Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF STUDENT AFFAIRS
Philosophy of Student Affairs Mark Phillip Hao California State University, Fullerton
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PHILOSOPHY OF STUDEND AFFAIRS
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Last year, my philosophy heavily placed the responsibility of college students’ development on the higher education institution, but I did not explicitly include student affairs educators’ role nor the students’ role in that development.. I had stated, “I believe institutions of higher education should develop students holistically by promoting transformative learning and respond to changing demographics by fiercely advocating for diversity, social justice and equity to ensure all students have access to the resources, the support, and the knowledge to not only reach their educational goals, but also become global leaders who are self-aware, civically engaged, culturally competent, and critical thinkers.” It closely followed the recommendations of student affairs foundational documents (e.g. from The Student Personnel Point of View 1937 to Learning Reconsidered 2). Today, 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 (Keeling, 2006). 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
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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 (as cited in Harper, Berhanu, Davis III, & McGuire, 2015). This reframing also shift the responsibility of engaging college students on the institutions and its agents, including student affairs educators which is consistent with Rendon’s Validation theory (as cited in Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, & Renn, 2010) 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. Spring (2011) highlighted how marginalized groups, including students of color, have resisted against the dominant White, Anglo-Protestant culture. 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 as highlighted by Delgado and Stefancic (2012) 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. I’ve seen a difference in the
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way they carry themselves after sharing their experiences with me. 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, rather than challenging and empowering them to go into the office themselves to turn an application in or speak to someone. 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. For instance, I have organized a panel Asian American Pacific Islander DREAMers to not only speak about their unique experiences and challenge the model minority myth, but also challenge our students to think about privilege, and encourage our students to empathize, get involved and become agents of change. As Pope and Mueller (2011) note, being aware of our own privileges and biases is hard to do because “it raises feelings of guilt, shame, discomfort, resentment, and anxiety” (p. 347). 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 (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012).
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Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2012). Critical race theory: An introduction (2nd ed.). New York: New York University Press. Evans, N.J., Forney, D., Guido, F.M., Patton, L.D., & Renn, K. A. (2010). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice (2 ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Harper, S. R., Berhanu, J., Davis III, C. H. F., & McGuire, K. M. (2015). Engaging college men of color. In S. J. Quaye & S. R. Harper (Eds.), Student engagement in higher education: Theoretical perspectives and practical approaches for diverse populations (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. Keeling, R. P. (Ed.). (2006). Learning reconsidered 2: A campus-wide focus on the student experience. Washington, DC: American College Personnel Association, Association of College and University Housing Officers-International, Association of College Unions International, National Association of Campus Activities, National Academic Advising Association, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, & National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association. Retrieved from http://www.nirsa.org/docs/Discover/Publications/LearningReconsidered2.pdf Pope, R. L., & Mueller, J. A. (2011). Multicultural competence. In J. H Schuh, S. R. Jones, S. R. Harper, and Associates (Eds.), Student services: A handbook for the profession (5th ed., pp. 337-349). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Spring, J. (2011). The American school: A global context from the Puritans to the Obama era. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
