Adrianna Kezar
Biographic Data
| ID | 223278 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Adrianna Kezar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Adrianna |
| FAMILY NAME | Kezar |
| SIGNATURE | KEZAR A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southern California |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8560-4051 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 262 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 55 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Individual and Collective Learning Through Professional Learning Communities: Institutionalizing Student Success
After decades of training and professional development focused on individual learning, researchers now argue for moving toward collaborative learning models with the potential to shift institutional culture. To offer an example of such an approach, this study describes how cross-functional Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) fostered an iterative, individual and collective learning process among student affairs and academic affairs professio…
A Matter of Time (Use): Conceptualizing Time Navigation and Time Equity as Directions for Equitable Research
Educators have been concerned about students’ time management skills for decades. Subsequently, scholars have studied approaches for better time management to intervene and help students. Prior research has described organizing, scheduling, and completing tasks to meet time constraints. Although insightful for understanding key mechanisms at the individual level, such approaches miss structural influences that shape the degree of control working-…
Protecting Equity Together: Shared Equity Leadership in Restrictive and Precarious Legal Environments
Developing Shared Leadership for Transformational Change Aimed at At-Promise Student Success
Faculty, Academic Careers, and Environments (Face) Framework: A Guide to Faculty Work for Research, Practice, and Policy
Personal journeys toward critical consciousness: Institutional approaches for fostering equity leaders
Organizing Shared Approaches to Equity Work
Campuses are experimenting with new ways to structure and organize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. Existing organizational structures tend to focus either on top-down or vertical ways of organizing DEI work (e.g. chief diversity officer positions) or more horizontally integrated designs such as DEI committees. These structures are limited in their ability to embed the type of culture change necessary to erode entrenched inequities on…
Shared equity leadership: Working collectively to change campus cultures
A Practical Guide to Causal Mediation Analysis: Illustration With a Comprehensive College Transition Program and Nonprogram Peer and Faculty Interactions
Experimental and quasi-experimental designs have been increasingly employed in education. Mediation analysis has long been used to measure the role of mediators. Causal mediation analysis provides a modern approach to evaluate potential causal roles of mediators. Compared with conventional mediation analysis, causal mediation analysis has several advantages, e.g., by enabling us to evaluate necessary assumptions to establish a valid causal role o…
The potential of and mechanisms for a hub of innovation on campus to support changes for low-income, first generation, and racially minoritized college students
Scaling success for low-income, first-generation in college, and/or racially minoritized students through a culture of ecological validation
Using Strategies Elites Understand: Divestment as an Approach to Social Change
Over the past 50 years, student activists and community organizers on college campuses have advocated for divestment as a strategy to enact necessary change. These activists and organizers are often tasked to confront the higher education elite, such as trustees, with these demands. Higher education institutions will only continue to face immense pressures to be humane organizations with the public interest at its core. This article reviews the l…
Exploring the Organizational Value of Integrated Transition Programs for Underrepresented College Students
Emerging evidence demonstrates that integrated programs, which combine academic and socioemotional supports and bridge boundaries between academic and student affairs, can improve college success rates for low-income, first-generation college students. This article explores the organizational value of integrated transition programs across several institutions, describing how such programs improve relationships among faculty and staff, streamline …
Identity-Conscious Strategies to Engage At-Promise Students in a Learning Community: Shared Courses in a Comprehensive College Transition Program
Background/Context: Low-income, racially minoritized, and first-generation college students (at-promise students) attending predominantly White, middle class institutions often face inequitable access to enriching educational opportunities, discrimination, and marginalization, creating barriers to their success. Institutions are increasingly designing comprehensive college transition programs (CCTPs) such as the Thompson Scholars Learning Communi…
At-promise college student major and career self-efficacy ecology model
Scaling Culture Change through Institutional Logics: A Look at the American Association of Universities (AAU) STEM Initiative
