Increasing Awareness of Advising as a ProfessionJoshua S. Smith

Loyola University MarylandBaltimore, MD, USA

Jssmith2@loyola.edu

Increasing Awareness of Advising Requires Internal and External Professional Considerations

To what extent are academic advisors and advising administrators : Concerned about defining advising as a profession?

Effectively communicating the purpose of academic advising in higher education?

Attuned to the debates on what it means to be a profession?

What’s in a Profession? According to Schaffer, Zalewski, and Leveille (2009):

Substantive body of knowledge supported by research

Theories that are unique or characteristic of academic advising

Terminal degree and agreed upon curriculum (M.A. or Ph.D.)

In My Presidential Address at the 2012 Annual NACADA Conference I Asked the Big Question,

“Are we there yet?” Appreciation for the history of academic advising within higher education

Very real changing dynamics in higher education Changes within academic advising

The Development of Academic Advising as a Field

Harvey Wall interview documenting the changes in academic advising since the 1950’s Provided by full-time faculty; characterized as rather parochial

Students were passive recipients of information of the course schedule

Little consideration of the “whys” of courses, or what are you here for, or connections of the course content to the respective over-arching major.

The Development of Academic Advising as a Field - Continued

Grites and Gordon (2009) The History of NACADA: An Amazing Journey First meeting in Burlington, Vermont 1977

Decision to create by-laws; revised a few times in some major ways

Creation of an organizational structure

NACADA changed with the growth and diversity of student body and institutional types.

The Development of Academic Advising as a Field - Continued

Grites and Gordon (2009) The History of NACADA: An Amazing Journey - Continued Adopted the Carnegie classifications of institutional types

Commission structure was adopted in 1992 and shortly after interest groups and potential interest groups emerged

Administrator institutes, assessment institutes, webinar series, and multiple scholarship outlets such as the Clearinghouse, NACADA Journal, and AAT

The Developmental Nature of Academic Advising Approaches

Developmental vs. Prescriptive Advising : False Dichotomy If Advising is Teaching, What Do Advisors Teach (2005;

reprinted in 2009)

Fielstein (1994) Developmental versus Prescriptive Advising: Must it Be One Way or The Other, citing research and theories regarding individual differences in preferences

Smith called for us to consider advising as a developmental process itself. In this piece and others I called for a loosely named approach as the “caring-expert”

The Developmental Nature of Academic Advising Approaches

Developmental vs. Prescriptive Advising : False Dichotomy -Continued Alexitch’s (1997) Internally motivated students are significantly

more likely to prefer developmental advising on the AAT than students who are externally motivated.

Hemwall and Trachte (1999) called for praxis advising, with a greater emphasis on student learning and the “academic.”

Marc Lowenstein-logic of the curriculum “the excellent advisor helps the student to understand, and indeed in a certain sense, to create the logic of the student’s curriculum.”

NACADA’s Contribution to the Professional Discourse

High quality, peer reviewed journal that clearly articulates acceptance of Boyer’s scholarship types

Annual research symposium Hundreds of academic advisors have earned a Master’s degree from Kansas State University

Annual conference has phenomenal keynote speakers; one speaker focuses on scholarly inquiry

Current Research on the Issue of Professionalism

Aiken-Wisniewski, Larson, Adams, & Barkemeyer NACADA supported grant. Focus group study on how advisors describe the occupation of advising and how they describe a profession

McGill research paper exploring the history of NACADA through the literature and interviewed several NACADA leaders regarding its founding, the establishment of a research agenda, and the formation of the executive office

Advocacy Advising

Moving Academic Advising into the Higher Education Policy Debates Advocacy advising is closest to Lowenstein’s learning-centered paradigm

as it positions the role of advisor as a key person in uncluttering the messaging and co-constructing the meaning of college curriculum. Not just for students, but for Higher Education itself

Bologna project and the Lumina Foundation for Education are pushing higher education to think beyond the set of courses, the credits generated to get to the 36, 64, 120 credit major, degree, or credential and arrive at a set of agreed upon outcomes one has accomplished once they complete a BA, MA, or PhD in areas such as History.

Advocacy Advising can be actualized is related to the advent of the Common Core State Standards in the United States.

“Is College a Lousy Investment?”

Scholarship

NACADA Journal, AAT, the Mentor, Inside Higher Education, Chronicle of Higher Education

Global outlets

Twitters and blogs. Advisors and other student affairs folks are front and center sharing perspectives, articles, and commentary in this space

References

Cook, S. (2009). Important events in the development of academic advising in the United States. NACADA Journal, 29(2), 18-40.Danis, E. (2009). An interview with Harvey W. Wall. Personal perspectives on the history of academic advising. NACADA Journal 29(1), 52-62.Fielstein, L. L. (1994). Developmental versus prescriptive advising: Must it be one or the other? NACADA Journal, 14(2), 76-79.Grites, T. J., & Gordon, V. N. (2009). The history of NACADA: An amazing journey.NACADA Journal 29(2), 41-55.

References

Hagen, P. L. (2008). Imagination and interpretation: Academic advising and the Humanities. NACADA Journal, 28(2), 14-20.Hemwall, M. K., & Trachte, K. C. (1999). Learning at the core: Toward a new understanding of academic advising. NACADA Journal, 19(1), 5-11.Lowenstein, M. (2009). If advising is teaching, what do advisors teach. NACADA Journal, 29(1), 123-131. NACADA Clearinghouse. Developmental advising definitions. Smith, J. S. (2002). First-year student perceptions of academic advisement: A qualitative study and reality check.NACADA Journal, 22(2), 39-50.Winston, R. B., Jr., & Sandor, J. A. (1984). Evaluating academic advising. Athens, GA: Student Development Associates.

Increasing Awareness of Advising as a ProfessionJoshua S. Smith

Loyola University MarylandBaltimore, MD, USA

Jssmith2@loyola.edu