Adult students comprise a significant percentage of community college enrollments. However, these students have consistently completed college programs at lower rates than traditional-aged students. Community college structures, including student advisement, often align primarily with the needs of traditional-aged students. This has resulted in a…

Within the past ten to fifteen years, there has been a trend among churches to downsize staff and eliminate the role of "Minister of Education." With these changes in staff structure, a need has emerged for assistance in evaluating adult educational programming within the church. For this project, a process was developed called the Adult…

Emerging adults in rural, boom-bust economies face unique challenges, especially in employment and education. Drawing on emerging adult and social disruption hypothesis literatures, this study examined four primary research questions. First, how do emerging adults in rural boom-bust towns in southwest Wyoming understand and experience boom-bust…

State and national initiatives focused on meeting student completion goals have been established for higher education to help produce a stronger workforce and meet economic labor market demands. Some of these initiatives have been centered around improving adult learner enrollment and completion. More adult learners are returning to higher…

California Community College campuses are struggling to enroll Latinx students. As identified through the literature, most Latinx students navigate the college enrollment process with little to no guidance and seek support in navigating it. Using Yosso's (2005) community cultural wealth framework, I investigate how Rose Grace College's Familias…

Adult learners in community college encounter barriers in a world that does not recognize their needs. This action research investigation explored the barriers adult learners faced in a community college in California and examined how targeted academic counseling interventions informed the students about essential supports and services available…

The New Normal is rooted in adult learning theory, which explains how adults learn and why they learn in these aspects. This foundation is then supported by two pillars: cultural capital and the career pathways model. According to Bourdieu, cultural capital is the non-fiscal aspect of a person's education, social status, and language. Career…

Due to a decline in civic engagement as well as civic education initiatives, many adults are left without opportunities to be able to learn more about the skills and knowledge needed to participate within society. This dissertation documents civic education initiatives offered to adults in Central Texas. The research questions guiding the study…

For the first time in United States history, five of the six living generations matriculate together through college classrooms. The ever more rapid speed of change in the past 100 years has stimulated each generation's increasingly singular developmental experience resulting in ever expanding "generation gaps." In community colleges,…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to discover the asynchronous online learning experiences that support learning motivation for community college degree-seeking non-traditional adult learners in the United States. The theoretical framework guiding this study is Knowles' andragogy adult learning theory. The utilization of…

The problem in this study is lack of research regarding perceptions of first-year nontraditional students (FYNTSs) who are enrolled in a face-to-face community college course regarding how mobile learning in the classroom affects their emotional engagement. Understanding this provides critical insights as well as enhanced and more accessible…

A quantitative predictive correlational study was conducted to find to what extent, if any, gender and adult student status, individually or in combination, moderates the predictive relationships between resilience and self-regulated strategies of Goal Setting (GS), Environment Structuring (ES), Task Strategies (TS), Time Management (TM), Help…

For the purposes of this study, criteria for non-traditional students were: adults ages 25 and older, race/ethnicity, gender, entry date or transfer to a community college in Middle Tennessee during fall 2015 through summer 2021, and Pell/Grant eligibility. The problem is that non-traditional students have lower completions than traditional…

Student veterans face a multitude of transitions throughout their life, with the initial transition into the military as a civilian, the possibility of multiple transitions throughout their enlistment, and the transition from military service to readjusting to life as a civilian following discharge. As veterans reintegrate into society, some…

This study investigates the critical literacy practices of adult learners at a community college. Student participants were selected from four different leveled reading courses. In this study, four guiding questions that were adopted from Klenner and Sandretto (2011): (1) How do students make personal connections to text?; (2) In what ways do…