Higher Education Commons^™

“I Tell Them Generics, But Not The Specifics”: Exploring Tensions Underlying Familial Support For First-Generation Latinx Undergraduate Students, Stephany Cuevas

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Families continue to play an essential role in the experiences of first-generation Latinx undergraduate students and can serve as powerful partners to support student retention and socioemotional wellbeing. This qualitative phenomenological study uses the notion of emerging adulthood to explore how first-generation Latinx undergraduate students (n = 16) conceptualize their families’ role in their college education. Specifically, this study shows that while students describe feeling supported by their families, they also experience distinct and unique tensions tied to this support, which students associate with their first-generation student status. These tensions include (1) the family’s unfamiliarity with college culture; (2) bidirectional …

From Counterspaces To Community:A Qualitative Case Study Analysis Of Black Community Making At A Pwi, Charles Watkins

Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how Black college students build and maintain a sense of community at a predominantly white institution (PWI). Informed by relational sociological methodology and the conceptual framework of Black placemaking, this study foregrounded the nuanced process of community building, focusing on the interplay between Black students and the spaces—physical and digital—they cocreate collectively. This study particularly emphasized the significance of the Black Student Union (BSU) as a foundational Black student organization at PWIs. The following lines of inquiry guided this study: (a) How do Black undergraduate students at a PWI define the Black community? (b) What …

Emotion Regulation Strategies And Perceived Emotional Intelligence: The Effect Of Age., Iwanna Sepiadou

Adultspan Journal

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. We also investigated the possible effects of age on the aforementioned variables. The total sample consisted of 379 people (158 men, 220 women, 1 unreported). Across participants, 273 were young (20-39 years old) and 106 were middle-aged (40-65 years old). We found statistically significant positive correlations between the dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of cognitive reappraisal and negative primarily correlations between the dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Social Capital And Its Influence On Baccalaureate Degree Completion Of First-Generation African American Men At The University Of Louisville., Joseph Marshall Goodman Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation was designed to examine influences which various forms of social capital have on post-secondary degree attainment of first-generation individuals who self-identify as African American men. Additionally, the sample population consisted of Black men who successfully matriculated to earn baccalaureate credentials across differing academic disciplines at a public historically White institution located in the mid-south region of the United States. The research data was extracted from one-on-one, semi-structured interviews using authentic dialogue through open-ended questions. Theoretical paradigms of the study involved a phenomenological approach and an ontological philosophical assumption, integrated with critical theory, critical race theory and social …

Round Ii: Exploring The Experiences Of Black, First-Generation Graduate And Professional Students At Historically Black Colleges And Universities (Hbcus), Derrick D. Lathan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This phenomenological study explores the experiences of Black, first-generation (first-gen) students pursuing advanced degrees at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), following the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice movements like Black Lives Matter. Additionally, this study examines the present-day motivations to pursue advanced degrees, particularly the benefits of doing so at an HBCU. The main research question guiding this study is: What are the experiences of Black, first-gen graduate and professional students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)? The sub-questions are:

1. How do Black, first-gen graduate and professional students describe being a first-gen student?
2. What barriers and supports impact …

Portraits Of Hispanic And/Or Latino Leadership Development In The Military, Michael Lugo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The study presented denotes a continuous transition among the Hispanic and/or Latino demographics in the military and the cadet accounts of military inequality incidents while in the military (Cabrera et al., 2017; Eckel & King, 2004). To assist Hispanic and/or Latino needs based on demographics and environment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Military leaders contribute to growing a diverse, inclusive, and equitable military force for all ethnic groups. The Department of Defense (DoD) is the most racially and ethnically diverse workplace in the United States (Daniel et al., 2022). Nevertheless, racial/ethnic harassment and discrimination in the military continue …

Critical Race Religious Literacy: Exposing The Taproot Of Contemporary Evangelical Attacks On Crt, Robert O. Smith, Aja Y. Martinez

Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

No abstract provided.