Little research examines scaled culture change attempted across a network of institutions moving toward more enterprise-level changes. This study attempts to fill that gap by studying the American Association of Universities (AAU) Undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Initiative and its attempt to scale culture change related to improving STEM teaching across the entire AAU network. The findings show that culture …
The Role of Collaboration in Integrated Programs Aimed at Supporting Underrepresented Student Success in STEM
The persistent underrepresentation of low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students among those who complete an undergraduate degree in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics remains an issue of concern in higher education. Scholars and practitioners have increasingly realized that more comprehensive supports are required, as opposed to the single-strategy interventions that have been popular for several decades.…
Concluding Thoughts
This issue has explored the efficacy of two comprehensive college transition programs: CSU STEM Collaboratives and the Thompson Scholars Learning Community. Both studies identify similar issues that merit further exploration and point to key findings that practitioners should consider to guide their future work with first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students
Supporting First-Generation, Low-Income, and Underrepresented Students' Transitions to College Through Comprehensive and Integrated Programs
This special issue of American Behavioral Scientist focuses on college transition programs that have either comprehensive or integrated designs, exploring whether, how, and why these programs are making progress toward improving success among marginalized student populations to address long-standing retention and completion gaps that have troubled higher education for decades. Comprehensive programs offer a broad range of supports coordinated wit…
A Typology of College Transition and Support Programs: Situating a 2-Year Comprehensive College Transition Program Within College Access
College transition and support programs have emerged over the past century as important tools that institutions can employ to improve student outcomes. With the variety of approaches used, a common language is needed to discuss why and how programs relate to institutional goals and relate to student outcomes. In this article, we present and discuss the College Transition and Support Program Typology as a way of understanding how programs are simi…
Ensuring Success Among First-Generation, Low-Income, and Underserved Minority Students: Developing a Unified Community of Support
Recent research has demonstrated the value of comprehensive, integrated programs that combine and align several interventions to create a seamless learning environment for undergraduate students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). While there is emerging evidence of the value of these integrated programs for student success, there is little understanding of exactly how and why they are effective. This study of integrated …
Career Self-Efficacy: A Mixed-Methods Study of an Underexplored Research Area for First-Generation, Low-Income, and Underrepresented College Students in a Comprehensive College Transition Program
This mixed-methods study explored whether and how participation in a comprehensive college transition program serving low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students is linked to the development of career self-efficacy in light of the latter's link to persistence and college completion. Findings suggest that program participation is linked to career self-efficacy, and program participants report significantly higher levels of…
The Gig Academy: Mapping Labor in the Neoliberal University
Communities of Transformation: Creating Changes to Deeply Entrenched Issues
The purpose of this article is to describe a new variation of communities of practice: communities of transformation. We define communities of transformation as communities that create and foster innovative spaces that envision a new future. This article is based on research examining four undergraduate STEM faculty communities of practice designed to engage faculty in STEM reform work. It is informed by the communities of practice, professional …
Sustaining Communities of Practice Focused on STEM Reform
The purpose of this article is to describe the strategies that four undergraduate faculty science, technology, engineering, and mathematics reform communities of practice use to sustain themselves to scale up reforms in higher education. The study was informed by literature on communities of practice and analyzed data gathered through document analysis, interviews, and observations. The resulting sustainability model for these communities emphasi…
Transformational Elite Interviews: Principles and Problems
The purpose of this article is to relate feminist and narrative traditions with the elite interviewing method, an important missing link. The author describes the evolution of the elite interviewing tradition and reviews feminist interviewing and narrative inquiry as points of departure for rethinking this methodology. In the last section of the article, the author presents a set of principles for conducting transformational elite interviews and …
