Degrees of Differentiation by Tier: The Mission(s) of Higher Education

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Postsecondary Research 2

Abstract

Though more recent educational research has focused on how college tier affects student outcomes relative to social class and institutional differentiation (see Soares, 2010), the degrees of college-tier differentiation (informed by both qualitative and quantitative research) remain a relatively neglected area of study within the field of education. In an effort to get at these structurally based differences, we employ content analysis to analyze institutional mission statements as discursive texts. We argue that these texts, replete with symbolic meaning, reveal a great deal about academic culture, including the forms and quantities of educational capital embodied by institutions of higher education and their members.

Authors

• Amy Elizabeth Stich, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Todd Reeves, Boston College