Education Commons^™

Telling Your Story: Stewardship And The Honors College, Andrew Martino

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Honors administrators, particularly honors college deans, find themselves in positions not necessarily equivalent to academic deans in other disciplines. Often, honors college deans function more like provosts in that they need to attend to multiple disciplines simultaneously, while also often carrying obligations in teaching and advising. In addition, the initiation, cultivation, and stewardship of donors to the college are essential components to the honors college dean’s portfolio. This task may be particularly challenging for a dean in honors in that many potential donors are intellectually and emotionally tied to their specific major and/or school or college. And yet, fundraising, especially …

Cultivating Institutional Change: Infusing Principles Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Into Everyday Honors College Practices, Tara Tuttle, Julie Stewart, Kayla Powell

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Envisioning and implementing strategic changes around diversity, equity, and inclusion in honors can be paradoxical. While honors colleges are traditionally regarded as tight-knit communities that serve as centers of curricular and pedagogical innovation, they have also been sites of exclusion because of outdated definitions of excellence based on inequitable presuppositions inherent to the university admissions process. Because many honors programs endeavor to produce publicly engaged graduates, creating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable learning environment is a moral imperative. Not only does it provide a safe and welcoming environment for learners, but it also models the type of behavior we want …

Positioning Honors Colleges To Lead Diversity And Inclusion Efforts At Predominantly White Institutions, Susan Dinan, Jason T. Hilton, Jennifer Willford

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Honors Colleges are well positioned to be leaders in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives on the campuses of Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) by embracing motivated and engaged students from a broad range of backgrounds. Stretching the missions of honors education beyond narrowly defined academic excellence to embrace intellectually curious and creative students and not just those with stellar standardized test scores and GPAs will yield more dynamic and inclusive communities. Embracing holistic admissions practices allows honors colleges to build cohorts of students whose experiences may or may not include being recognized as the smartest in the class in their …

Honors Colleges As Levers Of Educational Equity, Teagan Decker, Joshua Kalin Busman, Michele Fazio

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

While higher education is widely imagined as a tool for social mobility, the realities of enrollment, retention, and professional trajectories betray the conservative mechanisms through which higher education too often reproduces the status quo of inequality. Honors colleges can and should strive to act as levers of equity in this scenario of entrenchment, but the nature of this project varies depending on the institution’s own class position vis-à-vis its students. Elite, highly selective institutions may advocate for enrollment strategies that target student populations that do not typically attend those institutions, but other institutions likely already enroll such students in large …

Promoting The Inclusion Of Lgbtq+ Students: The Role Of The Honors College In Faith-Based Colleges And Universities, Paul E. Prill

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

An estimated 11 percent of students at faith-based colleges and universities, identify as sexual-minority (LGBTQ+). Many of those students come from religious backgrounds and attend universities where they have heard and continue to hear that their sexual identity is in fundamental tension with their faith identity, leading to problems with mental health and, at times, physical health. On many such campuses, sexual minority students have become more vocal, asking that the university acknowledge their presence and provide services to help them succeed and thrive in college. Some of the schools have moved in that direction. Others continue to balk at …

Who Belongs In Honors? Culturally Responsive Advising And Transformative Diversity, Elizabeth Raisanen

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Despite a rich body of scholarship that engages with university honors advising, advising to support diversity in higher education, and the overall need for better attention to diversity within honors, the literature has not fully explored the vital role that advising plays in supporting diversity and fostering belonging within honors programs and colleges. This essay brings together the too-often disparate threads of advising, honors, and diversity to advocate for a practice of culturally responsive advising within the honors environment in order to pursue truly transformative diversity. Holistic academic advising and related programming must play a central role in any honors …

Fostering Student Leadership In Honors Colleges, Jill Nelson Granger

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The architecture of student leadership in honors colleges is a formative decision that affects students’ experience and development. Through a broad view of student leadership structures across U.S. honors colleges, four common modalities are identified and described: governance, programming, mentorship, and ambassadorship. Relevant models, variations, combinations, and specializations are provided. Student leadership, as a hallmark of honors education, is one way in which honors colleges distinguish themselves both within and outside the university. As intentional learning communities, honors colleges incorporate student leadership into the nature of honors education, as part of mission, and as a defining outcome of the honors …

Honors Colleges, Transdisciplinary Education, And Global Challenges, Paul Knox, Paul Heilker

