Journal of College & University Student Housing Vol 49, No. 1 - 41

NACE Competencies Within Collegiate Residential Life
In residential communities, engagement in various tasks or situations
allows students to learn in an active context, which is not often possible
in the traditional classroom setting.
interviewee (Daymon & Holloway, 2002). The interview proceeded through each of the
12 NACE competencies, and participants were asked to reflect on engagements of their
residential experience within the competency area. They were provided definitions of
each NACE competency before the interview and were read the definitions during the
interview. Participants were asked to provide examples of how their residential experience
contributed to their understanding, knowledge, skill, or ability within the competency
area (e.g., Do you believe that your experience living on campus has contributed,
if any, to your development in intercultural competency?). The semi-structured
interviews were transcribed by a professional transcriptionist service. Research team
members completing each interview produced field notes and kept reflexive journals
(Creswell & Creswell, 2017; Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
Data Analysis
Data analysis was conducted using a thematic analysis (Nowell et al., 2017) of interview
transcripts. Each member of the research team reread all transcripts and field notes to
ensure familiarity with the data. We each generated a list of start codes on one transcript
and then compared codes. Based on this step, we agreed to an initial code list
and reviewed all remaining transcripts independently for coding. We discussed each
transcript as a research team to aid with trustworthiness and dependability (Lincoln &
Guba, 1985) as we searched for themes. After reviewing the emergent themes, we used
the start codes and secondary codes to author a narrative description of each theme
(Nowell et al., 2017).
Positionality
The term positionality describes both an individual's worldview and the position
they adopt about a research project and its larger social and political context (Foote
& Bartell, 2011; Rowe, 2014; Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Researchers can identify
and develop their positionality in three primary ways: locating themselves about the
subject, locating themselves about the participants, and locating themselves about the
research context and process (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Our team members were
interested in the phenomenon of study because each of us has encounters with and
interest in the on-campus experience being a dynamic living and learning environment.
The research team comprised a current undergraduate student who serves as a
peer career leader and housing professionals with backgrounds in programming and
assessment. Finally, we all work at the research site and were interested in examining
the phenomenon in order to inform new programming efforts for upper-division
students living on campus.
38 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

Journal of College & University Student Housing Vol 49, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of College & University Student Housing Vol 49, No. 1