Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cultural Capital, Habitus, College Persistence And Graduation Among Black Immigrant-Origin Undergraduates: A Basic Interpretive Qualitative Study, Erica M. Richards Chew

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Black immigrant-origin students are a significant sub-population of the total Black college student population, and they are persisting and graduating more frequently than Black U.S.-origin students. This study explored cultural capital and habitus and how they shaped the college persistence and graduation of Black immigrant-origin undergraduates and alumni from four-year postsecondary institutions. A basic interpretive qualitative design, guided by cultural capital theory, was used to explore thirteen Black-immigrant-origin students’ and graduates’ perspectives in-depth; and to describe their subjective meanings, actions, and social contexts from their point of view. Participants grew up with a habitus of achievement that came from the …

Exploring How Community College Transfer Students Experience Connection In A Commuter University, Christa Michelle Zinke

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last 40 years, the expansion of the U.S. community college system resulted in a growing number of students choosing to begin their undergraduate education at a two-year institution and then transfer to a four-year institution. However, many students struggle to establish connection after transferring, especially if they transfer into a commuter university. For many college students, feelings of engagement and connection influence their persistence decisions. Using Tinto's (1975; 1993) and Astin's (1984) theories of student persistence as a framework, the purpose of this in-depth interview study is to explore how commuter community college students who transfer to Portland …

Enabling And Threatening Factors Affecting Persistence. A Qualitative And Quantitative Study On Rural First-Generation Stem Students’ And Stem Faculty's Perspectives., Travis A. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study focuses on the factors that enable and threaten rural first-generation STEM students’ persistence. Limited empirical studies are available that focus on rural first-generation STEM majors’ persistence. Quantitative analysis was conducted using Kruskal Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests to determine any significant differences with the survey results. Content and thematic analysis was conducted on the student and faculty interviews to determine themes of enabling and threatening factors affecting persistence.

Enabling factors affecting persistence were found to be: Drive or Motivation, Experiences and skills, and Support. These were both faculty and student interview themes whereas a …