Thesis advisor: Karen D. Arnold / For decades, critics have been calling attention to the slow pace of change in higher education (Cohen & March, 1974; Kliewer, 1999; Menand, 2010; Murray, 2008). This pace is clearly at odds with the significant reform necessary to meet the rapidly changing needs of and demands upon the system. Despite the inertia of the past, it seems imperative that we find approaches to innovation that will facilitate increased college access and cost management. This study examined one organization—College Unbound—that identifies itself as a potential disruptive innovation, an innovation that meets the needs of an underserved population, with the potential to “disrupt” the way entire sector operates (Christensen, 1997). Empirical applications of disruptive innovation theory to higher education are limited, and yet there is a strong rationale for its application to the challenge of increasing access and persistence. In an effort to increase understanding of how disruptive innovation might impact higher education, this study looked at how the characteristics of College Unbound and its relationship to the external environment affected the potential capacity of the organization to disrupt the field of higher education. One common characteristic of disruptive organizations is having a enough structural flexibility to respond to changing market and environmental needs (Christensen, 1997). At College Unbound, the primary pivot was a shift in the organization’s target population, from full-time traditional-aged college students in the first three years of the program, to a model of educating adult learners. This transition occurred in response to both the external market, and to tighten the alignment between College Unbound’s staff and internal resources. College Unbound has also faced concerns from both internal and external audiences because of perceptions about quality. To address these concern, College Unbound adapted by changing its internal configuration, and its external partners and relationship to the external environment. Based on these findings, implications for disruption and innovation in higher education are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This research study explores the ways in which articulations of belonging are expressed by a small number of second year education undergraduates in a post-1992 university in the UK. Issues of student engagement and belonging in Higher Education (HE) have been the subject of research within recent years as a way to enhance rates of student retention and success, as the Widening Participation agenda has realised a changing demographic within the traditional student body. This study focuses on the First Generation Student (FGS), as reflective of the non-traditional student, who is subject to a negative framing within the educational literary discourse. The research adopts a metaphorical lens to locate the FGS as migrant within the HE landscape and to consider HE institutional efforts to foster a sense of belonging, as a strategic tool for success, as a colonising process. Working within an ecological framing of the topic, the study focuses on the differing contexts within which the research participants operate and considers the impact these have upon student engagement with the university. As a way to foreground respectful working with research participants, a person-centred approach has been employed, using a narrative inquiry methodological framework. Voices of the participants, as narrators, are privileged within this study in order to afford them the opportunity to add to the ongoing conversation on belonging. Creative strategies, based upon photo- and metaphor-elicitation, have been employed to facilitate discussion of the abstract and intangible concept of belonging and to provide a participatory nature to this research study. Findings signal a strong resolve by these narrators to overcome obstacles in their path to success within what is often an unfamiliar terrain within HE. The potentiality of the individual is privileged, showing strengths that are brought to the world of study which are often unrecognised by university practices. The affective dimension of belonging is emphasised within the research and metaphors of belonging, articulated by the narrators, offer alternative conceptual structurings which privilege aspects to do with security and adventure. Such insights afford opportunities to view belonging from differing perspectives, to re-figure ways in which students see themselves within HE processes, and to alert staff and personnel to new ways in which they might view the non-traditional student. Aspects of valuing the diversity of students and of a person-centred approach to working are viewed as key to creating the possibilities for belonging.

