Abstract
Learning is central to the academe’s knowledge imperative. Learning happens in the process of inquiry. It happens when we try on new ways of being, knowing, doing. Learning is the axiological foundation of an education. In this issue of About Campus, authors explore how learning happens outside of traditional classroom contexts. These authors recognize that an education includes an ecology of learning opportunities, which can take form and shape across various levels of engagement. Whether addressing field-level learning for student affairs, or learning from a specific institutional context, or recognizing the pedagogical dimensions to out-of-class student-faculty meetings or the supervisory relationships that produce new knowledge about the student experience, each of the articles in this issue take up what it can mean to think education beyond the classroom.
It is not a new thing to talk and share about learning in out-of-classroom contexts. In fact, that is why I deeply appreciate the contributions within this collection of articles—educating beyond the classroom is normalized. Indeed, as educators, every moment we do our jobs is imbued with a pedagogical imperative. That is what separates us, in part, from corporate management structures and government bureaucracy. While some of our practices must attend to concerns related to budget, bottom-lines, and outputs, we have the privilege of doing so in an expansive environment where learning is the truest of our bottom lines, however we codify, index, measure, or report it.
Twenty years ago, I was mentoring a graduate student in student conduct hearings. After a few incidents, the talented graduate student shared, “These are more like, ‘Tuesdays with Ryan’”—a riff on the popular Tuesdays with Morrie, a memoir about life lessons learned between a young college graduate and his former professor. It had gained considerable attention in the late 1990s. I was the same age as my graduate mentee, so I said back, “Well, does that make me the old professor and the student the future award-winning writer? Cuz, I don’t know if you noticed, but he’s barely passing his Comp 101 class, and you and I are the same age, Friend.” We both laughed, but then got to the point. Student conduct should be an extension of the college education—an opportunity for new knowings to emerge, new selves to become, new ways of seeing the world from others’ perspectives; student conduct hearings should be about learning.
I offer this example, not as anything extraordinary or pithy or ground-breaking; It was 20 years ago or more now. But I offer it as a small contribution to the normalcy of doing education beyond the classroom, and how great that makes all of our lives in higher education and student affairs. That graduate student later went on to direct a student conduct office, through which she proclaimed to the campus—“Every conduct hearing I facilitate is a new retention opportunity I get to (re)create.” I’m honored to have spent time learning with her early on in our higher education careers. And I’m honored to present additional learning opportunities to the field through the collection of articles presented herein in this latest issue of About Campus.