Closed mouths don't get fed: infusing self-advocacy into student affairs case management practice
Date
2025
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The problem that this Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) addresses is that there is too little self-advocacy skill development within the case management meeting intervention within the Office of the Dean of Students (ODS) at the University of Delaware (UD). The improvement goal of this ELP was to enhance the case managers' (CMs) capacity to assist students in gaining self-advocacy skills within their meetings with students. To meet this improvement goal, (a)I first developed a better understanding of college student self-advocacy skill development in a student affairs context, (b) developed a new case management meeting intervention protocol, and (3) developed a data collection and analysis plan to better understand self-advocacy skill development as a result of case management meetings- all as improvement strategies. ☐ Results of Improvement Strategy 1 included that extant literature regarding self-advocacy centers the experiences of college students with learning differences and includes four components: knowledge of self, knowledge of rights, communication, and leadership. Self-advocacy is also an enactment of self-determination theory, which examines intrinsic motivation through three constructs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Additionally, student affairs practitioners, specifically case managers, are well suited to assist college students as student affairs professionals are encouraged to use student development theory to guide their practice. Student development theory aligns with self-determination theory as they both promote development. Furthermore, ODS CMs shared that they believe they help students develop self-advocacy skills by speaking with college students about their needs, including assisting students to navigate the university and helping college students to address their concerns. Results from Improvement Strategy 2 yielded that CMs felt that there were some components of the proposed meeting intervention that they may not regularly include in their current intervention that could be helpful as they adapt their practice by following the protocol. CMs reported that this protocol will help keep the meetings organized, elevate student voice and participation, and allow for consistency amongst the ODS staff when meeting with students. Each CM trained on the new protocol could respond to the student within the case study, which is a tool that allows researchers to study the applicability of studied activity or process, using the protocol and sharing a directive or question that they propose regarding each portion of the protocol (Hays & Singh, 2012). Improvement Strategy 3 yielded a plan that the Senior Assistant Dean of Students can use to collect and analyze data regarding self-advocacy skill development due to the protocol. ☐ Recommendations for next steps consist of understanding what students who meet with CMs within the ODS at UD would say about their self-assessment of self-advocacy, as this ELP addresses the CMs' capacity to assist students with self-advocacy skill development. It would also be helpful to understand what those who refer students to ODS would say about a student's self-advocacy skill development after meeting with an ODS CM. Both of these recommendations may allow ODS to understand what gaps may exist between the referral agent and the CM, and could inform future training opportunities for CMs. The last recommendation involves examining intersectionality within the case management process to understand what self-advocacy skill development means for marginalized student populations, such as international students, DACA students, parenting students, LGBTQ+ students, students of color, etc., as these identities may experience self-advocacy differently.
Description
Keywords
Case management, College students, Self-advocacy, Student affairs, Education Leadership Portfolio