ABSTRACT
Student development theory (SDT) is a foundation for the field of student affairs. SDTs provide a “common language” for campus professionals to explain and explore the ways that students progressively develop their identities within the context of postsecondary institutions. Theories from the first wave of SDT often centered psychological understandings of development, were rooted in a positivist paradigm, reflected the experiences of white men, and explored students’ psychosocial and cognitive development. Many of the constructs that connect first-, second-, and third-wave student development theories move beyond what student affairs has traditionally viewed as development into more complex interactions between students, institutions, and systems. Practitioners must consider the implications of oppression in order to further college student development. In “Theoretical Borderlands: Using Multiple Theoretical Perspectives to Challenge Inequitable Power Structures in Student Development Theory”, Elisa Abes advocated for using theoretical perspectives, such as constructivist, critical, and poststructural perspectives, in combination with one another, not in isolation.