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The authors contend that the most significant comparative advantage of honors colleges is the combination of gifted and motivated students from every academic discipline and interdisciplinary curricula that train students to integrate diverse perspectives. The authors discuss how to harness this advantage to provide a truly transdisciplinary education through collaborative, project-based learning, both on campus and beyond. They assert that honors colleges are in a unique position to circumvent the siloed structures of academia by convening multidisciplinary groups of students guided by faculty from a wide range of disciplines. Doing so can help reimagine undergraduate education to address urgent and …

Teaching And Learning In The Fourth Space: Preparing Scholars To Engage In Solving Community Problems, Heidi Appel, Joy Hart, Paul Knox, Andrea Radasanu, Leigh E. Fine, Timothy J. Nichols, Daniel Roberts, Keith Garbutt, William Ziegler, Jonathan D. Kotinek, Kathy Cooke, Ralph Keen, Mark Andersen, Jyotsna Kapur

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Honors education has a rich history of preparing students to be good communicators, to think deeply and broadly, to collaborate effectively, and to be ethical citizens engaged in communities. The challenges of contemporary society, however, call for something more. To engage effectively with complex societal issues, students must identify and collaborate effectively with a broad range of stakeholders in the community, understand and employ systems thinking, value highly diverse perspectives, and develop communication skills for conflict management. To develop these additional skills and perspectives, the authors invoke the concept of fourth space as the deep engagement of honors students in …

Serving Our Communities: Leveraging The Honors College Model At Two-Year Institutions, Eric Hoffman, Victoria M. Bryan, Dan Flores

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Honors colleges at two-year institutions play a uniquely important role in twenty-first century higher education by providing additional opportunities, services, and programming that support greater outcomes for the community, especially for those members of underrepresented and underserved populations. Two-year institutions may wonder how the honors college structure could be valuable, particularly when honors programs are already well established, recognized, and understood among the faculty and staff as providing opportunities for students and supported by administration. Honors colleges can give honors a seat at the table in deans councils, budgetary discussions, campus planning, and curriculum development processes, which in turn allows …

Introduction To Honors Colleges In The 21st Century, Richard Badenhausen

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter introduces Honors Colleges in the 21st Century, a volume containing the work of 56 authors representing 45 different institutions, many of which are at the forefront of innovation in honors education. In addition to offering a brief overview of the nineteen chapters that make up the book, the introduction reviews the historical growth of honors colleges along with research on that trend, including Peter Sederberg’s seminal The Honors College Phenomenon (2008). The essay accounts for the recent vigorous growth in honors colleges by suggesting that they are able to address some of the most pressing needs of …

Jnchc, Vol. 24, No. 1: Backmatter, National Collegiate Honors Council

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

About the authors

JNCHC: Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (Spring/Summer 2023) 24(1): 92-99

Forum essays on "Regime change in honors"

Journal editor Ada Long, University of Alabama at Birmingham

About the NCHC Monograph Series

NCHC monographs and journals

NCHC publications order form

In this issue: Forum essays on "Regime change in honors" and research essays

Resisting Disciplinarity: Curriculum Mapping And Transdisciplinarity, Megan Snider Bailey

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

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 epistemic divisions and the harm that these decisions cause. The author explores transdisciplinarity as an emerging concept in honors education, one which rejects boundaries and explores problems through multiple, competing perspectives. Transdisciplinary pedagogical approaches offer honors educators a mechanism for pivoting teaching and learning away from outdated assumptions of honors as elitist, giving honors students a liberating …

Diversity In Honors: Understanding Systemic Biases Through Student Narratives, Aman Singla, Minerva Melendrez, Mable T. Thai, Sukhdev S. Mann, Denise Zhong, Kim T. Hoang, Isabella H. Lee, Andrea V. Aponte

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Centered on superiority over a certain group or individual, discrimination becomes predominant in prestigious institutions that pride themselves on exclusivity. Collegiate honors programs tend to deepen this practice by creating highly elite spaces accessible only to a select few. This rigidity can lead to an underrepresentation of historically marginalized groups, students who often lack the necessary resources for achieving academic excellence. This case study examines the ways honors programs inadvertently perpetuate discrimination among different social identities. Using inductive interviewing of honors students (n = 12) to gauge individual perceptions of program diversity, researchers rely on content analysis to generate …

Honors Flourishing In The Midst Of Change, Hao Hong, Robert Glover, Mimi Killinger, Jordan Labouff

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In the wake of formidable institutional change, and in response to administrative concerns about honors’ place within the university, authors describe the development of a pilot course that led to a program’s critical self-study and course transformations that were long overdue. Citizen Scholarship and Human Flourishing incorporates specific practices such as peer instruction and “ungrading” to align with new institutional learning objectives and broadly defined undergraduate research experiences across disciplines. The experimental course presents honors as a model for progressive curricular change in the midst of shifting administrative landscapes.

