ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that question of who the student is matters greatly for the entire educational community, faculty and student affairs staff alike. It explores the theoretical origins of the conception of the self that both academic affairs faculty in the classroom and student affairs educators outside the classroom seem to have adopted, as reflected in the respective professions guiding concepts, documents, and texts. The chapter focuses on the history of the higher education literature for the origins and implicit definitions of the student self at work in these literatures. It reviews the existing literature which has explicitly considered philosophy and philosophical ideas in relation to higher education work. The chapter suggested phenomenological and deconstructive philosophies that provided us with an alternative conception of education which eliminate the rendering into parts what may best be conceived of as whole to begin with.
