Diverse Student Experiences in Higher Education: Implications for the Anthropology Classroom

Abstract

The articles in this special collection were presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology meeting in 2018 on a panel affiliated with the organization's Issues in Higher Education Topical Interest Group. This topical interest group focuses on examining how ongoing shifts in student demographics, financial challenges, and national policy impact decision-making and practice at all levels of the institution in complex ways. The articles in this collection explore educational experiences and needs of college students from their perspectives within the broader context of a rapidly changing higher education landscape and with a focus on applying this knowledge to teaching practices in the anthropology classroom. The authors present ethnographic research on students' experiences, discuss implications of findings for the anthropology classroom, and provide concrete strategies that instructors can implement to address students' needs. In doing so, they bring together two fields of study that often appear in the literature as separate areas of focus-the anthropology of higher education and the teaching of anthropology.