NASPA/ACPA Competencies

Personal and Ethical Foundations (PEF)

Description from NASPA (I italicized key points): Involves the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to develop and maintain integrity in one’s life and work; this includes thoughtful development, critique, and adherence to a holistic and comprehensive standard of ethics and commitment to one’s own wellness and growth. Personal and ethical foundations are aligned because integrity has an internal locus informed by a combination of external ethical guidelines, an internal voice of care, and our own lived experiences. Our personal and ethical foundations grow through a process of curiosity, reflection, and self-authorship.

I chose PEF as one of the three areas of competency to focus on because it speaks strongly to things that I have been trying to do in my professional life already. I do think that having an internal sense of right and wrong as well as a personal “code of ethics” is important. It’s also extremely time-intensive and isn’t an overnight sort of process. For people who are working in higher education (and other service-oriented and caring professions), it’s very important to be able to accommodate others whose standards of right and wrong as well as whose sense of morality may differ from our own. This does not mean that we sacrifice what we believe in favor of what others believe, but it does mean developing empathy and the ability to have difficult conversations.

Short term action steps: Read articles that address the difficulties that come with interacting with others whose values may differ (sometimes dramatically) from my own. I make a point to be open-minded and to listen to others, but I could always do better.

Long term action steps: Explore ethical systems of thought and choose a few that seem most interesting to continue to pursue as models for my own system.

Values, Philosophy, and History (VPH)

Description from NASPA (I italicized key points): Involves knowledge, skills, and dispositions that connect the history, philosophy, and values of the student affairs profession to one’s current professional practice. This competency area embodies the foundations of the profession from which current and future research, scholarship, and practice will change and grow. The commitment to demonstrating this
competency area ensures that our present and future practices are informed by an understanding of the profession’s history, philosophy, and values.

I chose VPH because I think it is a critically important part of being able to understand why our education system exists as it does. Understanding where certain ideas came from and how certain systems have been shaped and designed feels critical if we intend to sustain and/or change them.

Short term action steps: I’d like to read and learn more about key figures in the history of American education, particularly in the area of higher education.

Long term action steps: Engage in intentional conversations with others who are interested in this issue to address how the evolving nature of our professional values might be both a positive and a problematic thing. Are there different approaches that we might need to explore?

Image Source: Educate History

Student Learning and Development (SLD)

Description from NASPA (I italicized key points): Addresses the concepts and principles of student development and learning theory. This includes the ability to apply theory to improve and inform student affairs and teaching practice.

I close SLD because I am both fascinated by and frustrated by theory. As an undergraduate in a teaching program, theoretical conversations were always the ones that I dreaded most, but I have a much better appreciation for theory now. It is always changing and developing, and those who are able to follow those conversations (and perhaps also participate in them) are well-positioned to put theoretical concepts into practice in order to make a positive change.

Short term action steps: Identify one educational theory that I can get to know very, very well.

Long term action steps: Explore other education-related theories and areas of intersection with my work in the field of librarianship.

Image Source: Brittanica