“They Never Told Me What to Expect, So I Didn't Know What to Do”: Defining and Clarifying the Role of a Community College Student

Abstract

Background Low community college completion rates are an area of concern for policymakers and practitioners. Although many students require developmental education upon entry, research suggests that even students who are deemed “college-ready” by virtue of their placement test scores or completion of developmental coursework may not earn a credential, suggesting that college readiness encompasses more than academic skill. Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide an empirically grounded description of the role of the community college student. Drawing on sociological role theory, we articulate the largely unspoken expectations, behaviors, and attitudes to which students must adhere if they are to be successful. In doing so, we begin to clarify a piece of the college success puzzle that has heretofore been underexamined. We also extend current literature on college persistence by integrating theories of psychosocial identity, social roles, and college persistence. Research Design The study uses qualitative data from semistructured interviews conducted with community college students (n = 97) and faculty and staff (n = 72) from a study of student success courses in three community colleges in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). We examined a subset of interview questions investigating the expectations that staff and faculty hold of community college students. We used analytic induction to categorize disparate expectations into discrete components of the community college student role. Findings Relying on sociological conceptions of the role, we find that the demands and expectations placed on community college students are different from other social positions with which individuals are familiar, particularly with regard to the level of fluidity and demands for self-awareness. We also identify four distinct components of the role of community college student: academic habits, cultural know-how, balancing multiple demands, and help seeking. Conclusions Our data clarify the nonacademic components of college success that contribute to academic readiness. We also find agreement between our data and other college persistence literature focused on other student populations. Our findings extend current understandings of the psychosocial transition to college by paying attention to the cultural elements of the community college student role. This paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

A community college intervention program: The affordances and challenges of an educational space of resistance.

“…opportunities to explore how smaller academic spaces may support previously underserved students. Karp and Bork (2012) argued that the community college landscape can pose challenges for students who may struggle to belong or to navigate different spaces on campus. Holland et al's (2001) figured worlds framework has offered a new way for educational research to examine the affordances and challenges of educational figured worlds and the ways in which students navigate different spaces (e.g., Desai, 2016;Morgan et al, 2015;Urrieta et al, 2011).…”

“…The research discussed in this article builds on earlier scholars (e.g., Ivanič, 1998; Karp & Bork, 2012; Urrieta, 2007; Urrieta, Martin, & Robinson 2011) to continue to uncover college students’ conceptions of themselves in their progress through institutions of higher education, with particular attention to how different academic spaces can influence that conception. In looking at particular spaces, researchers are able to better see malleability in identities, which Sfard and Prusak (2005) argued are “man-made and as constantly created and re-created in interactions between people” (p. 15).…”

“…Community college campuses play an important role in offering transformative spaces to historically underserved students. In 2015, almost 6.3 million American students were enrolled in a 2-year college (Ginder, Kelly-Reid, & Mann, 2015), and it is more often first-generation college students, low-income students, and language-minority students who attend these institutions in hopes of earning a certificate or transferring to a 4-year institution (e.g., Brock, 2010; Bunch, Endris, Panayotova, Romero, & Llosa, 2011; Karp & Bork, 2012; Olsen, 2003; Roueche & Roueche, 1993). Often these students face greater barriers in completing their academic goals (Aud et al, 2012; Bailey, Jenkins, & Leinbach, 2005) because of a combination of an often-inhospitable institutional climate that relies on remediation (e.g., Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010; Deil-Amen, 2011; Grimes & David, 1999; Roueche & Roueche, 1993) and placement procedures (Bunch & Endris, 2012; Venezia, Bracco, & Nodine, 2010) as well as greater personal (e.g., Cox, 2010; Ivanič, 1998; Jenkins, 2011), linguistic (Kanno & Harklau, 2012), and economic (Leese, 2010) demands than do their peers in 4-year institutions.…”

“…Focusing instead on students' identities and spaces in which those identities can be fostered, new opportunities emerge for students to be framed as agentive and complex instead of simply underprepared. Karp and Bork (2012) noted that "persistence theories focus on the role that students' identities and sense of self play in persistence . .…”

A high-impact practice for online students: the use of a first-semester seminar course to promote self-regulation, self-direction, online learning self-efficacy

“…The content and structure of First-Year Seminars vary across institutions. First-year experience initiatives consist of programs that promote active learning (Eckton & Palfreyman, 2017), study skills (Kimbark et al, 2017), time and stress management (Crisp & Taggart, 2013), relationship-building between students and instructors (Tinto, 2012), awareness of the environment (Tinto, 2012), a sense of belonging and selfefficacy (Tinto, 2012), and institutional expectations (Karp & Bork, 2014). Despite the differences in the characteristics and formats of such interventions, they are critical to student persistence.…”