Rethinking Student Affairs Practice (review)

In their recent work, Rethinking Student Affairs Practice, Patrick G. Love and Sandra M. Estanek, attempt to "encourage cognitively complex practice" through considering student affairs from the perspective of new science and chaos theory (p. 207). The authors use these theories as an analytic thread, encouraging the reader to think differently about aspects of student affairs practice. Though the conceptual framework the authors build becomes obscured at times when they apply their theory to particular issues, the volume achieves its overall goal of encouraging professionals to perceive situations and their roles within them in new ways.

The authors claim that their "book is about thinking differently" (p. vii). They provide an engaging illustration of their theoretical context, using the single image of a rabbit and a duck embedded in one another to explain the importance of perception in new science thinking. Both images are present in the illustration. To see both simultaneously, however, viewers must broaden their fields of vision. The authors call this change moving from "either-or" to "both-and" thinking (p. 11). They discuss the importance of employing this vision in student affairs, arguing that overspecialization within the profession has led to "silo thinking" in which professionals often see issues and problems only "from the point of view of one's own specialization" (p. x).

Love and Estanek divide the book into nine chapters that comprise three sections. The first chapter provides the overarching conceptual framework. Drawing upon recent literature from organizational theory, the authors argue that the world and the organizations within it currently are in the midst of a paradigm shift. This shift is exhibited by a move from the Newtonian paradigm of stability and predictability to a more complicated worldview influenced by chaos and scientific theories such as Einstein's Theory of Relativity. This more complicated paradigm views the world as "open, evolving, connected, and participative" (p. 5). The authors strive to "recombine" the old and new paradigms, recognizing that some situations may call for a return to traditional management. They attempt this through the application of four concepts: valuing dualisms, transcending paradigms, recognizing connectedness, and embracing paradox. The basic premise underlying these concepts is one of recognition, i.e., a consideration of the relationships between dualisms and paradoxes and the value judgments attached to them that might blur their connections to and usefulness for interpreting the world.

Employing that framework and their concept of seeing things differently, the authors consider "Seeing Processes Differently: How We Work," "Seeing Resources Differently: What We Work With," and "Seeing Beyond the Horizon: Emerging Competencies" (p. v). The first section contemplates three different ways of working under this new paradigm: pervasive leadership, intrapreneurship, and developing an assessment mindset.

The authors use pervasive leadership as a key reference point for other concepts. Pervasive leadership asks professionals at every level of the organization to view themselves as leaders in different contexts, and to use their relationships within and without the institution to facilitate positive change. Intrapreneurship arises out of pervasive leadership, as the intrapreneur combines the old paradigm models of management and entrepreneurialism with pervasive leadership to bring new ideas to bear upon her division, and potentially to influence the entire institution. The assessment chapter provides practical tips for integrating such practices into one's day-to-day experience through pervasive leadership. Using new science concepts to accentuate the relationship of assessment to the whole of the organization, the authors provide information about facilitating organizational learning, rather than reducing assessment to evaluating discrete parts in specific service areas.

Moving from the "how" of student affairs to the "what," the second section begins with a chapter entitled "Rethinking Resources." The authors assert that "creativity will be limited until student affairs professionals see the world through a resource lens," emphasizing that good ideas often do not come to fruition due to a perception that resources are not available (p. 124). This lens is informed by a more expansive view of available resources as well as by new science principles...