The complexities of college learning instruction: A practitioner inquiry into students\u27 academic and identity development

Traditionally, college learning instructors help students to become acclimated to the rigors of postsecondary education through academic skills-building. However, I believe that college learning instruction has a more complex role to play in student support. This study explores the ways in which college learning instructors might, through a more nuanced approach, support students\u27 multidimensional academic development and identity construction, and in turn deepen their own practices. This inquiry is situated in the context of my practice as a learning instructor at the Weingarten Learning Resources Center and the University of Pennsylvania. I use both participatory and practitioner methodologies to offer an examination of the ways in which my practice impacted the development of five Black undergraduate students. The conceptual framework for this study was drawn from literature on student engagement, student development, self-authorship, literacy from a social practices perspective, literacy-identity, and intersectionality. Primary data sources included interviews, transcripts, learning sessions, database notes, personal email communication, narrative memos, and field notes. I employed a combination of analytic approaches, including ethnographic coding, practitioner research, critical discourse analysis, and case studies. There were four primary discoveries: 1) Learning instruction is a long game for both students and instructors, one that can benefit from a slow, patient, and deliberate approach; 2) By exercising restraint and allowing students an opportunity to work through issues independently, a learning instructor can help facilitate students\u27 improved self-authorship; 3) Effective learning instruction requires a human connection; practitioners should be unafraid to approach students holistically, and in turn share their own personal stories and experiences; and 4) Learning instructors must continually ask students to define, explain or clarify. Practitioners encourage students to bring more of their own knowledge to the table by acting as students\u27 thought partners and collaborators. This study contributes to scholarship in students\u27 academic and identity development by adding the voice of the students themselves to the field. The research also has clear implications for college learning instructors, providing a more complex, broader understanding of the kinds of knowledge are generated in the university learning center context