Beyond the “National Container”: Addressing Methodological Nationalism in Higher Education Research
This essay argues that there is a need for higher education researchers to become aware of methodological nationalism (MN) and take steps to reframe their scholarship in new ways. It illuminates two characteristics of MN prevalent in higher education research and suggests that although a few researchers have attempted to move beyond MN in the higher education globalization literature, most remain encapsulated in a view of nation-state equates soc…
The Effect of Institutional Culture on Change Strategies in Higher Education: Universal Principles or Culturally Responsive Concepts
This study examines the impact of institutional culture on the change process in colleges and universities. Using an ethnographic approach and two-tiered cultural framework, it investigates comprehensive change at six institutions. Results suggest that campuses should conduct audits of their institutional culture before engaging in the change process
The Dynamic Tensions of Service Learning in Higher Education: A Philosophical Perspective
Adrianna Kezar, Robert A. Rhoads, The Dynamic Tensions of Service Learning in Higher Education: A Philosophical Perspective, The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 72, No. 2, Special Issue: The Social Role of Higher Education (Mar. - Apr., 2001), pp. 148-171
Understanding Leadership Strategies for Addressing the Politics of Diversity
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrianna KezarAdrianna Kezar is Associate Professor of Higher Education at University of Southern California. Her work focuses on equity and diversity, institutional change, and leadership
Everyday people making a difference on college campuses: The Tempered Grassroots Leadership Tactics of Faculty and Staff
This article describes a study of the tactics used by faculty and staff grassroots leaders at colleges and universities to create important changes that increase the capacity for leadership. The study identifies how academic and administrative staff, as employees within an academic culture, have access to grassroots leadership tactics that honor the norms, values and mission of the academy, while simultaneously challenging its enacted practices. …
Understanding Non-Tenure Track Faculty: New Assumptions and Theories for Conceptualizing Behavior
This article examines the underlying assumptions brought to bear on studies of non-tenure track faculty. The authors examine the deficit views that characterize non-tenure track as other than professional. Furthermore, they explore and challenge theories brought to bear to currently understand this population and suggest other theories that may better explain research outcomes. Finally, they note the importance of grounded theories that develop o…
Bottom-Up/Top-Down Leadership: Contradiction or Hidden Phenomenon
The study advances higher education leadership and change scholarship by examining a mostly unexplored area—the convergence between grassroots leadership with top-down leadership. The study is framed by two theories: tempered radicals framework and distributed leadership. Three common example of convergence are described as well as strategies for successful convergence and common challenges experienced by bottom-up leaders
Redesigning for Collaboration in Learning Initiatives: An Examination of Four Highly Collaborative Campuses
Much has been written about the barriers to collaborative work, but little research has been conducted on how to foster collaboration within higher education. This article presents the results of a case study of four campuses that have organized to enable collaboration. The study builds on earlier literature from the corporate sector using a model developed by Mohrman, Cohen, and Mohrman (1995). The main finding is the development of a model that…
Meeting Today's Governance Challenges: A Synthesis of the Literature and Examination of a Future Agenda for Scholarship
(2004). Meeting Today's Governance Challenges. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 75, No. 4, pp. 371-399
Key Strategies for Making New Institutional Sense: Ingredients to Higher Education Transformation
Pluralistic Leadership: Incorporating Diverse Voices
Various studies have illustrated the inability of hierarchical models (i.e., chain of command, top-level decision making, control, etc.) of leadership for meeting the challenges facing higher education institutions (Bensimon & Neumann, 1993). Challenges, such as cost containment, accountability to the public, globalization, integrating technology, and measuring of student outcomes, require more participatory forms of leadership than have existed …
Institutionalizing Equitable Policies and Practices for Contingent Faculty
This study is a qualitative inquiry into the institutionalization of equitable policies for non-tenure-track faculty. Through the theoretical framework of institutionalization, we examine factors and strategies forwarding various policies and practices and the challenges that arise. The results highlight themes throughout the stages of mobilization, implementation, and institutionalization
Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development
Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development." The Journal of Higher Education, 81(5), pp. 670–671
Consequences of Radical Change in Governance: A Grounded Theory Approach
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrianna KezarAdrianna Kezar is Associate Professor in the Rossier School of Education at University of Southern California, where she researches leadership, change, diversity, and governance
The Delphi technique: An untapped approach of participatory research
In this article, we describe ways that the Delphi technique can be extended from its more traditional approaches and processes in order to make it a tool for scholars using participatory methods. This innovative proposed approach is called the change-oriented Delphi. We describe this innovative approach using an example from our own work to create solutions to the growth of non-tenure-track faculty in higher education institutions, which is negat…
Departmental Cultures and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: Willingness, Capacity, and Opportunity to Perform at Four-Year Institutions
This article reports on a case study of 25 departments comparing those that have put policies and practices in place to support non-tenure-track faculty to those that have not to determine whether this impacts faculty willingness, capacity, and opportunity to perform. Four departmental cultures emerged related to differential outcomes
Grassroots leadership: Encounters with power dynamics and oppression
This article focuses on the nature of power dynamics that faculty and staff grassroots leaders encounter as they attempt to create change. I identified five distinctive types of power dynamics – oppression, silencing, controlling, inertia, and micro‐aggressions from the most overt to more subtle and covert forms. Staff experience multiple forms of power dynamics that are extremely difficult to overcome; faculty experience less intense forms of po…
Communities of Transformation: Creating Changes to Deeply Entrenched Issues
The purpose of this article is to describe a new variation of communities of practice: communities of transformation. We define communities of transformation as communities that create and foster innovative spaces that envision a new future. This article is based on research examining four undergraduate STEM faculty communities of practice designed to engage faculty in STEM reform work. It is informed by the communities of practice, professional …
Rethinking Public Higher Education Governing Boards Performance: Results of a National Study of Governing Boards in the United States
This study examines performance among public higher education boards, describing the results from a national study. The research questions that framed the study were: What are the elements of high performance/effectiveness in public higher education governing boards? How does performance among public higher education boards compare to the research on effectiveness among private high education boards, non profit, and corporate boards? After a revi…
Ensuring Success Among First-Generation, Low-Income, and Underserved Minority Students: Developing a Unified Community of Support
Recent research has demonstrated the value of comprehensive, integrated programs that combine and align several interventions to create a seamless learning environment for undergraduate students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). While there is emerging evidence of the value of these integrated programs for student success, there is little understanding of exactly how and why they are effective. This study of integrated …
Organizational Culture and Its Impact on Partnering Between Community Agencies and Postsecondary Institutions to Help Low-Income Students Attend College
Given the importance of postsecondary institutions partnering with community agencies and groups to meet a variety of essential goals such as access and success of students, this study investigated one such partnership with the aim of attempting to understand the experience of community-led partnerships and the role of culture in partnerships between community agencies and postsecondary institutions. Although the collaboration literature often as…
Investigating Organizational Fit in a Participatory Leadership Environment
This paper examines why colleges and universities will continue to confront organizational fit problems even as they move to more participatory leadership environments. The results of a case study investigating an institution that had adopted servant leadership are presented, focusing on four main themes: (1) emergence of a singular leadership approach; (2) assimilation of a 'participatory' leadership style; (3) coercing people to fit; and (4) la…
Shared equity leadership: Working collectively to change campus cultures
Scaling Culture Change through Institutional Logics: A Look at the American Association of Universities (AAU) STEM Initiative
Little research examines scaled culture change attempted across a network of institutions moving toward more enterprise-level changes. This study attempts to fill that gap by studying the American Association of Universities (AAU) Undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Initiative and its attempt to scale culture change related to improving STEM teaching across the entire AAU network. The findings show that culture …
Pluralistic Leadership: Incorporating Diverse Voices
