Undergraduate research is a way for students with minoritized racial identities to engage in a high-impact practice that increases their critical thinking, writing, and communication skills as well as their academic aspirations and retention (Bowman & Holmes, 2018). For racially minoritized students, the role of race is a critical component…

The number of college athletes in the US has gradually increased, and in the 2020-2021 academic year, a record high of approximately 480,000 athletes participated in NCAA sports (NCAA Research, 2024). Along with this growth, scholars have highlighted various factors influencing college athletes' career development (e.g., career maturity, athletic…

This article is part of a longitudinal study on academic sense of belonging (SB) in engineering, which uses narrative analysis to examine development of meaning-making systems (MMS). Featuring narratives of three students of color, findings show that over time, some students experienced subject-object shifts in their perceptions of SB, as well as…

Black men's experiences in education are often marked by isolation, imposter syndrome, and racial microaggressions. This qualitative case study, guided by the five enactments of Cross and Fhagen Smith's (2001) model of Black identity development, explored the experiences of 20 Black men doctoral students as they navigated and continually redefined…

To mark ACPA's 100th anniversary, this paper will review what we currently know about the impact of one of the most consequential technologies for this generation of college students: social media. Social media have had significant effects on the lives of college students today and will continue to shape college student life going forward.

Despite its presence on many colleges and universities and substantial financial investment in higher education, very little research has explored whether and how participation in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) shapes college students' experiences and development. Using data from interviews with 20 cadets in one U.S. Army ROTC…

Early college high schools (ECHSs), which combine high school with the first two years of college, have grown in popularity nationwide. Research suggests ECHS participation has positive impacts on college enrollment and completion, but little is known about how ECHS graduates experience university life. Using a framework of college belonging and…

We describe relationships among epistemological, interpersonal, and intrapersonal development in Chinese college students from the perspective of self-authorship theory. The themes that emerged from interviews with 13 junior or senior students offer insights into unique aspects of self-authorship development in the Chinese higher education context…

This article describes through the lens of self-authorship development the meaning-making processes of South African postgraduate psychology students who are expected to undergo significant growth as they journey towards becoming mental health professionals. Reflective writing tasks and individual interviews of 4 postgraduate students were…

This longitudinal study builds on an earlier study of college men's gender identity development (Edwards & Jones, 2009). The findings from the 5- and 10-year follow-up interviews affirm the grounded theory of the original study. The longitudinal aspects of the study also illuminate how men navigated their gender performance and the different…

The study of student development has long been considered a cornerstone of the higher education and student affairs (HESA) profession. However, perspectives on what constitutes student development have evolved as scholars continuously embrace more critical frameworks to implicate systems of power and oppression--what scholars have termed the third…

Following Jones and Stewart's (2016) organization of student development scholarship into three waves, researchers have advanced understandings of learning and development using critical and poststructural frameworks. Though many scholars understand what scholarship fits under this third wave, less guidance is available to shape studies of…

Collegiate environments that aim to support equitable learning are rarely conceptualized and studied in a manner that is explicitly relational and structural, leaving room for theorizing about how social constructions of meaning and power operate on campus. We apply social network theory and methods to campus ecological frameworks to develop a…

The perspectives undergirding student development theory have evolved over time, yet few scholars have examined how various paradigms influence a specific developmental theory. In this literature review, I explored how constructivism, social constructionism, critical paradigms, and critical constructivism have shaped the study of self-authorship.…

In this qualitative study, the spiritual experiences and leadership of 15 Black collegiate men enrolled at higher education institutions were examined. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how Black men student leaders make meaning of spirituality. The first finding described how Black men students make meaning of…