First wave theories primarily focus on students’ psychosocial and cognitive-structural development, as well as examining the impact of the campus environment.
[5][6] Critical frameworks are used to analyze structures of power, privilege, and oppression in order to call attention to systemic inequality, transformative practices, and social justice.
[2] Critical perspectives in the third wave also contribute to the ongoing growth and expansion of the body of student development theories themselves.
Ostensibly this instruction emphasized traditional Christian values through strict rules, enforced by rigid discipline.
[7] As such, the primary objective of in loco parentis[7] was on the conditioning of social and individual behavior, rather than intellectual cultivation.
[7] The second distinct shift toward a unified student development theory emerged in the late nineteenth century, through the first quarter of the twentieth century, marked by the growth of colleges and universities throughout Europe and the United States, simultaneous with the development of social science disciplines like psychology.
[9] For example, in a review by the University of California, Los Angeles, Chaves discussed the juggling of multiple challenges that adult student learners encounter such as integration into an institution, commuting to campus, social integration, and absence from school for a number of years that cause adult student learners to regress in their time to graduation or not graduate at all.
[12] In both studies, the research indicated that students were unable to reach optimal developmental growth without the appropriate amount of challenge or support.
It is likely that most students will face an academic, social, or personal challenge during their postsecondary college or university journey.
For example, a longitudinal study conducted by Ong, Phinney, and Dennis examined 123 Latino college students attending an ethnically diverse urban university in southern California.
[17] However, these students were met with consistent parental support, family interdependence, and an affirmation of their membership in their ethnic group.
[18] Post Secondary institutions historically viewed disability from the lens of the medical model, whether it is curable or incurable by medicine.
Stage 3: Acceptance (Adulthood) · Begins to understand their differences in a positive way and integrate themselves into the able-bodied world.
Stage 2: Relationship Phase · Begins to interact with students with disabilities and learn the norms and activities of the group.
Being independent by navigating the world and managing personal hygiene and participating in social justice whether this be self advocacy or collective activism.