What is and what can research on higher education be? Response to Sverre Wide's in- depth discussion post

Abstract

In the spring of 2021 the second conference Research in Higher Education, took place at Örebro University. The theme of this conference was the development of pedagogical research in higher education, and in response Högre utbildning now publishes three contributions that relate to and expand on this theme through an in-depth discussion. The first contribution is Sverre Wide's keynote introductory speech. The second contribution, invited by the editors, is a reflection on higher education research by professors Klara Bolander Laksov and Max Scheja. They suggest that the field of higher education research may need to be redefined, thereby expanding on the state of the art discussed in Wide's speech. Finally, the editors also invited associate professor Åsa Lindberg-Sand to reflect on and clarify the differences between pedagogical research and research on higher education. This final contribution closes the issue.

Scheja and Bolander Laksov take as their point of departure Wide's description of the development of educational research in higher education as being closely linked to the work carried out within educational development units at higher education institutions around the country. In other words, their emphasis is on how higher education development has grown over time.  However, their proposed delimitation of higher education research marks the emergence of a potentially much larger research field. In addition, they argue that higher education research is an "interdisciplinary research field and that its aim is to contribute to the understanding and development of the conditions, content, form and function of higher education."

A salient feature of this interdisciplinary field of research is the close connection between higher education development, research, and theoretical contributions. Bolander Laksov and Scheja highlight the multifaceted functions of higher education research stating that it should not only contribute to different higher education development initiatives but also to the development of theory that can serve as a framework for interdisciplinary meaning-making and as a platform for integrating results within this growing field of research.