Epistemology, pedagogy, and student affairs assessment: A voluminous framework for equity

Abstract

For the past twenty years higher education scholars have stressed the need to educate senior student affairs officers, divisional staff, and graduate students about the importance of building and maintaining a culture of assessment (Yousey-Elesner, Bentrim, & Henning, 2015). However, few have advocated for educating burgeoning student affairs practitioners about how ways of knowing influence cultures of assessment. We argue that an emphasis on epistemological frameworks in student affairs assessment teaching is seemingly missing in the graduate curriculum and the current teaching paradigm impedes perspectives that resist oppressive structures in higher education—those which disrupt and dismantle colonized thinking and advance equity. In this paper we speculate on the dominant narratives within assessment teaching in student affairs, build a case for critical epistemologies and epistemological pluralism, and share recommendations in the form of a course plan designed to spur dialogue and learning around the role of epistemology in assessment practice.