Voices from the field: developing third space leadership in advising

This chapter examines the complexity and uniqueness of higher education as an organization and culture. Whitchurch’s framework outlined how positionality and identity in the advising space might influence and inform the enactment of the role in higher education organizations. Higher education organizations are complex; academic advising administrators must appreciate and navigate within this environment. The chapter considers and situates the role and identity of academic advising administrators as “integrated practitioners” and “third space professionals” within the academy. It addresses the ambiguity of their positions as administrators who must effectively navigate both the academic and bureaucratic cultures of the academy and the challenges they face to establish advising as significant and scholarly. The chapter advances the role of academic advising administrators as integrated practitioners with the knowledge and skills to navigate the third space between the academic and professional domains of colleg