Higher Education Graduate Programs Research Articles

Teaching Spirituality in Higher Education Graduate Programs

How has a profession centered on care become one struggling to sustain a core foundational principle – spiritual development of learners? This question provides critical reflection on teaching within higher education graduate programs. The authors use duoethnography to dialogue on what it means to develop a “pedagogy of spirituality” within their respective higher education graduate programs. Metaphysical and monastic philosophies provide the guiding and differing forces shaping our dialogue and pedagogical thoughts.

Professional Development and Moral Reasoning in Higher Education Graduate Programs

Aim/Purpose: This work examines the role of professional development in higher education graduate programs through the use of reflective teaching approaches. We discuss the relevance of a professional development framework in supporting the exploration of moral reasoning in addressing challenges in the higher education profession. Background: Shifts in demographics within college university environments has resulted in increased diversity among students facilitating the need for professional development experiences that involve moral reasoning and self-reflection as resources to increase cultural awareness. Methodology: Case study overviews of higher education courses focused on supporting the development of graduate students’ professional interest illustrate ways moral reasoning can be examined to facilitate self-awareness as a professional skill and competency. Four teaching strategies reflect how professional learning can be used to shape students’ experiences, knowledge of critical issues, and understanding of organizational development in higher education. Contribution: This paper contributes to the knowledge of professional development in higher education graduate programs and the experiences faculty and graduate students. Findings: Strategies discussed provide a basis for further research to examine the role of professional learning framework in developing effective pedagogical strategies that facilitate moral reasoning, social justice, democratic values, and diversity. Previous research on the experiences of graduate students has not explicitly discussed the proposed professional learning framework across graduate student experiences. Recommendations for Practitioners: Administrators responsible for managing higher education graduate programs may find this work useful for understanding how moral reasoning can be used as tool for teaching professional development in graduate programs. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers of professional development within graduate programs may find the use of moral reasoning helpful in understanding strategies that support facilitating discussions of critical issues related to cultural awareness. Impact on Society: Moral reasoning is an effective resource for building the professional insight and awareness needed for understanding multiple experiences in the workplace. Future Research: Additional research is needed to understand how moral reasoning could be used to support the professional development of higher education graduate students.

Four Critical Years: Effects of College on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge by Alexander W. Astin

Reviewed by: Four Critical Years: Effects of College on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge by Alexander W. Astin Nicholas A. Bowman Four Critical Years: Effects of College on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge Alexander W. Astin San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1977, 312 pages, $35.93 (softcover) This retrospective book review looks back at one of the most influential and ambitious books examining college student outcomes: Four Critical Years: Effects on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge (Astin, 1977). The book has a “sequel” that is perhaps better known today: What Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited (Astin, 1993). Four Critical Years stands out for its unique contribution at the time in which it was published. In this review, I will provide a summary of the book’s content, discuss its contribution and influence on subsequent research, describe how higher education literature has moved forward since that time, and conclude with whether this book should be assigned in today’s student affairs and higher education graduate programs. Before beginning this discussion, it is crucial to consider the technological context in which this book was written. Here are a few points of interest: • Alexander Astin had someone else type the book for him, perhaps because word processing programs (as we think of them today) were not widely available during the mid–1970s (Haigh, 2006). • Multilevel analyses appropriately examine both student-level and institutional-level predictors — were not developed until the late 1970s and 1980s (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). • The first version of SPSS was released less than 10 years before the publication of the book: it is not clear which software program was used, but SAS was not released until 1976, and Stata was released in 1985. The original version of SPSS used punchcards, while the 1975 version instead used “mainframes with a client terminal” (Stauber, 2018, para. 3). This mainframe probably filled a large room. • Computers that were released in 2016 had approximately 1 million times more computing power than those from 1976 (e.g., Roser, 2017). Thus, conducting numerous multiple regression analyses with thousands of participants and dozens of independent variables would have taken a very, very long time. SUMMARY OF BOOK CONTENT Astin describes the impressive scope of the book in the first chapter. Data were obtained from over 200,000 students at more than 300 institutions who completed the Freshman Survey from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) in 1966–1969 (or the survey’s predecessor in 1961). Depending upon the cohort, the follow-up surveys occurred during students’ first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or tenth year from the start of their undergraduate studies. Most analyses contained a small proportion of this large population that focused on a particular follow-up [End Page 245] year (many of the analyses examined change from the Freshman Survey to the senior year). Additional analyses were conducted separately by sex and academic ability (as measured via high school GPA or standardized test score), along with some subgroup analyses by race/ethnicity and age. Astin classified the various outcomes in this large-scale study as affective versus cognitive and as psychological versus behavioral. Several outcome variables were used for each combination of outcome type; for instance, affective psychological outcomes consisted of self-concept, values, attitudes, beliefs, drive for achievement, and satisfaction with college. The introductory chapter argues convincingly for the contribution of this study, especially given the rarity of multi-institutional and longitudinal samples in prior research. The next five chapters describe and interpret the results of the numerous analyses, organized by broad outcome category: attitudes, beliefs, and self-concept (chapter 2); patterns of behavior (chapter 3); competency and achievement, which includes college retention and graduation (chapter 4); career develop ment, including the movement from one major or field of study to another (chapter 5); and satisfaction with the college environ ment (chapter 6). Each chapter starts by describing the specific outcomes that fall into these broad categories. An item-level analysis explores whether each of these outcomes has increased or decreased over time, particularly from the first year to the senior year (and sometimes across various years). Astin then presents results from the stepwise regression analyses that were organized into three different blocks (or groups...

