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Student Affairs |\n| --- | --- |\n\nEzekiel Kimball, University of Massachusetts Amherst  \nAbstract  \nThis paper utilizes a critical post-pragmatist epistemological lens in tandem with an extended case analysis to explore how student affairs professionals process truth claims related to student experience. Findings from the study, which include the limited usage of formal theory and the iterative reconstruction of informal theory, are used to demonstrate the utility of critical, theory-engaged methodology in educational research. Implications for future research and methodological decision-making are offered.  \nKeywords: post-pragmatism,formal theory, informal theory, theory-engaged methodology  \nCritical scholars of education hold that knowledge cannot be neutral. Truth claims always have normative implications, and those normative implications are always associated with larger economic, political, and cultural forces. Critical scholars of education have systematically demonstrated far-ranging and deleterious effects on students and teachers at all levels of the educational pipeline; however, no systematic study of how higher education professionals in non-faculty roles experience the politics of knowledge construction has yet been conducted. In an attempt to rectify this issue, this paper reports the results of compressed ethnography focused on the theory usage of student affairs professionals (hereafter: practitioners)—specifically academic advisors and residence life coordinators—within higher education. It then uses these empirical findings as a catalyst to explore the potential for critical, theory-engaged methodologies in educational research.  \nThe student affairs profession is a particularly revealing subject for this sort of undertaking. From the date of its founding, the student affairs profession has consistently been asked to justify the theoretical grounding for its work. This work is typically conducted in a prescriptive, ostensive fashion wherein leading experts designate some forms of knowledge as legitimate and others as illegitimate (e.g., Evans & Guido, 2012) . Most often, the answer has been that knowledge produced according to standard social scientific conventions is legitimate while all other knowledge is not. As Reason and Kimball (2012) have noted, however, practitioners frequently encounter situations that go beyond the bounds oftheir training and require the use of post-formal reasoning, which has led some (e.g., Love, 2012) to conclude that only highly localized knowledge is likely to be useful. As a result, studies of the student affairs profession are enhanced through careful attention to and application of theory-engaged methodologies.  \nThe relative legitimacy or illegitimacy of disparate knowledge bases also invites a critical approach. A critical approach sheds light on the politics of knowledge production by focusing on  \nwhat truth claims practitioners actually value in practice and how those truth claims were produced. To that end, I utilize a critical post-pragmatist epistemology (CPPE; Rorty, 1990; 1999) asthe interpretive lens with which to understand findings arising from an extended case analysis (ECA: Burawoy, 1991; 1998) . Both approaches reframe well-established modes of inquiry—American pragmatism and ethnography respectively—through the lens of critical theory. In this paper, I demonstrate the utility of both CPPE and ECA using empirical results originating from a study that addressed the following research question: What truth claims do practitioners employ in constructing their understanding of student experience?  \nThe empirical results emerging from this work serve to highlight the potential for the application of critical, theory-engaged methodologies in educational research. Specifically, CPPE served as a useful lens for examining the production, use, and revision ","cbCailZtLJEOP3Ai","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailZtLJEOP3Ai","pdf",427710,"English","# Abstract\n# Critical post-pragmatist epistemology\n## Assumptions about experience and understanding\n# Findings and implications","[{\"question\":\"What methodological approach does the paper use to study student affairs practitioners?\",\"answer\":\"It combines a critical post-pragmatist epistemological lens with an extended case analysis to examine how practitioners process truth claims related to student experience.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the study find about practitioners’ use of theory?\",\"answer\":\"The findings indicate limited usage of formal theory alongside an iterative reconstruction of informal theory in practice.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is theory-engaged methodology considered valuable in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"The paper argues that engaging critical theory helps illuminate how truth claims are produced and valued in practice, supporting more robust educational research and methodological choices.\"}]","Reconciling the Knowledge of Scholars & Practitioners: An Extended Case Analysis of the Role of Theory in Student Affairs | PDF",1792089415,48]