Experiencing and Promoting Student Civility at Two Catholic Universities in the United States: A Case Study
Open AccessThis an embedded multiple-case study aimed to find a working definition of student civility that reflects a wide array of perspectives of campus community members at two Catholic universities. The four research questions of this study were: How do administrators, faculty, and students at Catholic universities understand and define student civility on campus?; What are the respective student civility experiences of administrators, faculty, and students at Catholic universities?; How has the increased use of digital devices by students influenced student civility at Catholic universities?; How do administrators, faculty, and students at Catholic universities expect to promote student civility through missions and policies, campus programs, or courses? Social constructivism was used as a paradigm of inquiry, with the selected part of The Application of ‘Ex corde Ecclesiae’ for the United States as a conceptual framework. Data were collected from a review of institutional documents and analysis of interviews with administrators, faculty, and students from two Catholic universities. Institutional documents included the mission statements of both universities and student civility related campus units, student conduct policies, descriptions of student civility related centers and programs, and descriptions of core courses. From the review of institutional documents and the interview analysis, nine themes that represented commonalities and differences between the two universities were generated. The findings from this study highlight the following: a) the way each group of the participants—administrators, faculty, and students—identified and interpreted student civility issues reflected their distinctive place in their respective campus community; b) individual participant’s understanding, experiences, and expectations to promote student civility were interrelated with each other, affecting the overall perspective each participant developed on student civility within the Catholic institutional culture; and c) the unique founding principles of each institution, while staying within the Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholic social teaching, was found to affect participants’ understanding, experiences, and expectations to promote student civility on their respective campus. Based on the findings of this study, I proposed policy and practice recommendations to promote student civility.
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