‘Invisible in a visible role’: a photovoice study exploring the struggles of new resident assistants

ABSTRACT

Past studies revealed that Resident Assistants’ (RAs) behavioural patterns are related to experiences and life outcomes of student residents. In this paper, the researchers aimed to investigate the struggles that new RAs encounter in university residential halls in Hong Kong, and to provide practical recommendations based on the findings. Photovoice was adopted to facilitate the participatory approach of the study; and six new RAs were recruited from different residential halls in a university for one semester to co-construct reliable knowledge. Four domains of struggles were identified in the study; difficulties to blend in, levels of involvement, workloads and performance, and role ambiguity. Further research is needed in different contexts to provide more insights to refine policies and approaches for better RAs’ residential environment, as it is believed that by improving their residential experiences, it can further enhance students’ residential experiences and foster positive residence life outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Resident experiences
• resident assistants
• higher education
• participatory research
• educational policy
• educational practices

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle W.T. Cheng

Michelle W.T. Cheng is a postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate School, Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests lie in the area of student wellbeing and development, including student motivation, holistic competency development and residential education. Michelle is currently a senior resident tutor in the university, she has been a member of the university hall community for more than six years, dedicated in bringing educational value in the residential hall settings.

Cecilia K.Y. Chan

Cecilia K.Y. Chan is the Head of Professional Development at the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. Cecilia has dual discipline expertise in engineering and education as well as rich experiences in research, training and teaching. Her research areas include holistic competency development, assessment in higher education and engineering education.