Culture And Community: The Importance Of Black Spaces In Community Colleges, La Quirshia Fennell

CGU Theses & Dissertations

At present, California community colleges serve a large proportion of Black students, but these students are not adequately supported to reach their educational goals (The Campaign for College Opportunity, 2019; National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2022; Cross & Carman, 2022 Simpson, J., & Bista, K., 2021). Extensive research documents the importance of culturally engaging campuses and student sense of belonging to academic success (Museus, 2014; Museus et al., 2017; Harper et al., 2009; Strayhorn et al., 2010; Sanders, 2016; Tichavakunda, 2020). A puzzle remains in understanding why these aspects of campus support may be falling short for Black students. I …

Racism Without Race: The Racialization Of Middle Eastern And North African Students At U.S. Colleges, Hannah Mesouani

Dissertations

Although a growing body of literature covers the experiences of international students at U.S. colleges, the stories of those who do not fit into the U.S. racial schema remain untold. This study examined how Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) students understood their racial identities given the United States’ tense history with Islam and the MENA world. Using foundational texts on critical race theory, current scholarship on Arab Americans and foreign-born students, and facets of the Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS), this study examined the experiences of MENA students who study amid a national backdrop of xenophobia and racialized Islamophobia. This …

Creating Systemic Support: Cross-Sector Partnerships As A Catalyst To Institutional Transformation For Southeast Asian Student Support, Brianna Lourdes Edoria Pascua

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper investigates the potential impact of cross-sector partnerships between nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and universities on the educational attainment of Southeast Asian American (SEAA) students, particularly those from disenfranchised or nontraditional backgrounds. Guided by the research question, "Can cross-sector partnerships between NPOs and universities contribute to increased educational attainment among SEAA students?", the study seeks to comprehensively explore SEAA student experiences, challenge the Model Minority Stereotype, enrich SEAA higher educational achievement literature, underline the significance of disaggregated data and cross-sector collaborations, and create an adaptable framework for other communities. By adopting an Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) lens, the research …

Stories To Challenge The Status Quo - Experiences Of Black Minority Ethnic Social Care Students In Ireland, Margaret Fingleton

Doctoral

This study examines Black Minority Ethnic social care students’ experiences in Ireland and is located within the parameters of a number of key global events that occurred in the last decade. It provides critical insights into the students lived experiences of migration, resettlement, employment, higher education and social care scholarship.

Theoretically the thesis is grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT) drawing on the key tenets of race as a social construction, interest convergence, White privilege, storytelling and intersectionality. A participatory research methodology was adopted which informed all phases of the study. Using a combined semi-structured interview/storytelling method the experiences of …

Racism And Resilience: Counter-Narratives Of Asian International College Students In The Age Of Covid-19, Katrina Liu, Richard Miller, Sharolyn D. Pollard-Durodola, Lei Ping

The Qualitative Report

Using Asian Critical Race Theory and Resilience Theory, this qualitative study explores how Asian international college students experienced racism before and after the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they developed and used resilience to counteract that racism. Eleven Asian participants shared their counter-narratives through semi-structured interviews. Results reveal that, before the pandemic, participants were regularly subjected to racist acts and attitudes grounded in a deficit view of Asians that treated them as inscrutable foreigners, blamed them as individuals for perceived shortcomings in their home countries, dismissed their expertise outside of technical STEM fields, and failed to recognize their …

“What’S Belonging Got To Do With It?”: An Exploration Of Campus Racial Climate And Sense Of Belonging In Black Counseling Students Attending Predominately White Institutions In The North Atlantic Region, Erin Durrah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dialogues are raging across campuses throughout the U.S. with specific focus on the needs of Black student populations in the aftermath of the George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbury murders. However, if the supportive spirit of the DEI initiatives is undermined by a hostile campus climate and local community, it may negatively impact the learning environment isolating the target population, while also effecting their potential for successful completion of their programs. The current qualitative study aims to explore the perceptions of belonging expressed by Black graduate students enrolled in Council for Accreditation of Counseling …

Changing College Graduation Rates Among New York City’S Latino Populations 1990 - 2020, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report examines changing college graduate rates between 1990 and 2020 among all Latinos in New York City and within the five largest population nationalities in 2020: Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, and Colombians.

Methods:

All data in this report were derived from the 1990 and 2020 American Community Survey 5-year survey samples found at IPUMS USA found at https://usa.ipums.org/usa/. See Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ronald Goeken, Megan Schouweiler and Matthew Sobek. IPUMS USA: Version 12.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2022. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V12.0 College graduation rates were calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau for the population 25 years of age …

Identity Dynamics Of Minority College Students, Nabil A. Mohamed

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Identity salience hierarchy is the idea that individuals hold their important identities on a metaphorical scale—activating them when the right situation calls for it. Moreover, the hierarchy is related to the notion of commitment, otherwise defined as the number of people and meaningful relationships associated with an identity. For most college students, their salience hierarchy shifts over time as their commitment to the student identity typically increases. When a shift in hierarchy occurs, there is a transformation in identity. However, for racial, ethnic, and religious minority students, their capacity to develop an identity independent of their minority background raises questions …

Community College Retention Initiative: A Qualitative Study On The Lived Experiences Of Black Males Entrenched In A Mentoring Program At One Associate-Level College In The Southeastern Region, Brandon Turnley

