Contested Issues in Student Affairs - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1579225845 ISBN 13: 9781579225841

Publisher: Routledge, 2011

Synopsis

What is your level of understanding of the many moral, ideological, and political issues that student affairs educators regularly encounter? What is your personal responsibility to addressing these issues? What are the rationales behind your decisions? What are the theoretical perspectives you might choose and why? How do your responses compare with those of colleagues?

Contested Issues in Student Affairs augments traditional introductory handbooks that focus on functional areas (e.g., residence life, career services) and organizational issues. It fills a void by addressing the social, educational and moral concepts and concerns of student affairs work that transcend content areas and administrative units, such as the tensions between theory and practice, academic affairs and student affairs, risk taking and failure; and such as issues of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and spirituality. It places learning and social justice at the epicenter of student affairs practice.

The book addresses these issues by asking 24 critical and contentious questions that go to the heart of contemporary educational practice. Intended equally for future student affairs educators in graduate preparation programs, and as reading for professional development workshops, it is designed to stimulate reflection and prompt readers to clarify their own thinking and practice as they confront the complexities of higher education.

Student affairs faculty, administrators, and graduate students here situate these 24 questions historically in the professional literature, present background information and context, define key terms, summarize the diverse ideological and theoretical responses to the questions, make explicit their own perspectives and responses, discuss their political implications, and set them in the context of the changing nature of student affairs work.

Each chapter is followed by a response that offers additional perspectives and complications, reminding readers of the ambiguity and complexity of many situations.

Each chapter concludes with a brief annotated bibliography of seminal works that offer additional information on the topic, as well as with a URL to a moderated blog site that encourages further conversation on each topic and allows readers to teach and learn from each other, and interact with colleagues beyond their immediate campus. The website invites readers to post blogs, respond to each other, and upload relevant resources. The book aims to serve as a conversation starter to engage professionals in on-going dialogue about these complex and enduring challenges.

Short Contents
The 24 questions are organized into four units.
I. The Philosophical Foundations of Student Affairs in Higher Education explores the implications and complications of student affair educators placing learning at the epicenter of their professional work.
II. The Challenges of Promoting Learning and Development explores the challenges associated with learning-centered practice.
III. Achieving Inclusive and Equitable Learning Environments addresses crafting learning environments that include students whose needs are often labeled “special,” or students and/or student subcultures that are often marginalized and encouraged to adapt to normalizing expectations.
IV. Organizing Student Affairs Practice for Learning and Social Justice addresses the organizational and professional implications of placing learning and social justice at the epicenter of student affairs practice.

About this title

Book Description

·Designed to stimulate reflection and discussion about critical and often contentious issues that confront today’s student affairs professionals
·Written by leaders in the field
·Related blog site enables readers to teach and learn from each other, and interact with colleagues beyond their immediate campus
What is your level of understanding of the many moral, ideological, and political issues that student affairs educators regularly encounter? What is your personal responsibility to addressing these issues? What are the rationales behind your decisions? What are the theoretical perspectives you might choose and why? How do your responses compare with those of colleagues?
This book augments traditional introductory handbooks that focus on functional areas (e.g., residence life, career services) and organizational issues in student affairs. It fills a void by addressing the social, educational and moral concepts and concerns of student affairs work that transcend content areas and administrative units, such as the tensions between theory and practice, academic affairs and student affairs, risk taking and failure; and such as issues of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and spirituality. It places learning and social justice at the epicenter of student affairs practice.
The book addresses these issues by asking 24 critical and contentious questions that go to the heart of contemporary educational practice. The contributors – student affairs faculty, administrators, and graduate students – situate these 24 questions historically in the professional literature, present background information and context, define key terms, summarize the diverse ideological and theoretical approaches to the questions, make explicit their own perspectives, discuss their political implications, and set them in the context of the changing nature of student affairs work.
Each chapter is followed by a response that offers additional perspectives and complications, reminding re

About the Author

Peter M. Magolda was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University. He focused his scholarship on ethnographic studies of college students, critical issues in qualitative research, and program evaluation. He is author of The Lives of Campus Custodians and co-author of Contested Issues in Student Affairs, Contested Issues in Troubled Times, and It’s All About Jesus!: Faith as an Oppositional Collegiate Subculture, and has served on the editorial boards of Research in Higher Education and the Journal of Educational Research. He was an ACPA Senior Scholar inductee, and in 2013 received the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Mentoring Award. He also received Miami University’s Richard Delp Outstanding Faculty Member award, as well Alumni Award from The Ohio State University and Indiana University.

We deeply mourn the loss of author, teacher, and friend Peter M. Magolda.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1579225845
• ISBN 13: 9781579225841
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 522
• Editor: Magolda Peter M., Magolda Marcia B. Baxter