Meet The New Boss: An Honors Faculty Member Weathers Administrative Change, Annamarie Guzy

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The author reflects on the role of honors faculty in effectively responding to short- and long-term administrative change, discussing the value of resistance to deleterious administrative decisions and offering advice for successfully navigating cyclical administrative shifts in honors.

Regime Change As Opportunity: A Case For A Radically Inclusive Response, Massimo Rondolino

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The author proposes a radically inclusive approach to reimagining and rebuilding honors education at a time of institutional change, suggesting that when directives do not include a clear vision for academic curricula in practice and orientation (and instead focus on budgetary bottom lines and cost-maximization), honors practitioners benefit from an invaluable opportunity to exert self-determination and agency. This essay describes the effective rebuilding of an honors program by leveraging faculty experience to establish a collaborative community framed within a model of student self-governance and grounded in principles of mindful leadership, anti-cruelty mentality, and maternal thinking.

Ready For Business: Developing An Online Business Honors Course For Quality, Engagement, And Inclusivity, Kayla N. Sapkota

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

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 team activities. Noting student responses as generally positive, the author suggests how future versions might expand on remote teamwork opportunities.

Jnchc: Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council; Forum Essays On "Regime Change In Honors," Vol. 24, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2023: Complete Issue, National Collegiate Honors Council

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Contents

Call for Papers v

Editorial Policy, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines vii

Dedication to James Joseph Buss ix

Editor’s Introduction, Ada Long xi

Forum Essays on “Regime Change in Honors”

A Defiant Honors Response to Regime Change. John Zubizarreta 3

Meet the New Boss: An Honors Faculty Member Weathers Administrative Change, Annmarie Guzy 13

Leveraging Regime Change as an Opportunity to Reimagine, Reset, and Demonstrate Results in Honors, Irina V. Ellison 19

Regime Change as Opportunity: A Case for a Radically Inclusive Response, Massimo Rondolino 25

Honors Flourishing in the Midst of Change, Hao Hong, Robert Glover, Mimi Killinger, and …

Leveraging Regime Change As An Opportunity To Reimagine, Reset, And Demonstrate Results In Honors, Irina V. Ellison

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Regime changes in higher education can be a source of disruption and lead to a potential derailment of honors programs. This paper describes one honors program’s agility and effective negotiation through a rapid succession of upper administrative change, suggesting that when seen as opportunities these changes invite honors practitioners to re-envision, reset, and reevaluate programmatic set points for admissions, student learning, and curricular innovation.

Jnchc, Vol. 24, No. 1: Frontmatter, National Collegiate Honors Council

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Frontmatter for JNCHC: Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (Spring/Summer 2023) 24(1): ii-xvii

Forum essays on "Regime change in honors"

Journal editor Ada Long, University of Alabama at Birmingham

ISBN 978-1-945001-19-2 | ISSN 1559-0151

Includes front cover, masthead, table of contents, Call for papers, editorial policy, deadlines, submission guidelines, dedication to James Joseph Buss (Northern Kentucky University), and editor's introduction by Ada Long (University of Alabama at Birmingham).

A Relational Model For Honors Education: From Contagion To Permeability, Andrea Radasanu, Rebecca C. Bott, Leigh Fine, Jonathan D. Kotinek, Joy L. Hart, Timothy J. Nichols, Hedi Appel, Daniel M. Roberts, Paul Knox, William L. Ziegler

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This article considers the value of honors education beyond its marked contributions to enrollment management goals. Suggesting that quantitative assessments toward understanding the value of honors fail to capture its breadth, interdisciplinary focus, and engagement, authors posit a new way of measuring impacts from “contagion model” (spillover to campus and beyond) to “permeability model” (interface across campus). Pointing to the benefits of permeability for both honors and the broader campus communities, authors encourage practitioners to foster exchange in curricular offerings, spatial inputs, scholarly outputs, extramural funding, and institutional support. The meaning and history of organizational permeability is explored, and examples …

