While reading Evans and Guido’s (2012) rejoinder, I was drawn to the idea that formal theories can be used as proactive measures for practitioners in the field of Higher Education and Student Affairs. By creating a hypothetical scenario involving a young Resident Advisor named Mary, Evans and Guido expound that, “…having prior knowledge of relevant formal theories would enable Mary to think proactively about potential challenges when she sees the makeup of her floor so she can plan ways to prevent such an occurrence from happening” (Evans, N., Guido, F., 2012, p. 193). Their argument triggered a mild case of nostalgia as I thought back to my Undergrad experiences with summer Resident Advisor training. These trainings- that required RA’s to but their summers short and move back onto campus two weeks earlier than their peers- were torturously long, but ultimately provided soon-to-be and/or returning paraprofessionals to operate in the often chaotic realm of Residence Life. However, what I realized when reading this article is that these summer trainings were simply an opportunity for Residence Life to provide Resident Advisors with countless formal theories to add to their arsenal of student life knowledge. These formal theories, if retained, helped us to work proactively in our living communities rather than reactively.
In an exercise conducted at the end of the two week training, titled Behind Closed Doors, returning staff members acted as “residents” in hypothetical scenarios. These scenarios varied from students struggling to adjust to their academic workload, having suicidal ideation or other mental health concerns, combating racism on their floors, etc. By completing the two week training prior to Behind Closed Doors, Resident Advisors were able to diversifies their personal paradigms, recognizing that there are things they may not have been exposed to in their personal experiences (informal theory development) and therefore unable to properly unpack without a basic understanding of the frameworks of formal theories.
While I believe Behind Closed Doors was an incredibly effective way of helping paraprofessionals envision how they would react in often crisis situations, I wish the exercise would have provided Resident Advisors with an opportunity to reflect and identify measures they could have taken to help reduce the chances of these scenarios arising. A chance to proactively apply formal theory.
Reference:
Evans, N., Guido, F. (2012). Response to Patrick Love’s “informal theory”: A rejoinder. Journal of College Student Development, 53(2), 192-200. doi 10.1353/csd.2012.0022
Gabbing with Gabby 
Gabby,
You ended your blog post with a stance about Behind Closed Doors, which I could not agree more with. I definitely believe that it varies from school to school, but the exercise is more about reaction to situations instead of preventing of situations. The idea of RA’s having to react to a situation in my opinion falls short of what training is supposed to do, which is to not only react to situations but prevent them from happening in the first place.
While the idea of Behind Closed Doors provides a frame work for RA’s to form about how to handle a situation, it naturally encompasses the creation of their own informal theory which can fall short of preventing such situations from occurring. It might be more beneficial to have RA’s undergo training that discusses ways to prevent such things from happening, and then taking a moment such as a busted party to not re-enforce those ways but to also provide a teaching moment to the students of concern.
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Gabby,
I’m sorry for taking so long to reply to your blog. You provided great insight connected to the Evans and Guido readings. Your words also took me back to my time in graduate school. I was also able to use a lot of what I learned in my program to effective navigate the residence hall terrain. In working with students, formal theory could prove just as beneficial. I wonder, however, how that information could be disseminated in a short two-week training session? I agree that preventive measures are important, but the frameworks in which they are grounded can also prove beneficial. The information in Lori’s theory class, for example, takes a highly critical look at minoritized populations. This notion should not be overlooked if formal theory is used in these training sessions. In fact, I would suggest that to not use them may be irresponsible.
~Myron
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