“Advising is Advising: Toward Defining the Practice and Scholarship of Academic Advising” by Janet K. Schulenberg and Marie J. Lindhorst has been chosen as both the 2015 Annual Conference “Common Reading” and as the NACADA Reads selection for Fall 2015. This article raises important questions about the true nature of academic advising and the professional status of its practitioners. As Schulenberg writes in the NACADA Blog

“We wrote the article “Advising is Advising: Toward Defining the Practice and Scholarship of Academic Advising” when I was very new to academic advising and coming to grips with my own   academic and professional journey. Marie helped me to see how profound the work of an academic adviser can and should be. For me, this piece represents the beginning of my manifesto about advising—that it is important work, unlike any other done in higher education. While academic advising contains elements from other fields, disciplines, and professions, it is greater than the sum of its parts. 

2015 fall’s NACADA Reads will be organized around the Annual Conference and the well-known Common Reading that takes place there. After the conference and the Common Reading experience, we will have an additional online component of the NACADA Reads initiative and it will include an October 27, 2015 webinar with the authors as both a follow-up to the Common Reading, and as an independent “book club”-like experience for all interested members.

This article can be downloaded here.

View our Facebook Event for past discussion questions and the rest of the #NACADAreads Community! 

Be sure to use the hashtags #NACADAreads and #AdvISAdv as you bring this discussion into the social media community.

Janet Schulenberg is the Associate Director for Technology and Curriculum in the Division of Undergraduate Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. Janet is the past chair of the NACADA Research Committee and the outgoing chair of the Theory, History, and Philosophy of Advising Commission. Janet’s publications in academic advising address the history of academic advising and the application of theory to advising practice. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Penn State.

Marie Lindhorst is an Advising Programs Coordinator for Academic Advising and Student Disability Services at Penn State’s World Campus, which offers degrees on-line.  She earned her Ph. D. in Educational Theory and Policy at Penn State, and has worked there as an academic adviser and administrator for over 20 years.   Her areas of interest include the history and philosophy of academic advising, advising in an on-line environment, and the advancement of diversity and inclusion in higher education.

Reading:

Read entire article "Advising is Advising: Toward Defining the Practice and Scholarship of Academic Advising"

Possible Discussion Questions:

• How do you define academic advising?
• Can you define advising without resorting to metaphor?
• How do you communicate your definition to students, parents, colleagues, and other stakeholders?

Additional Materials:

• View the SPECIAL WEBINAR. Hosted on October 27, 2015 by NACADA Reads facilitators and article authors, Janet K. Schulenberg and Marie J. Lindhorst.
• Dialogue Transcript