Various studies have illustrated the inability of hierarchical models (i.e., chain of command, top-level decision making, control, etc.) of leadership for meeting the challenges facing higher education institutions (Bensimon & Neumann, 1993). Challenges, such as cost containment, accountability to the public, globalization, integrating technology, and measuring of student outcomes, require more participatory forms of leadership than have existed …
Investigating Organizational Fit in a Participatory Leadership Environment
This paper examines why colleges and universities will continue to confront organizational fit problems even as they move to more participatory leadership environments. The results of a case study investigating an institution that had adopted servant leadership are presented, focusing on four main themes: (1) emergence of a singular leadership approach; (2) assimilation of a 'participatory' leadership style; (3) coercing people to fit; and (4) la…
The Dynamic Tensions of Service Learning in Higher Education: A Philosophical Perspective
Adrianna Kezar, Robert A. Rhoads, The Dynamic Tensions of Service Learning in Higher Education: A Philosophical Perspective, The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 72, No. 2, Special Issue: The Social Role of Higher Education (Mar. - Apr., 2001), pp. 148-171
The Effect of Institutional Culture on Change Strategies in Higher Education: Universal Principles or Culturally Responsive Concepts
This study examines the impact of institutional culture on the change process in colleges and universities. Using an ethnographic approach and two-tiered cultural framework, it investigates comprehensive change at six institutions. Results suggest that campuses should conduct audits of their institutional culture before engaging in the change process
Key Strategies for Making New Institutional Sense: Ingredients to Higher Education Transformation
Transformational Elite Interviews: Principles and Problems
The purpose of this article is to relate feminist and narrative traditions with the elite interviewing method, an important missing link. The author describes the evolution of the elite interviewing tradition and reviews feminist interviewing and narrative inquiry as points of departure for rethinking this methodology. In the last section of the article, the author presents a set of principles for conducting transformational elite interviews and …
Wrestling with Philosophy: Improving Scholarship in Higher Education
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrianna KezarAdrianna Kezar is associate professor, University of Southern California
Meeting Today's Governance Challenges: A Synthesis of the Literature and Examination of a Future Agenda for Scholarship
(2004). Meeting Today's Governance Challenges. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 75, No. 4, pp. 371-399
Consequences of Radical Change in Governance: A Grounded Theory Approach
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrianna KezarAdrianna Kezar is Associate Professor in the Rossier School of Education at University of Southern California, where she researches leadership, change, diversity, and governance
Rethinking the "L" word in higher education: The revolution in research on leadership
Executive Summary. Foreword. Preface. The Revolution in Leadership. The Continued Need for Leadership in a Changed Context. Organization of the Book. Key Terms and Theories. Challenges and Missed Opportunities in the Study of Leadership in Higher Education. New Directions in Higher Education Leadership. Contributions of This Book. A World Apart: New Paradigms of Leadership. Positivist Paradigm. Social Constructivism Paradigm. Critical Paradigm. P…
Rethinking Public Higher Education Governing Boards Performance: Results of a National Study of Governing Boards in the United States
This study examines performance among public higher education boards, describing the results from a national study. The research questions that framed the study were: What are the elements of high performance/effectiveness in public higher education governing boards? How does performance among public higher education boards compare to the research on effectiveness among private high education boards, non profit, and corporate boards? After a revi…
Redesigning for Collaboration in Learning Initiatives: An Examination of Four Highly Collaborative Campuses
Much has been written about the barriers to collaborative work, but little research has been conducted on how to foster collaboration within higher education. This article presents the results of a case study of four campuses that have organized to enable collaboration. The study builds on earlier literature from the corporate sector using a model developed by Mohrman, Cohen, and Mohrman (1995). The main finding is the development of a model that…
The Research University Presidency in the Late 20th Century: A Life Cycle/Case History Approach
Examining Organizational Contextual Features That Affect Implementation of Equity Initiatives
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrianna KezarAdrianna Kezar is an associate professor at University of Southern California. William J. Glenn is an assistant professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Jaime Lester is an assistant professor at Old Dominion University. Jonathan Nakamoto is a doctoral student at University of Southern California.William J. GlennAdrianna Kezar is an associate professor at University …
