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on how participants discussed aspects of the eight domains of well-being as established
by Myers and colleagues (2000). At the end of this process, I composed themes
that were supported by participants' rich descriptions. Bracketing, peer debriefing, and
thick descriptions served as strategies to ensure trustworthiness of the findings and
occurred at various stages of the analysis (Bazeley, 2013).
Statement of Positionality
I positioned myself within this study as a learner interested in students' lived experiences
and honoring the narratives that they shared with me. I entered the study as a
researcher who did and did not share social identities with each of the research participants,
and I acknowledged that intersecting systems of oppression produce identity-based
marginalization for minoritized students, faculty, and staff in higher education.
Prior to becoming a faculty member, I spent several years working as a full-time
resident director. In this role, I supervised RAs, managed administrative processes,
and responded sensitively to a range of crises. During my years as a resident director,
both I and the RAs under my supervision were exposed to and supported student communities
through numerous serious incidents. Being in the unique role of supporting
students provided me with a first-hand experience of the importance of well-being in
these emotionally demanding and difficult parts of the role. Though I had no prior
connections to the students I interviewed in this study, my professional background
in residence life helped me understand their worlds, build rapport, and provide context
for making sense of the kinds of narratives I had seen as a professional residence
life staff member.
FINDINGS
Two main findings emerged from my analysis of participant interviews, and these
themes are instructive in better understanding the well-being experiences of RAs with
minoritized identities. First, disruption of well-being resulted in feelings of exhaustion
and, in a few instances, the feeling of not belonging. Second, RAs in the study
generally described their resilience in the face of these occupational demands, which
occurred through internal self-regulation strategies and was reinforced by support
from empathetic residence life supervisors. In the themes that follow, direct quotations
demonstrate trends present across the interviews. While this study represents
the broad-based experiences of students with minoritized social identities, its findings
and implications serve as both starting points and invitations to further explore
the complexity of the experiences of students with multiple minoritized identities
through the lens of intersectionality.
In addition to their challenging student leadership roles, RAs serve
as peer role models who support residents as institutional guides
and transformational educators.
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