Family Matters. Or Does It? Family Involvement In American Education, Isaiah Fink Avraham Cohen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“Family Matters. Or Does It?” uses select data and waves from the 1996-2016 Parents and Family Involvement in Education Surveys to investigate the following research questions in its efforts to probe the influence of familial involvement: (1) Does child behavior influence family involvement; (2) has the effect of family involvement on academic performance persisted over the past two decades; (3) does school selection influence family involvement; and (4) are homeschooling families monolithic in their involvement? Results indicate that behavior has unique associations with involvement, with no support being found for the reactive involvement hypothesis. Family involvement has a generally positive …

The Perceptions Of Foster Care Alumni's Experiences With Four-Year Post-Secondary Institutions: A Case For Capital And Field Advantage, June M. Durio

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The focus of this study was to explore, through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu’s constructs of habitus, field, and capital, the post-secondary experiences of foster youth who transitioned out of the Louisiana foster care system. Specifically, this comparable multiple case study sought out to understand how cultural, social, and financial capital influenced the post-secondary educational outcomes of foster care alumni as compared to first-generation and continuing-generation students. Seven common themes emerged from the study: predisposing factors towards post-secondary education; values, knowledge, and skills associated with post-secondary education attainment; informal and formal social networks facilitating post-secondary support; financial resources addressing …