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Given today's hurried pace of change in higher education and its institutions, it is imperative for the higher education research community to reflect on its current composition and resulting ability to understand and respond to the breadth and rapidity of that change. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to identify selected social and academic characteristics of the primary contributors (authors, editorial board members, and editors) to The Review of Higher Education, to categorize institutional affiliations of contributors via the Carnegie Classification System and to synthesize the data in a historical and sociological perspective. The contributions to The Review's articles, editorial board positions, and editorships in its first 25 years have predominantly been from male members of the higher education professoriate affiliated with and receiving doctoral degrees from major research universities ranked highest in the Carnegie Classification System. Trends toward greater gender and disciplinary representation, especially among author contributors, began to appear by the mid-point (1990s) of the study period.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of authority, people must analyze human behavior in groups. To study these behaviors, a group relations movement was spawned approximately 60 years ago and has influenced people's thinking about leadership and authority in groups and organizations ever since. This study analyzed primary and secondary historical sources, including data from extended videotaped interviews the researcher conducted with thirteen group relations experts throughout the United States and Great Britain, as a way to reconstruct the history of a significant part of the group relations movement. These videotaped interviews are available for viewing. Specifically, the study first details the foundational theories of the group relations movement, and then explores the emergence of methods developed in post-World War II England by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. It follows the exportation of the Tavistock method to the United States and the evolution of the A. K. Rice Institute (AKRI) that was developed to work within the Tavistock tradition in America. Since the AKRI has maintained limited primary sources and generated few historical records, interview data were especially important in reconstructing its history. In addition, an indigenous American group relations model, the National Training Laboratories Institute for Applied Behavioral Science (NTL) model, was examined as part of an effort to indicate how factors in the United States context led to significant modifications in the Tavistock approach when it was transported to America.

Since the first African slave ship arrived on the American shores, the nature of life for these new inhabitants has differed greatly from that of any other immigrant group. The usual patterns of assimilation were not present. While most other immigrant groups were able to assimilate within three generations by making name changes, taking on characteristics of the majority population, finding employment and acculturating via education, the same avenues were not available to Blacks. After approximately 400 years of differential treatment, negative stereotyping, social stigmatization, and inordinate poverty, many Blacks are still struggling to assimilate. One of the greatest points of divergence for Blacks is found in the area of education. Blacks were the only immigrant group denied education; their access was restricted during most of their history in America. Once the doors to education opened, the achievement of Blacks continued to fall below that of most other groups. The Children's Defense Fund and the Black Community Crusade for Children developed a program called Freedom School to address the problem of education within the Black community. This study sought to analyze and fully understand the development of the Freedom School program from the perspective of the participants. The study used a case study approach. The Freedom School program included a component of leadership development and provides an example of leadership in the Black community. Multiple sources of data were used to assure reliability and validity. These sources provided a richer perspective of the Freedom School than was expected because they provided information about two earlier programs. A relationship between the three different Freedom School programs was also found and a pattern of self-help within the Black community was also discovered.

The focus of this research was to examine the history of inclusive education and gain insight from its development in selected Roman Catholic schools in the Diocese of San Diego. Throughout history, Catholic education has viewed inclusivity as a “faith call” and a responsibility for teaching all children. Inclusive education refers to the commitment to educate students with special needs, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the school and classroom they would otherwise attend. It encourages educators to make those changes necessary to address diversity in the classroom, thus enhancing the education of all students by preparing them for the kind of diversity they will face in the real world. The historical method of study was used for this research because it emphasizes tracking the development of a phenomenon over a period of time. Unveiling the evolution of inclusive education in Catholic schools can act as a catalyst to improve programs in today's schools. It can assist educators in developing a better understanding of inclusive education as an ongoing process and may serve to underscore the deep social and religious commitment as well as the resources required on the part of the educators, students, and parents to help inclusive education evolve into a meaningful societal tool.