This study was designed to investigate the experiences of first-generation women from South-Central Appalachia who completed a doctorate degree in educational leadership (EdD). Research indicates that nearly one third of doctoral recipients reported being first-generation, and the majority of these students concentrated in certain academic areas such as education. Furthermore, the literature suggests that there is a strong correlation between educational achievement levels and family background as well as cultural and geographic factors. While the amount of literature on minority groups has increased over the past 20 years, literature on the people and culture of Appalachia is limited. When first-generation status is paired with the challenges faced by females from Appalachia, such students could face particular issues that may impede their success. A qualitative, grounded theory approach was used for data collection and analysis. Ten face-to-face intensive interviews with women who met the criteria for this study were conducted. The purpose of these interviews was to enter into these women’s perspective, find out what was in and on their minds, and hear their stories. From the raw data 15 themes emerged which were 1) Support, 2) Parental Support), 3) Precollege Support, 4) Support from Precollege Orientation Experiences, 5) Support from Mentors, 6) Support from Cohorts, 7) Socioeconomic Status, 8) Intrinsic Motivation, 9) Transformation, 10) Self-Efficacy, 11) Persistence, 12) On Being Appalachian, 13) Kinship, 14) Dialect, and 15) Bicultural Identity. This research was significant because it was the first that looked specifically at the lived experiences of first-generation women from South-Central Appalachia who competed a doctorate of education EdD focusing on educational leadership and will contribute to the small body of research regarding first-generation, doctoral students.

The purpose of this study was to reveal the ways in which first-generation women in Tanzania explained their success in pursuing a university education despite cultural and social obstacles. Such obstacles include social policies, socio-cultural factors, and academic factors. A review of the literature revealed that issues such as patriarchy, proximity to schools, teenage pregnancy, domestic roles, religion, and initiation rituals serve as hurdles for women who seek to reach tertiary education. Ethnography was used to capture a deep slice of the women's background and educational experiences.

First-generation college students continue to have lower retention and success rates in colleges and universities, reducing their likelihood of staying above the poverty line. The study tested Bandura and Vygotsky's social cognitive theories of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and student ability to self-pace in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore if offering supplemental online materials to traditional class delivery, which can be self-regulated and self-paced, impacted students' success rates in the class and semester-to-semester retention. Using a quasi-experimental method, first-semester college students, in a small private liberal arts college (N = 678); were compared on use of supplemental online materials, parental college experience, and class success and the impact of these variables on student second-semester retention. Additional information was gathered on year-to-year retention, to consider if the independent variables had an impact on longer-term retention. Results of the chi-square test indicate a significant relationship between student success and student semester-to-semester and year-to-year retention (p < .001). Logistic regression analysis indicates a significant relationship between the number of online supplemental materials available and student retention rates (p =.033). These findings demonstrate that increasing students' success in classes and increased online material offerings significantly increase long-term undergraduate student retention. By increasing high-risk students' chance for academic success, this can create social change by increasing their retention and graduation rates and increasing the likelihood they will have higher income and are less at risk for long-term poverty and the challenges associated with it.

This study aims to measure the wage gap between the white and Mexican population residing in the United States. It also looks at male and female first- and second-and-higher generations in both white and Mexican populations. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) is used for the years 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. This study finds that first-generation white males are negatively affected by the wage gap, while second-and-higher-generation Mexican females have continuously benefited from the wage gap over the past thirty years.

Greater knowledge of specific populations? perception of the capacity for change will assist leadership practitioners in the design and implementation of effective leadership programs. These leadership programs will hopefully prepare students to lead effectively in a rapidly changing society where a strong capacity for change is needed. This study examined three specific populations of undergraduate students who participated in the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership in 2006. The three populations of interest were first generation college students, transfer students and male students. The purpose of the study was to determine the self-perceived capacity to adapt to change for selected college student populations based on the Social Change Model of Leadership (Appendix A). A second purpose was to determine differences in this self-perceived capacity to adapt to change between and among these selected college student populations. Responses to the 10 individual items of the Change Scale (MSL) were measured and analyzed to determine if any significant differences and/or interactions existed in the data. The results of this study inform the design of both Academic and Student Affairs student leadership development programs to enhance the leadership development of these selected student populations. The research design for the study included the use of descriptive statistics, a correlation matrix to examine the relationships of the 10 individual items of the change scale, and a 3X10 MANOVA. These tests and measures were utilized on all three independent variables (generational status, transfer status and gender) and the 10 individual items of the change scale within the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale. This study identified distinct differences between/among the three populations of interest and provided numerous recommendations for practice such as tapping into the unique life experiences of transfer and first generation college students to learn more about their stronger capacity for managing change and specifically recruiting students from the three populations of interest to assist in the delivery of change-related curriculum within leadership programs. Another recommendation was made for leadership practitioners to utilize the Social Change Model of Leadership development to help with the development of leaders who will share a commitment to positive change at the individual, group and community levels.

