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Giving Them Grace
revealed that they felt overburdened by the new responsibilities for diversity and inclusion
education and sought more consistent support from both their RA peers and
professional staff supervisors (Hornak et al., 2019). Despite a history of social justice
education and staff structures to support this learning in residence life settings, diversity
and inclusion education remains consistently difficult to implement because
ultimately engagement is voluntary for residents (Fassett & Kimmel, 2017; Quaye &
Harper, 2014).
ROLE OF THE RESIDENT ADVISOR IN SOCIAL JUSTICE
AND INCLUSION LEARNING GOALS
The multifaceted roles and responsibilities of paraprofessional staff in residence life
have been well documented in the literature (Benjamin & Davis, 2016; Blimling, 2011;
Johnson & Kang, 2006; Manata et al., 2017; McLaughlin, 2018). Although their role
is continually evolving (Lichterman, 2016), RAs remain an integral component of the
RCM because they contribute to the delivery of the curriculum. Even before the advent
of the residential curriculum model, RAs were a pivotal part of the effectiveness of
residence life (Blimling, 2011; Johnson & Kang, 2006), and their importance has not
changed under the RCM. Formerly, RA roles included a focus on two central responsibilities:
building community and planning educational and social programs (Benjamin
& Davis, 2016; Blimling, 2011; Manata et al., 2017). Now, the residential curriculum
model has transformed the traditional RA role, requiring different skills that focus
more on student development (Boone et al., 2016) and facilitating interactions with
residents, which involves critical counseling and listening skills, particularly if the outcomes
are related to social justice. Given this increasingly complex set of skills, it is
important to recognize that RAs are undergoing their own process of personal development
while at the same time contributing to the development of their peers (Earnest
& Pernotto, 2019; Johnson & Kang, 2006).
Only a few studies have been conducted on the role of RAs in the residential
curriculum model. Brown (2018), for one, discussed how to transform RA position
descriptions, selection processes, and training approaches to best meet the challenges
of implementing the model. Lichterman (2016) explored how RAs perceive the transition
to the RCM, and Sanders (2018) examined the impact of a curriculum model on
student learning and how critical a part RAs play in this process. Benjamin and Davis
(2016) examined how RAs contribute to their residents' learning, while also increasing
their own knowledge of social justice and inclusion issues and of how to facilitate
challenging conversations.
METHODOLOGY
Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach (Van Manen, 1990), this study explored
the lived experiences of RAs involved in the delivery of the residential curriculum
model, with a focus on resident interactions related to social justice and diversity.
Hermeneutic phenomenology (Van Manen, 1990) was most appropriate for this study
14 The Journal of College and University Student Housing
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