The previous two volumes in this series have focused on teaching in the higher education classroom both theoretically and from an applied perspective. Authors in Volume 3 and focus on student affairs and co-curricular services, which could is a departure from our previous focus on classroom settings. However, although one does not traditionally think of student affairs and co-curricular programs as being grounded in or focused on teaching and learning, and student affairs work is often outside of the classroom, the work that student affairs and co-curricular professionals engage in have elements of teaching at their core. For example, freshman and transfer transition courses, career development workshops, and intergroup dialogue and social justice focused classes and trainings provided by student affairs and co-curricular professionals are structured as teaching and learning events. Further, greek life, residence life, and advising, for instance, draw heavily on teaching and learning strategies and efforts to elicit and support student developmental outcomes.

As such, aAlthough teaching and learning theories and perspectives have not typically been drawn on in purposeful efforts to address ongoing oppression in student affairs and co-curricular sub-fields, examining and viewing this work through the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) perspectives enhances and supports the teaching-oriented work student affairs and co-curricular practitioners do. Social justice and equity is central to student affairs and co-curricular work and canonized in the profession’s standards and competencies (https://www.cas.edu/standards; https://www.naspa.org/files/dmfile/ACPA_NASPA_Professional_Competencies_1.pdf). One cannot separate or consider teaching and learning with student affairs and co-curricular services without social justice and equity.

As we wrote this introduction, the world and higher education continued to be turned upside down in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing social unrest. Black Lives Matter, Asian-hate and racist incidents, police BIPOC and trans focused brutality, and increased frequency and visibility of social protests are a constant presence in the media and everyday consciousness for many people. This period of increased social consciousness has the potential to have an impact on college students’ desire to get involved with social justice efforts and have greater engagement with campus environments, but minoritized students and, particularly BIPOC, have also expressed increased fear and less safety. Adding to this often hostile climate, the pandemic has compounded, exacerbated, and exposed more of the inequities and oppressions that exist in U.S. society and in higher education specifically. Social justice-focused work is even more critical, and critical SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) provides a lens through which to view and improve co-curricular practices.

Student affairs and co-curricular settings are primary environments where students find connection, belonging, and growth on a college campus. As professionals who are creating safe spaces, often identity-based, and developing more equitable and just campuses, the current environment increases the responsibility of and need for student affairs and student services professionals to identify the perspectives, skills, and abilities required to teach and support students. Theory and skills are needed more now than ever. In Volume 3 chapter authors explore the use and function of scholarship of teaching and learning approaches to address social justice concerns and outcomes in a range of student affairs and co-curricular contexts. The authors in this volume describe the ways that their professional areas reinforce and contribute to ongoing structural, cultural, and behavioral oppressions for students and provide examples and recommendations for how teaching and learning might be harnessed to change and counter the behaviors and beliefs that contribute to inequitable outcomes.

In Chapter 2, What Trans-Inclusive Curriculum Design Offers Title IX Processes, Wadley and Nicolazzo examine and deconstruct Title IX processes, identifying the ways that “compliance culture” promotes erasure of marginalized populations through the reinforcement of racism, trans and queer oppression, and homophobia. They then propose a reimagining of Title IX processes using power-conscious frameworks.

In Chapter 3, Meeting People Where They are, Without Meeting Them in Hell: A Tempered Radical Approach to Teaching Equity and Justice in Risk-Averse Environments, Wallace and Evans use a tempered radical theoretical approach to navigate the choppy waters involved in justice-education at a risk-averse institution. The authors provide concrete examples of strategies for teaching based on their years of experience.

In Chapter 4, Uncovering (w)hiteness: Developing a Critically informed Exercise for Higher Education Professionals, Miller and Parson present study findings designed to uncover whiteness in the structures of higher education. They explored interviews and focus groups with white practitioners through the lens of Critical (w)hiteness Studies (CWS) to identify how (w)hiteness is implicated in their perceptions of how higher education can best serve Indigenous and minoritized students. Miller and Parson apply these findings to a training exercise for Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) professionals that can be applied to conversations with faculty, staff, and administrators in higher education with the purpose of revealing whiteness in both structures and practice.

In Chapter 5, The Pervasive Whiteness of Service-Learning: The Case for Pedagogies of Humility, Irwin and Foste critically center whiteness in order to reveal how pervasive whiteness is used to reify service-learning structures that dehumanize minoritized and marginalized persons while reinforcing the embedded belief that white students are more capable. The authors draw on pedagogies of humility to interrupt and dismantle ongoing patterns of oppression.

In Chapter 6, Facilitating Liberatory Relationships for Women of Color in Academia through Mentorship, McAloney and Long propose and center mentoring through liberatory relationships and critical teaching pedagogy as an approach for supporting Women of Color in academia. The authors apply a theoretical model to recommendations and guidance for intentional facilitation of these mentoring partnerships.

In Chapter 7, Facilitating Major Choice with and without Typology Assessments: An Action Research Project in an Introduction to Business Classroom, Morawo and Parson interrogate the use of typology assessments to aid students in academic and vocational choice, proposing that they are reductionistic and replicate societal inequities. The authors report results of an action research project in an introductory business classroom that implemented and assessed student experiences with alternative activities to help students identify career and major interests and provide recommendations for instructional activities that can help students make a major choice.

In Chapter 8, A Twenty-First-Century Teach-In for Inclusion and Justice: Co-Curriculum at the Intersections of Scholarship, Activism, and Civic Engagement, Somers and Chen describe the structure and mechanics of the Benedictine University’s annual Teach-In and its movement into a permanent integration and feature in the institution’s formal curriculum. Utilizing arguments for the critical nature of the liberal arts and intersectional frameworks, the authors emphasize their importance as foundation for the Teach-In and describe implications for ongoing diversity training in teach-in format.

In Chapter 9, An Inclusive Classroom: Ongoing Programs to Develop Faculty Awareness and Knowledge of Teaching Strategies, Bestler et al. describe the development and structure of an inclusive classroom and teaching program implemented at Iowa State University. The program’s faculty development efforts were developed with the overall goal of creating more inclusive, equitable, and just classroom settings as the program moved from voluntary to mandatory.

In Chapter 10, Adoption of a Cross-Campus Community of Practice for the Implementation of Equity-Focused Faculty Development, Borboa-Peterson et al. examine their collective work to address diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom and with faculty through faculty development efforts using a community of practice conceptual approach. Using individual narrative, the authors describe how operating as a cross-campus community of practice allowed them to more effectively navigate and manage the bureaucratic and political challenges of creating institutional change.

There is little argument in higher education that creating and supporting ongoing, socially just change in campus environments, in and outside the classroom, is both a critical requirement and a challenge for even the most prepared and experienced. The current historical and social context illuminates the desperate need for education, training, and skills for professionals who work and support college students and their college environment. Student affairs and co-curricular professionals must continue to seek out new and alternative ways to empower minoritized students while challenging the historically oppressive structures that remain. We hope that the chapters in the volume will extend our efforts in Volumes 1 and 2 to student affairs and co-curricular settings, providing insightful theoretical and conceptual teaching and learning approaches and provide recommendations for efforts and programs that expand engagement for equitable change in higher education.