Learning Reconsidered Reconsidered: A Foucauldian Power Analysis of the Discursive Relations Between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs

The purpose of this study was to investigate how power relations between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs position Student Affairs within that relationship. This research employed a poststructuralist framework and document analysis developed from Michel Foucault’s concept of genealogy. To facilitate the investigation of discourse, the significant Student Affairs document Learning Reconsidered was chosen as a starting point. By investigating the historical development of discourse, as well as the ramifications of the discourse presented in that document, this study sought to unveil the intersections of power and discourse within the relationship between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.Through poststructuralist analysis, strategies of discourse emerged to reveal how Student Affairs had responded to its environment with a desire to create a singular identity for itself and enter into an equitable partnership with Academic Affairs. These strategies have created opportunities for partnership and limited the ability of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs to successfully partner. Deconstructing the implications of discourse in these power relations revealed impacts of power on the positioning of Student Affairs in higher education. This study provided the context of these discourses and theoretical, methodological, and practical implications based on the discursive relationship between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.