Student Development During the Occupy SLU Movement Through the Lens of Perry

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal, May 2017

Perry’s theory of intellectual and ethical development serves as a seminal theory on student development. The civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri during the 2014-2015 school year resulted in demonstrations on college campuses throughout the country, including the Occupy SLU movement at Saint Louis University. In this mixed-methods phenomenological study, 19 students were interviewed about their experiences during the movement. The research questions underlying this study include: How were SLU students impacted by the events in Ferguson, Missouri during the 2014-2015 school year? How can Perry’s theory be applied to student development during this historic time? How can these findings be utilized to better understand and support student development during periods of civil unrest? The participants’ stories are analyzed through the lens of Perry’s theory using the constant comparative method. Evidence of Perry’s four stages of development emerged from the data, including dualism, multiplicity, relativism, and commitment to relativism, as well as evidence of his three deflections from growth, including temporizing, escape, and retreat. The findings of this research serve to capture the student experiences on campus during Occupy SLU, inform higher education professionals on the impact of this social movement, and provide further validation for Perry’s theory.

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Student Development During the Occupy SLU Movement Through the Lens of Perry

Jesuit Higher Education Student Development During the Occupy SLU Movement Through the Lens of Perr y Whitney R. Linsenmeyer 0 1 Saint Louis University 0 1 0 1 Tommy J. Lucas Jr. 0 1 0 Saint Louis University - Main Campus 1 This Scholarship is brought to you for free and open access by ePublications at Regis University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal by an authorized administrator of ePublications at Regis University. For more information , please contact Recommended Citation - Article 9 Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.regis.edu/jhe Student Development During the Occupy SLU Movement Through the Lens of Perry Whitney Linsenmeyer Doisy College of Health Sciences Saint Louis University Tommy Lucas School of Education Saint Louis University Whitney Linsenmeyer is an Instructor in Nutrition and Dietetics at Saint Louis University (SLU). During the events of Occupy SLU she was a doctoral student in the School of Education. Tommy Lucas is a SLU doctoral candidate in the School of Education. Lucas worked closely with students during the events of Occupy SLU, but was not an active participant. His primary research focuses on impact and outcome assessments of higher education institutions and longitudinal assessments after crisis incidents. Linsenmeyer and Lucas have published work related to Occupy SLU in the Western Journal of Black Studies, the Journal of College Admission, and the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Linsenmeyer and Lucas’ work explores the experiences of 19 students during Occupy SLU in order to better understand how higher education professionals may leverage social justice movements and periods of civil unrest to advance student development. Perry’s theory of intellectual and ethical development serves as a seminal theory on student development. The civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri during the 2014-2015 school year resulted in demonstrations on college campuses throughout the country, including the Occupy SLU movement at Saint Louis University. In this mixed-methods phenomenological study, 19 students were interviewed about their experiences during the movement. The research questions underlying this study include: How were SLU students impacted by the events in Ferguson, Missouri during the 2014-2015 school year? How can Perry’s theory be applied to student development during this historic time? How can these findings be utilized to better understand and support student development during periods of civil unrest? The participants’ stories are analyzed through the lens of Perry’s theory using the constant comparative method. Evidence of Perry’s four stages of development emerged from the data, including dualism, multiplicity, relativism, and commitment to relativism, as well as evidence of his three deflections from growth, including temporizing, escape, and retreat. The findings of this research serve to capture the student experiences on campus during Occupy SLU, inform higher education professionals on the impact of this social movement, and provide further validation for Perry’s theory. Introduction: Perry’s Theory William Perry’s theory of intellectual and ethical development serves as a seminal theory on student development.1 Since its inception in 1968, Perry’s theory has been applied to students in a wide range of disciplines and settings, such as counseling, academic advising, student affairs, teacher education, medical education, music education, education of international students, and athletics.2 Perry’s original theory was based upon nine positions that were considered to be on a continuum of development: Basic duality, full dualism, early multiplicity, late multiplicity, contextual relativism, precommitment, commitment, challenges to Beabout & Wilson,! Introduction and Overview White, In the Light of Michael Brown: Living the Mission of a Jesuit University Hagerty, S.J., Veterans, the Flag, and Protest: Facilitating Dialogue at Jesuit Institutions Pestello, The Letter and Spirit of the Clock Tower Accords Beabout & Wilson, Occupy SLU: Exchange, Entrepreneurship, Virtue, Jesuit Charism Lucas et al., The Impact of Flag Desecration on Social Justice Movements: The Case of Occupy SLU Linsenmeyer & Lucas, Student Development During the Occupy SLU Movement Through the Lens of Perry Bradley, For the Greater Glory of Whom?: A Perspective on Occupy SLU commitment, and post-commitment. The nine positions have since been condensed into four concepts: duality, represented by dichotomous thinking and an absolute right or wrong; multiplicity, characterized by an ability to accept diverse viewpoints; relativism, wherein all opinions are not equally valid and must be substantiated; and commitment to relativism, represented by a shift away from cognitive development and the beginning of ethical development as decisions are made contextually. Perry considered each position to be a sta (...truncated)


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Whitney R Linsenmeyer, Tommy J Lucas Jr.. Student Development During the Occupy SLU Movement Through the Lens of Perry, Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal, 2017, Volume 6, Issue 1,