Developing Student Affairs as a Profession in Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v11i1.4586Keywords:
Student affairs profession, sociology of professions, professionalization, African higher education, high quality research, skills development, professional development, professionalism, equity, social justice, professional inclusionAbstract
This article discusses the nature of the professionalization of student affairs and services (SAS) in Africa by analyzing the discourses evident and legitimated through the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa (JSAA). The analysis is driven by three research questions: What is the extent of the journal’s engagement with the terms profession, professionalism, professional, and professionalization? How are these terms used in the journal and how do these uses relate to the social justice imperative in SAS? Overall, the analysis shows that the professionalization discourse in JSAA draws strongly on notions that certain professional traits and high-level knowledge and skills must be possessed by SAS personnel for the field to be professionalized. Furthermore, the analysis reflects a stronger social justice discourse than a discourse on SAS as a profession. Finally, this article considers opportunities for a scholarship on the development of SAS as a profession.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Angelique Wildschut, Thierry
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See: The Effect of Open Access).