Universities in the Marketplace, Academic Capitalism, Remaking the American University: Market Smart and Mission Centered
Reviewed by: Universities in the Marketplace, and: Academic Capitalism, and: Remaking the American University: Market Smart and Mission Centered Adrianna Kezar Universities in the Marketplace, by Derek Bok. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. Academic Capitalism, by Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. Remaking the American University: Market Smart and Mission Centered, by Robert Zemsk…
Understanding Leadership Strategies for Addressing the Politics of Diversity
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrianna KezarAdrianna Kezar is Associate Professor of Higher Education at University of Southern California. Her work focuses on equity and diversity, institutional change, and leadership
Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development
Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development." The Journal of Higher Education, 81(5), pp. 670–671
Grassroots leadership: Encounters with power dynamics and oppression
This article focuses on the nature of power dynamics that faculty and staff grassroots leaders encounter as they attempt to create change. I identified five distinctive types of power dynamics – oppression, silencing, controlling, inertia, and micro‐aggressions from the most overt to more subtle and covert forms. Staff experience multiple forms of power dynamics that are extremely difficult to overcome; faculty experience less intense forms of po…
Organizational Culture and Its Impact on Partnering Between Community Agencies and Postsecondary Institutions to Help Low-Income Students Attend College
Given the importance of postsecondary institutions partnering with community agencies and groups to meet a variety of essential goals such as access and success of students, this study investigated one such partnership with the aim of attempting to understand the experience of community-led partnerships and the role of culture in partnerships between community agencies and postsecondary institutions. Although the collaboration literature often as…
Everyday people making a difference on college campuses: The Tempered Grassroots Leadership Tactics of Faculty and Staff
This article describes a study of the tactics used by faculty and staff grassroots leaders at colleges and universities to create important changes that increase the capacity for leadership. The study identifies how academic and administrative staff, as employees within an academic culture, have access to grassroots leadership tactics that honor the norms, values and mission of the academy, while simultaneously challenging its enacted practices. …
Understanding Non-Tenure Track Faculty: New Assumptions and Theories for Conceptualizing Behavior
This article examines the underlying assumptions brought to bear on studies of non-tenure track faculty. The authors examine the deficit views that characterize non-tenure track as other than professional. Furthermore, they explore and challenge theories brought to bear to currently understand this population and suggest other theories that may better explain research outcomes. Finally, they note the importance of grounded theories that develop o…
Embracing Non-Tenure Track Faculty
Embracing non-tenure track faculty: Changing Campuses for the New Faculty Majority
"The nature of the higher education faculty workforce has radically and fundamentally changed from primarily full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty to contingent faculty. Regardless of full or part-time appointments, contingent faculty share a common status: short-tem contracts, lack of job security, lack of a professional career track, and limited support on campus. We know little about efforts to support contingent faculty beyond broad, rel…
Bottom-Up/Top-Down Leadership: Contradiction or Hidden Phenomenon
The study advances higher education leadership and change scholarship by examining a mostly unexplored area—the convergence between grassroots leadership with top-down leadership. The study is framed by two theories: tempered radicals framework and distributed leadership. Three common example of convergence are described as well as strategies for successful convergence and common challenges experienced by bottom-up leaders
Beyond the “National Container”: Addressing Methodological Nationalism in Higher Education Research
This essay argues that there is a need for higher education researchers to become aware of methodological nationalism (MN) and take steps to reframe their scholarship in new ways. It illuminates two characteristics of MN prevalent in higher education research and suggests that although a few researchers have attempted to move beyond MN in the higher education globalization literature, most remain encapsulated in a view of nation-state equates soc…
Political science (47 works) · Sociology (42 works) · Public relations (33 works) · Higher education (28 works) · Psychology (28 works) · Higher Education Governance and Development (22 works) · Pedagogy (19 works) · Computer Science (18 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (17 works) · Law (16 works)