Penny A. Pasque is professor in Educational Studies in the College of Education and Human Ecology. In addition, she is director of the QualLab research center and editor of The Review of Higher Education, one of the leading research journals in the field. She coordinates the Qualitative Inquiry in Education (QIE) certificate and ESQUAL courses for the department. Pasque is a Senior Scholar Diplomate (awarded in 2024) and Diamond Honoree (class of 2011) by the American College Personnel Association.
Pasque is one of the leading qualitative researchers in the US focusing on research design congruence and quality. She uses qualitative methodologies & methods in her research designs, studies (post)qualitative methodologies & methods, and teaches scholars about the various qualitative approaches at their disposal for research that works toward social justice and equity. Her work on Critical Advocacy Inquiry (with Carducci) is becoming an important new contribution that connects both critical and transformative/participatory paradigmatic approaches.
Pasque and her QualLab research center were recently awarded a Department of Defense Grant with ophthalmology scholars across the US. In addition, she collaborates (with Kulp, College of Ophthalmology) as co-PI on a national research project funded from President’s Research Excellence (PRE) Accelerator Award, a Chronic Brain Injury (CBI) program grant, and internal grants from the College of Optometry at Ohio State. In addition, she has received Drake Institute Research & Implementation Grants I & II. Further, Pasque serves/served as a qualitative expert on NSF and NIH grants, was invited to a visioning meeting with the Spencer Foundation, and has consulted with US legislators and foundations on qualitative and actionable research. She collaborates with QualLab research center team, including post-docs and graduate research associates (a great team!)
Further, Pasque focuses on “American Higher Education, Leadership and Policy: Critical Issues and the Public Good.” In other words, are public institutions as organizations actually doing the “public” any “good”; and the ways in which 1) minoritized people, 2) community partners, and/or 3) non-dominant perspectives are being silenced or relegated to the margins in national policy conversations. This grant-funded research has been used in US policy change in the United States (i.e., with DACA during the Obama Administration, national gathering of graduate school deans), Poland, and Indonesia.
Pasque’s research has appeared in over 100 journal articles and books, including in Review of Educational Research, The Journal of Higher Education, Qualitative Inquiry, The Review of Higher Education, Peabody Journal of Education, Diversity in Higher Education, Cultural Studies<->Critical Methodologies, among others. Her books include Critical Qualitative Research & Social Justice: Key Concepts, Advancing Qualitative Inquiry toward Methodological Inclusion (with McMillian), Advancing Culturally Responsive Research & Researchers (with alexander), Qualitative Inquiry in Higher Education Organization and Policy Research (with Lechuca, Routledge), Qualitative Inquiry for Equity in Higher Education: Methodological Innovations, Implications, and Interventions (with Carducci, Kuntz & Gildersleeve, Jossey-Bass), Critical Qualitative Inquiry: Foundations and Futures (with Cannella & Salazar Pérez, Left Coast Press), American Higher Education Leadership and Policy: Critical Issues and the Public Good (Palgrave Macmillan), Empowering Women in Higher Education and Student Affairs (with Nicholson, Stylus), Transforming Understandings of Diversity in Higher Education (with Ortega, Burkhardt, & Ting, Stylus) and Engaged Research and Practice (with Overton & Burkhardt, Stylus). See her “Amazon Book Author Page” for more details. Some of her latest books and journal article links are on this publication website.
Pasque also served as editor for the “Critical & Social Justice” section of the upcoming Routledge Encyclopedia, which is now being turned into a Key Concepts book. She published the first chapter “Why Critical Research? Why Now?” and reviewed the first section of Handbook of Critical Education Research Theory: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Emerging Approaches (Young & Diem, eds.), a co-PI on an epistemic injustice research project & publication (with Leslie Gonzales, Arizona State University; and graduate students); and collaborating with former students on the RED-DIRT Indigenous Research project (Dr. Corey Still, Breanna Faris & Monty Begaye).
Previously, Pasque served as Department Head and Professor at NC State University. She was also the Brian E. & Sandra O’Brien Endowed Professor and named Researcher of the Year while at the University of Oklahoma.
Additional Background on Dr. Pasque:
Dr. Pasque spent time at Eastern Michigan University (BS), Syracuse University (MS), and at Cornell University as hall director of the Just About Music Program House, then director of Faculty Programs, while taking graduate courses in Women’s Studies and Anthropology. Pasque moved to the University of Michigan where she co-founded the Michigan Community Scholars Program, a living-learning program focused on social identity, community service, and leadership, that is still in existence. At University of Michigan, she left her full time positions to start her PhD full time as a Graduate Assistant for the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good in CSHPE (Burkhardt), and the InterGroup Dialogue Program in LSA (Maxwell & Thompson), while moonlighting on a research project in Sociology (Chesler & Young). She had a stellar dissertation team of Drs. Ed St. John & Lesley Rex (co-chairs), John Burkhardt, Mark Chesler & Patricia Gurin (she still sends them updates AND works hard to pay their generosity forward!)