Understanding How Student Support Practitioners Navigated Ideal Worker Norms During COVID-19: The Role of Job-Crafting

Abstract

Student support practitioners (SSPs) play a key role in supporting at-promise (low-income, first-generation college, and/or racially minoritized) students in higher education. However, delivering such support can lead to stress and burnout when practitioners do not receive commensurate support and flexibility to do their jobs. In this study, we examined how SSPs supported students while fulfilling their needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data collected during 2020 to 2021 as part of a longitudinal study of a comprehensive college transition program at three midwestern universities, we examine how SSPs engaged in job crafting during the pandemic. Our findings reveal that job crafting largely perpetuated and expanded ideal worker norms during the pandemic. Implications from this research suggest the need to consider how to institutionally support job crafting in ways that center the needs of SSPs.

Keywords

student affairs academic affairs job crafting ideal worker norms

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