Research Methods and Applications for Student Affairs

Foreword

Prospective graduate students often ask us if our respective programs are “research focused” or “practice focused.” We view this question as reproducing a false binary in student affairs that sets research (or theory) versus practice. Rather, we regard the professional ideal in (at a minimum) a matrix construct, in which we can think, act, and communicate from a stance that is high in both research and practice. This practitioner–researcher perspective invites professionals whose full-time work is in administration to pose and answer questions as well as use scholarship to inform their work, and those professionals whose full-time work is in research and teaching to address questions of importance to the practice of student affairs ...