Twentieth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

This study hopes to improve understanding of the contextual factors influencing curricular decisions in contemporary United States higher education. It brings theories of organizational decision-making to bear on the knowledge legitimating processes of university curricula. This research connects questions of value and purpose to publicly-funded education, and public higher education curriculum decisions by focusing specifically on religious studies programs within the humanities and liberal arts. This context provides an opportunity to explore the impact of broad state initiatives around job-ready degree programs, increased support of Science, Technology, Math and Engineering (STEM) fields, and a growing emphasis on economic development. This study employs an instrumental qualitative case study analysis, following a multi-case design focused on three cases. Cases in this study are bounded by institution, as the administrative structure around each program is slightly different, and broader institutional factors are influential in the decision process. Within the multi-case design, the primary data are interviews with parties to the program changes at each institution, supplemented and triangulated by all documents relevant to the decision process. Interviewees include faculty members and administrators part of or aware of the decision process. These data are analyzed with qualitative software following an iterative coding approach that begins with deductive themes, and was open to inductive and emerging themes. Rich data from faculty and administrators illustrate the influence of institutional contexts and resource dependencies on contemporary higher education curricula. They also point to a process best understood through the lens of Carnegie school or garbage can modeling.