Envisioning New Forms of Praxis: Reflective Practice and Social Justice Education in a Higher Education Graduate Programs

Student affairs graduate programs tend to prepare individuals via theory but do not engage in dialogue thataddresses how to transfer that theory into practice. In many cases, social justice issues are neglected. Asstudent affairs scholars/practitioners and women, we find ourselves engaged in conversations withcolleagues about a shared concern: entry-level student affairs professionals are not adequately prepared tosurvive the political environment of higher education. In an effort to illuminate our understanding of thisdilemma, we focused on this shared concern with a deep interest in creating some type of actionable changewithin student affairs preparation programs. Our research indicates that understanding individual socialaction theories is intrinsic to building a community that supports diversity. Habermas (1990) speaks to thetheory of "communicative action," or a process of building understanding among groups of individuals.Habermas' concept of communicative action can serve as an analogy for both the instructor and the studentin a student affairs graduate classroom. In accordance with this analogy, the instructor and students areoriented toward discovering their own meaning, personally and as a group, while accessing theories that areapplicable in student affairs practice

Teaching Reconsidered: Exploring the Teaching Experiences of Student Affairs Professionals in the College Classroom

Aim/Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of student affairs professionals who teach in a variety of college classroom settings. Background Increasingly, student affairs professionals are serving in teaching roles inside the college classroom; yet, there are few empirical studies that explore that teaching role or the impacts of that teaching experience. Because there are so few studies, we know little of the impacts of these experiences on the individual, the institution, or students. Methodology This qualitative study explores the experiences of student affairs professionals who also teach in a variety of campus and classroom settings. The 12 participants from 11 different institutions ranged in years of service in the profession from six to 40 years. They taught an array of undergraduate and graduate courses including first-year experience and career courses, general education courses, and courses in higher education graduate programs. Participants share insights on how their training as student affairs professionals impacts them in their roles as college teachers. Findings The findings are categorized into two broad themes: the impacts of practice on teaching and the impacts of teaching on practice. Additionally, participants share how their teaching experiences enhanced their awareness of the academic culture of the academy, enriched their understanding of students, and improved collaborations across their campuses. Future Research Our research addresses the gap in the literature by providing a number of considerations on how formal teaching and student affairs practice have a recursive relationship. Future research might explore how teaching at the undergraduate level may differ from teaching at the graduate level. Future research, should explore in what, if any, ways the number of years teaching influences how professionals approach teaching. Future research on teaching might also explore the experiences of student affairs professionals who teach in discipline specific areas.

From Margin to Center: Rethinking the Cannon in Higher Education Graduate Programs

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the present special series is to move conversations about people we treat as “other” within our field from the margins of higher education as a field of study to the center. For this spe-cial series we invited established scholars within the field of higher education to illuminate issues confronting the field that are often left to the margins.

Teaching Ethics in Higher Education Using the Values – Issues – Action (VIA) Model

Ethics content within higher education graduate programs can help higher education students as emerging leaders become more thoughtful about the decision making process. The purpose of the present manuscript is to explore one vehicle through which current and future higher education leaders can actively contemplate their values and how their values influence their actions when faced with an ethical challenge. The Values – Issue – Action (VIA) Model for Ethical Decision Making is a tool for both classroom use and professional reflection through which one can reflect on their values (V) and how those values shape how they perceive issues (I), and in turn shape their actions (A). Implications for teaching, learning, and practice are discussed.

Best Practices in Higher Education Graduate Programs: Preparing the Next Generation of Intercollegiate Athletics Administrators

The commercialization of intercollegiate athletics since the turn of the 21st century has led to an increasingly prevalent view of college athletics as “Big-Time Sport” business enterprises [Bowen, W. G., & Levin, S. A. (2011). Reclaiming the game: College sports and educational values. Princeton, NJ: University Press; Croissant, J. L. (2001). Can this campus be bought? Commercial influence in unfamiliar places. Academe, 87(5), 44–48; Lapchick, R. E. (2006). New game plan for college sport. Westport: Praeger; Sperber, M. (2000). Beer and circus: How big-time college sports has crippled undergraduate education. New York, NY: Macmillan.]. While college athletics often are associated with this big-business mentality in the media, the placement of intercollegiate athletics is fundamentally a functional unit nested within higher education institutions. To this end, the 21st century has marked a significant shift in the preparation patterns of intercollegiate athletic practitioners with programs that take a more holistic approach with curricula that encompass knowledge of higher education systems. This manuscript examines the career preparation patterns and graduate school experiences of aspiring intercollegiate athletic practitioners. Framed from a constructivist approach, this presentation draws from Kolb's [(1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall] Experiential Learning Theory to understand what contemporary professionals who aspire to work in intercollegiate athletics value in graduate preparation programs. This pilot study draws on the voices and narratives of graduate students who are currently completing athletic administration training, nested within higher education programs. Implications and recommendations are provided to inform and enhance graduate level preparation programs.

Collaboration Between Student Affairs and Faculty on Student‐Related Research

AbstractThis chapter suggests how student affairs professionals and faculty members might collaborate in developing a research agenda for student affairs research. Also, the authors discuss how higher education graduate programs might assist student affairs staff with research activities.