ERIC Number: EJ1432879
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2769-4879
EISSN: EISSN-2769-4887
"To Make This Leap": Understanding Relationships That Support Community College Students' Transfer Journeys
Journal of Postsecondary Student Success, v3 n4 p103-131 2024
For too many community college students, transferring to a four-year institution for a bachelor's degree (i.e., vertical transfer) remains an unrealized aspiration. Prior research suggests that forms of capital can assist students in realizing their goals. Therefore, we sought to explore how relationships both within and outside of their institutions serve as sources of capital to support students' vertical transfer journeys. Utilizing a qualitative research design, we applied Putnam's (2000) two forms of social capital (bridging and bonding) and eight social support-related constructs from Moser's (2013) expanded transfer student capital framework to data from focus groups and interviews with 33 pre- and post-transfer students. We found that participants actively constructed a patchwork of supportive relationships with both institutional agents and individuals external to the institution, which they utilized to search for, gather, and employ transfer capital. Our findings highlight that relationships outside of institutions are as crucial as relationships within the institution as sources of capital for vertical transfer students, suggesting a need to incorporate extra-institutional relationships into transfer capital frameworks and institutional initiatives to support transfer students. We also recommend institutions invest in programs designed to build students' social and transfer capital.
Descriptors: Community College Students, College Transfer Students, Social Support Groups, Interpersonal Relationship, Social Capital, Student Experience
Center for Postsecondary Success at Florida State University. 1114 W Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306. Web site: https://journals.flvc.org/jpss/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Ohio
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A