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the lived experiences of graduates of a Black Male Initiative (BMI) mentoring program at one associate-level College in the southeast region and the impact mentoring had on the participant's success at the college and its impact on obtaining their degree. Critical Race Theory (CRT) was the theoretical framework shaping the study, which acknowledges the centrality of race in every aspect of culture in the United States, including higher education. Three research questions guided this study (1) How do graduates of the mentoring program view their success with the program? (2) …

Campus Racial Climate, Boundary Work And The Fear And Sexualization Of Black Masculinities On A Predominantly White University, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This article presents data from a study of Black men and masculinities at a predominantly White university. I argue that the campus racial climate on predominantly White universities are important sites of boundary work where fear and sexualization of Black masculinities are normalized in ways that shape Black men’s social relations on college campuses. In doing so, I will share narrative data of how Black male college students perceive the campus racial climate, with a focus on how they are feared and sexualized in predominantly White spaces. I also analyze the ways in which they managed race, gender, and sexuality …

Cultivating Graduate Stem Pathways: How Alliance-Based Stem Enrichment Programs Broker Opportunity For Students Of Color, Ariana L. Garcia, Tonisha B. Lane, Blanca E. Rincón

Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education Faculty Research

To understand how higher education institutions broker graduate opportunities for Students of Color (SOCs) in STEM, we employ a single case study of a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) alliance. Drawing primarily from student interviews and informed by Small’s (2006) organizational brokerage theory, our findings illuminate how 1) alliance-based STEM enrichment programs (SEPs) bridge social capital via interorganizational networks and 2) how SEP instability creates barriers to building the trust that is central to the brokerage process. We conclude with recommendations for future research and practice.

Is Gallaudet Diverse? Creating An R Package To Measure Institutional Diversity, Emelia Beldon

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

One of the biggest trends in social science is the study of racial and ethnic diversity measures. Numerous scholarly articles and journals detail how important it is to encourage a racially and ethnically diverse community in higher education. However, the question remains: how do we accurately measure racial and ethnic diversity? Furthermore, how do we present the diversity in terms of statistics for best use? With this project, I answer these questions. I created an R software package, diversityGV, to measure institutional racial and ethnic diversity using the Generalized Variance mathematical approach. I then used diversityGV with a dataset from …

Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay responds to seven articles published in the same issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism on the use of Catholics & Cultures, a multimedia website, as a pedagogical resource for college classrooms. The site is deliberately presented in a fashion that undermines notions of center and periphery and presents Catholicism from a lay, lived-religion perspective as the multicultural faith that it is, minimizing reference to religious typologies. Particular attention is given to how to navigate tensions around theorizing, categorizing and sorting information for cross-cultural comparison. Given scholars’ current state of knowledge, writing about and teaching about global Catholicism …

Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Asian American Transracial Adoptees In College, Frances Elizabeth Mcdermott

Honors Program Theses

Asian American transracial adoptees are an underserved and underrepresented population in America, specifically on college campuses. The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of experiences lived by individuals in this group, focusing on their time in college. Through qualitative interviews, this research captured the feelings, opinions, and experiences of select individuals within this group. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with six separate participants via video chat. All participants attend(ed) the University of Northern Iowa, were 18 years of age or older, and were adopted from an Asian country into a White, American family. Results showed that …

A Study Of Social And Cultural Capital In Graduation For African American Students In Four-Year Colleges, Andrew Oni

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The prevalence of the persistent low graduation rate among African American students in four-year colleges gave rise to the examination of the role of social and cultural capital in improving graduation for African American students. This study examines the role played by the relationship between social and cultural capital and other factors for African American students’ graduation. Guided by social and cultural capital as the theoretical framework which presents social and cultural capital as acquired by parents’ and students' social networks and cultural endowment and tenets. These two levels of social and cultural capital are available for students to utilize …

The Experiences Of African American Men At Predominantly White Institutions Of Higher Education, After Successfully Transferring From A Community College, Keenan King

Dissertations

African American men complete post-secondary education among the lowest rates of any other subgroup in higher education (Brooms & Davis, 2017; Farmer & Hope, 2015; Palmer, Wood, Dancy, & Strayhorn, 2014; Warde, 2008). This study focuses on addressing this problem by attempting to understand the experiences of African American men who successfully navigate a higher education pipeline from community college to a four-year, predominantly White institution (PWI). Half of all African American men enter higher education at the community college level (Villavicencio, Bhattacharya, & Guidry, 2013); therefore, community college plays a key role in shaping their experiences in higher education …

