When students enter higher education, they not only start learning and studying but begin a journey of becoming someone new in relation to themselves and to society. Scholarly research has increasingly emphasised this transformative element of higher education yet, to date, the role of assessment has received little attention in the processes of…

While leader identity development (LID) and meaning making are interwoven and essential for student development, little research has explicitly explored their intersection. In this article, we briefly summarize the work of two research projects that explored the intersection of LID and meaning making, including a review of the findings that…

This qualitative descriptive study examined the process of purpose development of nine (seven females, two males; M[subscript age] = 20.2, age range 18-21 years) college students who completed interviews in fall 2017 and spring 2019 at a private university. Across the two time points, participants engaged in an iterative process that led them to…

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…

Assessment of student learning is commonly understood as a seemingly objective measurement of learning outcomes. It is seen as fair that assessment targets students' abilities -- not their identities or personalities. This idea fails to acknowledge how assessment transforms its object, the students, often in unintended ways. While higher education…

This descriptive qualitative study identified variability patterns in students' self-authoring capacities during college. To do so, we developed a procedure for examining shifts in students' self-authorship positions between each of four years of college; these were identified through annual interviews with 131 students from six colleges or…

This study, based on the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), examined pathways to pluralism orientation among more than 5,700 students who attended 118 U.S. colleges and universities between 2015 and 2019. Grounded in Critical Religious Pluralism Theory (CRPT), the analysis elevated the role of identities…

The purpose of the current study was to explore the connection between generativity and mentoring. Specifically, ten college students who mentor shared stories illustrating the link they perceived between mentoring and generativity. A cross-case analysis was utilized to explore the data and connect the developmental/environmental factors of leader…

In discussing the functions of education Gert Biesta distinguishes qualification, socialisation and subjectification. In subjectification higher education facilitates the evolution of students as distinctive self-determining persons. This paper foregrounds and discusses 'student self-formation', a paradigm of subjectification with fecund…

This article examines various applications of the leadership identity development (LID) grounded theory and model and explores the process used to apply LID to the construction of collegiate student leadership development experiences. Featured programs include those that use LID as a design element of the program, but do not explicitly teach it;…

As university-based community engagement programs expand through curricular and cocurricular initiatives, it is important to understand and assess their impact in advancing a key mission of higher education--to nurture and develop engaged citizens with a well-honed sense of civic identity. A literature review revealed a gap in the…

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…

Students at the intersection of social, political, and economic struggles must often forge new paths to make college entrance possible, even as dominant social narratives predict their failure. Faculty and administration endeavor to engage this emerging majority population and devote valuable time and resources to support structures meant to…

This paper traces the trajectories of multiracial college student development theories through the three waves conceptualized by Jones and Stewart (2016) to inform future directions in critical mixed race scholarship and praxis. Within each wave, the author examines the utility and limitations of each paradigmatic perspective to construct their…

Though social comparison behaviors have been widely studied in both occupational and academic contexts, no empirical study has investigated how social comparison presents in counselor education programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between social comparison orientation, counseling self-efficacy, sources of…