Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Education
“I Wanted To Know More”: A Narrative Exploration Of Community College Students’ Goals And Aspirations, Jason P. Vanora
“I Wanted To Know More”: A Narrative Exploration Of Community College Students’ Goals And Aspirations, Jason P. Vanora
The Qualitative Report
The literature on community colleges is overwhelmed by outcomes-oriented data concerning retention, attrition, and graduation rates. What we lack is a more complete understanding of why community college students choose to enroll in the first place. The current study seeks to fill this gap. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, students reported feeling motivated to attend community college by their desires to reconstruct themselves as scholars, make proud their families and communities of origin, achieve social mobility, and develop a more accomplished and purposeful sense of self. Implications of these findings for teaching and learning are discussed, as is the …
Developing And Implementing A Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program At The Community College, Mia Ocean, Kelli Tigertail, James Keller, Kathleen Woods
Developing And Implementing A Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program At The Community College, Mia Ocean, Kelli Tigertail, James Keller, Kathleen Woods
The Qualitative Report
Despite serving almost half of the U.S. undergraduate students, community colleges and their constituents are consistently marginalized in the research favoring external university experts to conduct research about them and on them. To counteract these top down, disempowering research practices, we piloted a Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program (PARAP). A PARAP is a modified version of a research assistantship program that is grounded in an anti-oppressive, participatory action research practice, creating change on many levels. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of practical and methodological steps to implement a PARAP at a community college including forming …