Co-authors: Laura Bell, Nikita Kulkarni, Grant Stoehr
Abstract (click to view)
Many professional associations in higher education hold conferences and conventions on an annual or biannual basis, often with residential college stakeholders taking part. Using a qualitative historical research perspective, we derived themes from conference program schedules (e.g., program session titles, presenters, presenter affiliations) for two prominent associations related to residential colleges—The Collegiate Way International and the Residential College Society. Data were collected from 2014 to 2020, examined, analyzed by thematic content analysis, and then organized by association, year, and location. Findings revealed professional development topics relevant to residential college stakeholders: specifically, what constitutes a residential college model, the resident experience, and leadership experiences. Findings are compared between the associations, and recommendations are made for practice, including consistency in presentation count and insights into professional development topics that can advance the field. Finally, we identified key institutions within the residential college movement and discuss how to diversify the field.
Hannah Webb
Majors: Marketing and Public Policy; Minors: Law & Legal Reasoning and Economics
Faculty mentor: Dustin Grabsch
Hannah, great job! To collect the data, did you manually look up all the conference presentation titles and sort them by category? Or did you have some sort of automated data collection algorithm? I also found it interesting that “former resident engagement” was the lowest mentioned. We actually focus on that in Boaz and think it’s a great way to keep the community together. Thanks for your presentation!
Great work, Hannah (and team)! I liked learning about this perspective, since what’s-really-happening is not always reflected in what-is-being-presented (or studied!). I’m curious now to look into something similar for conferences in my field. cheers!