makers. Specifically, we engage participants in one or more dialogues, increase awareness, understanding, commitment and action to an issue, in order to impact one or more aspects of society.
Engaging Participants. Our research includes the public, legislators and members of higher education (students, administrators, faculty, etc.). A visual representation of our research projects and participants is located in Figure 1.
The Use of Dialogue. From here, our goal is to influence people, institutions, and systems through engaging individuals in a dialogic model where we move from increasing awareness, to understanding, to a commitment to the issue, to change (See figure 2).
Impact. In addition, with our research findings, implications, and recommendations, we strive to impact every level of two different ecological models (see Figure 3 & Figure 4). For example, our findings might be specific to one level of the model, or may cut across various levels of the models. This demonstrates the complexities of the research and honors the nuances of the issues facing higher education and society. Each of the research projects shared in this model has its own set of goals, timeline, tasks, and distribution expectations. Please see each research team leader for a specific research agenda for each project.
- Figure 1: Research Model Developed by the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good.
- Figure 2: Dialogic Model for Change
- Figure 3: Ecological Model of Research Implications and Recommendations for Change: Adapted from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Ecological Model
- Figure 4: Ecological Model of Research Implications and Recommendations for Change