This dissertation explored what contributed to Southeast Asian students' persistence in an urban community college in the Midwest. A qualitative case study was used to reveal how Southeast Asian students perceived personal and educational experiences and how those experiences created an impact on their persistence. This project addressed the lack…

Communities continue to establish, promote, and monitor the educational outcomes of their citizenry through both explicit and implied norms. Community attributes influence the pursuit of education and level of education completed by individual citizens. The influencers within communities can be attributed to common constructs of communities…

Objective: States increasingly create promise programs to increase college enrollment and degree attainment. The objective of this study was to understand the experiences of adult learners using the Tennessee Reconnect Grant (TN Reconnect) as they transitioned to becoming college students. Methods: Drawing upon interviews with 23 adult learners,…

The purpose of this study was to understand African American male students' experiences and perceptions of racial microaggressions at a community college. The qualitative study, through the use of in-depth interviews with six African American male identified students, sought to answer the following research questions: (1) How do African American…

This qualitative study was a life history multiple case study investigating the issue of student retention at community colleges in Hawai'i using oral interviewing as a primary method of data collection. The purpose of the current study was to investigate what role motivation played in a student's decision to persist at a community college in…

Despite improvements in college access, college completion rates remain low among students from low-income and otherwise vulnerable families. Over the past three decades, college prices rose dramatically, the real income of most families stagnated, and the purchasing power of need-based financial aid declined. To make up for substantial unmet…

Multiple approaches have been used in U.S. community colleges to address the learning needs of postsecondary students who are underprepared in basic skills math. The purpose of this exploratory interview study was to gain a deeper understanding of community college basic skills math learning through instructors' lived experiences using the…

As the largest post-secondary educational system, community colleges enroll nearly 35% of all college students (American Association for Community Colleges, 2014). However, the vast majority of students attending two-year institutions aspiring to vertically transfer (from community college to four-year institution), fall short of their academic…

Adopting a qualitative case study methodology, the present study illuminates how two multilingual students enrolled in a U.S. community college ESL class negotiated the sociocultural norms valued in their multiple communities to make investment in learning English in college. Drawing on Gee's theory of Discourse and identity (1996) and Norton's…

The unique experiences of community college transfer students have not been explored at public, four-year universities. Most of the research on the experiences of community college students is based on quantitative research methods, which fail to provide a comprehensive understanding of the nature of students' lived experiences. This qualitative…

This study demonstrates that institutional agents at the community college make a significant difference in the lives of students by supporting them during the transfer process. This study brings a critical perspective to the education field by giving a voice to institutional agents at the community college level. Utilizing the social capital…

Latino students represent the fastest-growing population in the state of California, the United States, and the California Community College (CCC) system. Unfortunately, compared to other ethnic groups, Latino community college students continue to lag academically. Given the importance of counseling services and the scarce research related to…

Drawing on a case study of 60 low-income single mothers in California, I present a grounded account of the barriers and supports single mothers encounter in their pursuit of postsecondary education (PSE) and detail what the women themselves attributed to their success. I highlight the role both significant others (peers, family, friends) and…

The understanding of Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students, beyond stereotypes, has been limited (Museus, 2009). Although literature on transfer students has grown, the limited research on AAPI transfer students is lacking. A more accurate portrayal of their academic progress needs to be examined. One of the ways to better understand…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of experienced individual online students at a community college in Texas in order to generate a substantive theory of community college student perceptions of online instructor presence. This qualitative study used Active Interviewing and followed a Straussian grounded-theory design to…