Higher Education Housing Professionals and Disability: A Grounded Theory Exploration of Resident Directors’ Understandings of Disability
The residential experiences of students with disabilities in higher education play a pivotal role in their overall campus education. However, little is known about the ways in which the staff who manage and support these residential environments understand and work with issues and concepts of disability. Utilizing constructivist grounded theory, this study examines the ways in which resident directors think about and work with disability within their positions of residential management. The study also explores the ways in which resident directors think about and understand disability as a component of diversity, the steps that resident directors take in working with students with disabilities, and the support they provide their student staff in fostering residential communities inclusive of students with disabilities. The findings suggest that resident directors’ work related to disabilities and disability identity is marked by tensions between individual understandings of disability and institutional systems and job expectations. Suggestions are provided for ways to better support resident directors as they navigate conflict between personal beliefs and positional responsibilities.
residence life, higher education, disability studies, resident directors, students with disabilities, Disability and Equity in Education
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