Postmodern View of Advisement in Higher Education
American higher education and its academic advisement practices are founded on the modernist notions of rationality, prediction, and control. The postmodern perspective, which has evolved in the last three decades, suggests that the modernist perspective has become too limiting. This article briefly reviews the modern-postmodern debate and introduces the postmodern concept of chaos theory. Characteristics of chaos theories are used to evaluate contemporary academic advisement from the theoretical perspectives of modernist and postmodernist advisement.
Contributor Notes
Don Stowe is the director of the Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, an adult learner program, at the University of South Carolina. Academic/personal advisement is an integral function of his role. Dr. Stowe is frequently recognized by students for his interest in and devotion to excellent academic advisement. He can be contacted about this article via E-mail: dstowe@sc.edu.
