Education Commons^™

Pathways To Success For African American Students At Predominately White Institutions: A Qualitative Study Exploring Academic Readiness, Jeffery Jackson

Dissertations

African American students’ completion of post-secondary education is among the lowest of any other subgroup in higher education (Banks & Dohy, 2019; Broom, 2018; Carter- Francique et al., 2015; Cokley et al., 2016; Dulabaum, 2016; Karkouti, 2016; Moragne-Patterson & Barnett, 2017; Strayhorn, 2017). This study focuses on addressing this problem by exploring the academic and social experiences of African American college students who persisted at a regional predominantly White institution (PWI) in the Midwest and secure information that can be used to improve their graduation rates.

To address this issue, this study is designed to explore initiatives and practices that …

College Adjustment, Belongingness, Academic Self-Efficacy, Persistence, And Academic Success Among First-Generation College Students, Heather R. Highhouse

Dissertations

Previous research has compared the impacts of college adjustment, belongingness, and academic self-efficacy on first-generation and continuing-generation college students. However, the impacts of these factors on academic success (GPA) and persistence of first-semester, first-generation college students have not been investigated. The primary purpose of this study was to examine college adjustment and belongingness for first-semester, first-generation college students, with a focus on race and gender. This study also examined the impact of academic self-efficacy (i.e., course self-efficacy and social self-efficacy), college adjustment, and belongingness for academic success (GPA) and persistence of these students. The roles of race and gender in …

Experiences Of African American Female First Generation College Students, Ashley Green

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenology study was to gain a better understanding of the experiences of African American, female, first generation college students attending a large, predominantly White research university and to understand what motivates them. The major research question guiding this study was: How do African American, female, first generation college students (in good academic standing) describe their college experience? The researcher asked the participants to discuss their challenges, how they responded to challenges, sources of motivation, and factors that contributed to their success in college.

Through individual, face to face, interviews with 10 African American, female, FGC …