Excellence at the Expense of Equity: A Study of Inclusive Excellence in Collegiate Honors Education

As a near-ubiquitous organizational feature of higher education, honors education constitutes a center of academic excellence that operates via exclusionary practices. Although collegiate honors education has gone largely unnoticed by researchers, many within the honors community have expressed growing concerns that have prompted calls to action and initiated efforts toward developing programs and colleges that meet the joint ideals of excellence and equity. This qualitative case study examines equity and excellence as competing goals within an honors college at a university committed to inclusive excellence. Findings illustrate the limits of inclusive excellence when conceived in ways that exclude.