Introduction to the special issue: The construction of knowledge in higher education studies: A Southern perspective

Abstract

This special issue celebrates research in the higher education field with an interest in non-Western lines of inquiry. The six papers here emerge from Latin-America, Spain, the USA and India and draw on multiple perspectives and methodologies. They address tensions and challenges in higher education systems that experienced in concrete contexts and regions but that are yet, to some extent, experienced in higher education systems globally. More specifically, the variety of research questions, theories, methods and contexts displayed here raise critical questions about global forces attached to neoliberalism and competition for prestige, which in turn, frame current practices in higher education. This special issue, therefore, constitutes an epistemic space that gives visibility to narratives on higher education that have been in Santo’s words, invisible narratives on higher education but that are fast becoming more visible.

Keywords

• higher education
• critical perspectives
• knowledge production
• non-western