Student Affairs Practitioner Scholarship: Structural Barriers and Opportunities for Institutional Leadership

Abstract:Student affairs practitioner-scholarship has the potential to transform higher education and improve the lives of students; however, it is rarely cultivated on college campuses. Instead, many practitioner-scholars struggle with systemic barriers to their success, much of which can be linked to the influence of neoliberalism in higher education. In this paper, we make a case for the imperative of institutional leadership to actively encourage practitioner-scholarship through the elimination of systemic barriers. We build on our own experiences as practitioner-scholars and share anecdotes that relate to our challenges and successes in pursuing and producing scholarship. We close by offering recommendations for institutional leaders and higher education faculty members.