Philosophy of Student Affairs

Term:

Fall 2015

Description:

Part of our assignment for the EDAD 568 fieldwork course was to discuss our current philosophy of student affairs and how it compared to our philosophy a year ago. It challenged us to reflect on how our knowledge and experiences as student affairs educators have shaped the development of our philosophy.

Learning Outcomes:

SWiBAT identify changes in their philosophy as student affairs educator.

SWiBAT synthesize knowledge gained from coursework with practical work as student affairs educator.

Assessment Rubric:

	Advanced	Competent	Basic	Needs Improvement
SLO #1	Able to identify 3 or more changes in their philosophy as student affairs educator and provided examples	Able to identify at least 2 changes in their philosophy as student affairs educator and provided examples	Able to identify at least one change in their philosophy as student affairs educator	Unable to identify changes in their philosophy as student affairs educator
SLO #2	Able to synthesize knowledge gained from course work with practical work by providing examples and explaining how it helped develop their philosophy	Able to synthesize knowledge gained from course work with practical work by providing examples	Able to synthesize knowledge gained from course work with practical work	Unable to synthesize knowledge gained from course work with practical work

Evidence:

Philosophy of Student Affairs Paper

Reflection:

I believe that as a student affairs educator, I have to work harder and more intentional in engaging students to see themselves and their experiences as central to their learning and development. Administrators, student affairs educators and faculty must work collaboratively with students in their learning and development by honoring their intersecting identities and experiences and integrating them to promote transformative learning. It stresses the importance of seeing academic and developmental outcomes as intertwined and taking into account the roles of the faculty, student affairs professionals, and students as educators. Integral to students’ learning and development is also factoring their families, friends, and communities that make up their sources of support and cultural wealth, shifting the way I saw and worked with students.

The first semester of my graduate assistantship in the Titan Dreamers Resource Center, I viewed student affairs educators as professionals so helped who addressed students’ needs and helping them receive the necessary services and resources to persist. I saw our students in a deficit lens and want to “save” them from challenges and barriers. I was working for them rather than working with them, ultimately contributing to their disempowerment and oppression.  Taking EDAD 522 College Students’ Characteristics and Cultures helped me pay greater attention to the importance of engaging the families of students of color. It was in this class and reading about Harper’s Anti-Deficit Achievement Framework that helped challenge commonly held beliefs about lack of preparation, academic underperformance, and disengagement of students of color, especially male students of color. It helped challenge me to look at what resources and opportunities (faculty, staff, family, friends, peers, and programs) are working for students that help them persist rather than just focusing on what is going wrong. It challenged me to look at the cultural wealth of our students and seeing their backgrounds and experiences as sources of their resilience and strength that help them navigate higher education despite challenges they face. This reframing also shift the responsibility of engaging college students on the institutions and its agents.

This shift in consciousness was also due to the courses the cohort took on diversity, access and equity, and student learning and development in summer session. Learning about the power of counterstories to fight oppression opened my eyes. I feel that having these counterstories are essential in instilling not only a sense of pride for our students, but also to help empower and value our students while navigating through college. It has changed the way I interact with our DREAMer students. I learned to ask not only about how I can help them but also inquire about their backgrounds and experiences. When a student is sharing their experiences, I feel a level of connection that is deeper. They feel that they matter. Now I allow them to look at all the options and give them the power to choose for themselves. In the past I felt compelled to tell them the best option and speak for them when emailing a colleague about a situation that the student is facing. I do acknowledge that there are times that students may need to be walked over to feel safe enough going into a space. I am now cognizant of the importance of readiness, challenge, and support in our students’ development and the theories that strengthen our work because of the course on student learning and development with Dr. Hoffman. Multicultural competence and social justice remains a very important factor in my work, but I have become even more intentional and committed to it.  I have learned that being sensitive to our students’ diverse experiences and backgrounds helps me gain insight on to how better serve and empower them. As much as I want our students to examine privilege and bias, I have also been more intentional in examining mine and allowing myself space to step back while interacting with students to try and prevent myself from prejudging our students. I think of oppression differently after taking the diversity, access, and equity course. It has made me more critical of myself and how I contribute to my own oppression and the oppression of others. I would give myself Competent for both SLOs.