abstract: Peer coaching is an emerging approach higher education institutions are using to increase student success outcomes for first-year students. This study examined how peer coaches use their community cultural wealth with the students they coach and how coaching encouraged first-generation students to access the community cultural wealth they bring with them to college. The theoretical framework guiding this study was Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth. I used a qualitative approach and interviewed five peer coaches and conducted focus groups with 15 first-generation, first-year students who had received coaching. Findings indicate peer coaches used the six dimensions of community cultural wealth with students they coach, including aspirational, familial, linguistic, navigational, resistant, and social capital. Students also reported peer coaching helped them access their community cultural wealth, especially as compared to advising and faculty interactions. Three key differentiators emerged when comparing coaching to other forms of support: relatability, sense of belonging, and self-confidence. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Policy and Evaluation 2020

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abstract: There is tremendous value in bringing fresh voices and perspectives to theory and practice, as it is through these novel lenses that research advances in rich and more equitable ways. However, the importance of first-generation college students being involved in this process has been vastly underestimated and undervalued by researchers and practitioners alike. Extrapolating from interdisciplinary research on counterstorytelling and networked counterpublics, the aim of this study was to explore how the proposed theoretical model of networked counterstorytelling—as presented through a grassroots digital storytelling campaign—could create space for first-generation student voice and leadership to help inform current theoretical understandings of social capital and community cultural wealth. Using a multimethodological approach—combining large-scale network analytics with qualitative netnographic analysis (Kozinets, 2015)—this study (1) produced novel methods for measuring and analyzing social capital within social media communities and (2) demonstrated how grassroots digital storytelling campaigns, facilitated by the affordances of social media platforms such as Instagram, can function as means for inviting the leadership, voice, and perspectives of first-generation college students into the design of higher education research and practice. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2020

This study analyzes the relationship between motivation for civic engagement, migration experience, and identity, in first generation migrants. It draws upon the idea that civic engagement is beneficial for democratic societies in general, and that it can also be a source of great support for migrants in the process of integration into a new environment. So far, very little attention has been paid to the civic engagement of migrants in the Czech Republic, especially from the point of view of migrants themselves. This qualitative study aims towards a better understanding of the connections between migration and civic engagement. Personal histories of civic engagement of active migrants are analyzed, with an emphasis placed on the roles migration experience and ethnic/national identity shifts play in the process of civic engagement.

Retention has been a focus of universities and policy makers for decades. However, there is a gap in research of Pell-eligible and first-generation student retention and completion. Researchers have indicated that peers can influence retention of other students. Using the theories of Astin (1993) and Tinto (1993) as the framework, this study explored near-peer coaching effects on retention of Pell-eligible and first-generation students. The study focused on the College Possible Catalyze program which trains near-peer coaches for partnering institutions. near-peer coaches were assigned 120 first-time full-time Pell-eligible or first-generation students at two partnering institutions. The study compared the retention of students being coached and retention of students in the same categories not coached. A series of statistical analyses were conducted including chi-square, t-tests, and logistical regression in order to test for associations of retention of students with and without a coach, associations of GPA of students with and without a coach, and if there is a predictive association controlling for coach, Pell-eligible, and first-generation indicators. All analyses indicated a strong significance between coaching and both spring and fall retention in all groups. Students who were coached were retained at significantly higher rates than students without a coach. There was a positive significant association in GPA and coaching for both groups. Results indicated there were strong predictive association in retention controlling for Pell-eligible and first-generation factors. The results provide clarity on programming that can directly affect first-year retention in the Pell-eligible and first-generation populations.

There is little diversity among earned doctorates in the United States. First-generation college students are especially at-risk for not matriculating to a doctoral degree. This applied dissertation provided an understanding of the obstacles faced by first-generation college students in doctoral programs by studying alumni of the McNair Scholars Program. The study examined the components of the McNair Scholars Program that can help ameliorate obstacles faced by first-generation college students as they enroll and persist into graduate school. This study utilized a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach to evaluate the components of the McNair Scholars Program that prepared students for successful persistence into graduate school and subsequent completion of an earned doctorate.

College preparation for low-income, urban, minority students is the subject of this ethnographic case study. Previous research indicates that for these students the notion that college is the next step after high school graduation may be considered unrealistic, especially if parents or other family members lack postsecondary education experiences. This was a qualitative case study of one comprehensive urban high school located in a predominantly middle to upper class White neighborhood. People residing in this neighborhood were older and the majority no longer had children of high school age. Therefore, over half the student body (70%) were African-American teenagers bused from surrounding low-income, urban areas. The purpose of the study was to look for evidence of indicators believed necessary to create and foster a college-going culture in a low-income, urban, public high school. The findings suggested that students from lower socioeconomic groups, those with high aspirations, and even those who qualify for college acceptance, often lack the information and support necessary to negotiate the postsecondary application and enrollment processes. Adopting a college-going mission is as much a mentality as it is an objective, and requires active awareness and participation by all stakeholders including students, families, schools, and the community.

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This study has examined if there is a correlation between Offline Social Network and voting participation in the European Parliamentary elections. The study has been done through a qualitative method, doing five different deep interviews. The selection has been based upon the group of first generation immigrants coming from a non-EU European country. The study has showed indications that level of education, participation in associations and participation in social activities are affecting the Offline Social Network of a person. The different Offline Social Networks have shown upon different attitudes towards voting politically. It also showed upon different levels of knowledge about the European Union politics and the elections to the European Parliament. The study showed that the number of Offline Social Networks might not be what affects whether the respondents are voting or not, it shows to be rather connected to what kind of social networks. This have been connected to the field-theory of Bourdieu, which claims that a person´s habitus is affected by the volume of for example cultural and social capital which also seems to have an effect on what Offline Social Network that the individual is connected to. The way that a person appears in the social room is affected by the volume of capital and how the social room is letting the individual appear. This shows to affect whether someone votes or not.