“You’Re Almost In This Place That Doesn’T Exist”: The Impact Of College In Prison As Understood By Formerly Incarcerated Students From The Northeastern United States, Hilary Binda, Jill D. Weinberg, Nora Maetzener, Carolyn Rubin

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This qualitative study examines the immediate and lasting impact of liberal arts higher education in prison from the perspective of former college-in-prison students from the Northeastern United States. Findings obtained through semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated people are presented in the following three areas: self-confidence and agency, interpersonal relationships, and capacity for civic leadership. This study further examines former students’ reflections on the relationship between education and human transformation and begins to benchmark college programming with attention to the potential for such transformation. The authors identify four characteristics critical to a program’s success: academic rigor, the professor's respect for students, …

Latinx – African American Relations: Understanding The Perceptions Of Faculty, Administrators And Students In Two College Campuses, Nadarajan Sethuraju, Luis A. Posas

Sociology Department Publications

This study examines the relationship between Latinxs and African Americans in two mid-size colleges located in the southwestern region of the United States. An empirical study was conducted including students, faculty, and administrators using a survey as the main methodological technique. Guided by the group position model advocated by Herber Blumer, this study found evidence for the prevalence of intra-group associations and group competition for access to resources. In this regard, the study documents the existing perception that African Americans have better access to resources in the two college campuses which supports the zero-sum hypothesis favoring members of this group. …

Experiencing Financial Aid At A Historically White Institution: A Critical Race Analysis, Liane I. Hypolite, Antar A. Tichavakunda

Journal of Student Financial Aid

While scholars have looked at the intersection of financial aid and various identities, little work has examined how, if at all, race and racism are imbued into financial aid in higher education using qualitative inquiry. This paper begins that work by using a Critical Race Theory lens to analyze how, in the seemingly colorblind structure and process of financial aid, race matters. Using interview data collected from 35 Black juniors and seniors at a selective, historically White institution (HWI), the authors examine how race has informed students’ perceptions of themselves, their families, and their futures through their experiences with financial …

The Mere Mention Of Asians In Affirmative Action, Jennifer Lee, Van C. Tran

Publications and Research

Presumed competent, U.S. Asians evince exceptional educational outcomes but lack the cultural pedigree of elite whites that safeguard them from bias in the labor market. In spite of their nonwhite minority status, Asians also lack the legacy of disadvantage of blacks that make them eligible beneficiaries of affirmative action. Their labor market disadvantage coupled with their exclusion from affirmative action programs place Asians in a unique bind: do they support policies that give preferences to blacks but exclude them? Given their self- and group interests, this bind should make Asians unlikely to do so. We assess whether this is the …

(In)Visible Men On Campus: Campus Racial Climate And Subversive Black Masculinities At A Predominantly White Liberal Arts University, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

There is an emerging body of literature examining the academic success of Black men attending predominantly White colleges and universities, though less is known about Black college men’s experiences at liberal arts institutions. In this paper, I draw upon semi-structured and photovoice interview data from a study on Black male college students attending a predominantly White liberal arts institution in the USA. Specifically, I will present narrative and visual data of how Black college men perceive the campus racial climate and make sense of their (in)visibility at the university. Drawing upon poststructuralist theories of gender and critical race theory, I …

Addressing Minority Student Achievement Through Service Learning In A Culturally Relevant Context, Dottie Weigel, Julian D. Owens

Higher Education Faculty Scholarship

Research on recreational media use among youth indicates young people of color who spend more time with media may also be at higher risk for school disengagement and low personal contentment compared to their white peers. This puts these students in a position to be even more influenced by the themes and messages that abound in pop culture, particularly music and social media. ME: MIM is a multisensory, interdisciplinary, integrated approach to teaching and learning that uses music multimedia to engage students in individual and group activities and lessons that reinforces competencies aligned with positive youth development. Song lyrics, sound …

The Other Stares Back: Why “Visual Rupture” Is Essential To Gendered And Raced Bodies In Networked Knowledge Communities, Anita August

English Faculty Publications

This chapter addresses the Other’s Stare of gendered and raced bodies who visually rupture and resist their discursive formation in Networked Knowledge Communities (NKCs). New multimodal texts described as “texts that exceed the alphabetic and may include still and moving images, animations, color, words, music and sound” (Takayoshi & Selfe, 2007, p. 1), contribute greatly to the situated nature of knowledge production by NKCs in the postmodern “network society” (Castells, 1996). NKCs are learning communities that “proactively participate in building and advancing knowledges” (Gurung, 2014, p. 2). While NKCs are idealized as sites for progressive socio-political transformation, this chapter argues …