First generation (FG) students are twice as likely as their non-first generation peers to drop out of college (Chen, 2005), experiencing a host of challenges related to their FG status including poor academic preparation, limited familial support, nonstrategic college learning beliefs and processes, and problematic coping with academic disappointment. FG students who earn low grades often attribute these outcomes to an uncontrollable factor such as low intelligence (Dweck & Leggett, 1998) rather than a more controllable factor such as poor preparation for success or misunderstanding of the path to success. Some FG students matriculate through college successfully despite their risk status and one reason might be FG students who exhibit more self-compassion in the face of perceived or actual low grades are resilient even with their risk status. The study investigated relations between self-compassion for poor academic performance and the learning beliefs and processes (i.e., motivation, goal orientation, fixed theory of intelligence, self-efficacy, anxiety, and fear of failure) of FG students using hierarchical regression. Overall, findings suggested that students with more self-compassion had more strategic learning beliefs and processes on ten out of eleven variables, regardless of their FG status. FG students did have a lower GPA and however only Asian FG students had less strategic learning beliefs in their fixed theory of intelligence. Contrary to hypotheses, however, as a group FG students did not have less self-compassion. Further research is needed on contextual factors surrounding FG status in other FG student populations. / text

“First-generation college student” is a category ubiquitous in higher education literature due to the social mobility this group has the potential of deriving from educational attainment. However, the first category is comprised of a diverse group of students who do not share any other common research construct, such as race/ethnicity, culture, immigrant status, or socioeconomic status. In addition, the literature often conceives of firsts from a deficit standpoint, blaming the students for lack of success attaching low expectations to students’ identity. In addition, although the literature implies that an intersectional approach would be appropriate for understanding this population, no work to date has attempted to apply an explicitly intersectional framework or considered probing the boundaries of the category itself. The goals of this study, therefore, were to understand the narratives of successful firsts at a highly selective institution in order to understand how students’ intersectional identities shaped their educational trajectories, and to understand the impact of utilizing a socially constructed and deficit-oriented category in research and practice. To achieve these aims, this study utilized a visual narrative analytic method. Seventeen successful participants self-identified as firsts and participated in two one-on-one interviews and took or found pictures relating to their pre-college and college experiences. I found that firsts made meaning of their multiple, intersecting identities in diverse ways. Although students had internalized conceptions of first status as a detriment to their educational opportunities, they were able to reframe this deficit as success through the American dream storyline. In addition, students’ multiple identities intersected and informed their educational trajectories in unique and individualized ways. These identities flowed through the constructs of personal characteristics, familial characteristics, and characteristics that were negotiated in personal and familial contexts. Students conceptualized success being intrinsically linked to learning, contributing to future generational success, and saw themselves as making contributions to the academy via the ideas of service and diversity. Students were able to reframe negative societal expectations, focus on learning as a goal in and of itself, and associate success with self in way that suggests that examining firsts through any single identity frame limiting in understand the ways they navigate and make meaning of their experiences. In addition, students saw themselves as making unique contributions to the academy via service and diversity. The present study offers conceptual maps to explain how students talked about their identities as well as the notion of success. I also offer suggestions for research, theory, policy, and practice. / text

Paying back student loans is a challenge for many Canadians. Seven female students who belong to the category of the first generation group shared their experience of student loan-debt. Since the amount of financial support is limited or unavailable, student loans are an option for those families who cannot provide financial support for their children to participate in higher education. This thesis deploys the experience of first generation women student loan borrowers as a part of the growing role of finances in higher education. It examines their stories of negotiation and challenges from the perspective of feminist social enquiry. Participants shared their present situation, future planning, and overall experience of taking student loans. Above all, this study attempts to explore those aspects of life of first generation females which are affected through the process of repaying student loans.