Facilitating Change: Examining Honors Students’ Perceptions Of Learning Facilitation Techniques, Conner W. Suddick, Lindi Dice

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

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, address conflict, and unlock collective wisdom. Authors present a variety of facilitation techniques used in teaching honors students (n = 13) and closely examine how students articulate their personal learning outcomes after practicing effective facilitations. Liberating structures, which engage everyone in problem-solving, practicing self-discovery, and envisioning potential solutions, are used. Reflective assessments indicate …

Jnchc, Vol. 24, No. 2: Frontmatter And Backmatter, National Collegiate Honors Council

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

JNCHC: Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council

Forum on Creating an Honors Faculty

Vol. 24, No. 2 | Fall/Winter 2023

Masthead

Contents

Call for papers

Editorial policy

Dedication: Cliff Jefferson and Mitch Pruitt

About the authors

About the NCHC monograph series

NCHC monographs and journals

NCHC publications order form

In this issue

Editor's Introduction, Ada Long

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

First paragraph:

The most common focus of research and discourse about honors is how to recruit the right students and how to create for them the most supportive environment. Far less often have we asked the same questions about honors faculty. Finding and keeping the best teachers is at least as essential to a good education as creating a singular mix of exceptional students, but we tend to be more haphazard in this process, to trust our instincts, go with our gut. This issue’s Forum on “Creating an Honors Faculty” examines the practice of attracting, developing, and keeping excellent teachers …

Creating And Celebrating Honors Faculty, Lynne C. Elkes

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

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, contingent, academic, or professors of the practice; in every case, questions of promotion, compensation, and teaching assignments make staffing an honors program in a consistent manner difficult at best. These programs, their students, and their faculty would benefit from a more standardized approach to effectively serve honors …

Honors As Incubator For Creating And Sustaining Faculty Professional Growth, Marlee Marsh, John Zubizarreta

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Successful honors programs inspire and sustain a vibrant and committed faculty. This essay presents an established honors program which demonstrates, through varied faculty commitments over time, honors as a valuable asset in identifying, recruiting, supporting, and rewarding a strong, creative, loyal faculty that benefits the entire institution. Authors suggest multiple ways for establishing and nurturing the kinds of relationships that enhance both honors and its dedicated faculty. Leveraging honors for professional growth and pedagogical development, these include the design of interdisciplinary courses and special seminars, mentoring of student projects, engaging in study-travel ventures, winning distinguished awards, serving on important committees, …

Building An Honors Community That Values And Celebrates Faculty, Kristine A. Miller

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

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 structures that compensate faculty fairly, foster ongoing professional development, and build a sense of belonging and community in honors. Emphasizing the importance of faculty who teach, mentor, and guide honors students on their educational journeys, the author draws on firsthand experience to offer specific ideas about how to engage and reward honors faculty. The essay suggests that building a …

Developing Honors Faculty Through Faculty Development Programs, Aaron Hanlin

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Despite its crucial role in student success, there is scant research on how honors faculty develop teaching expertise and pedagogical authority. This essay considers the ways in which faculty development programs assist instructors by enhancing the critical skills necessary for positive student outcomes and successful honors programs. While honors scholars continue to advocate for institutional support toward faculty development, this essay provides further rationale and a specific example.

Jnchc: Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council; Forum Essays On "Regime Change In Honors," Vol. 24, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2023: Complete Issue, National Collegiate Honors Council

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Contents

Call for Papers

Editorial Policy, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines

Dedication to Cliff Jefferson and Mitch Pruitt

Editor’s Introduction - Ada Long

Forum Essays on “Creating an Honors Faculty”

Creating and Celebrating Honors Faculty - Lynne C. Elkes

Honors as Incubator for Creating and Sustaining Faculty Professional Growth - Marlee Marsh and John Zubizarreta

Building an Honors Community that Values and Celebrates Faculty - Kristine A. Miller

Peanuts and Shoestrings: Building an Honors Faculty Pool with Limited Resources - Victoria M. Bryan

Research Essays

Developing Honors Faculty through Faculty Development Programs - Aaron Hanlin

A Relational Model for Honors Education: …