This dissertation takes a three-article approach in which the literature from public administration, political psychology and sociology is synthesized around student veterans as a new phenomenon in higher education and public policy. By examining student veterans through the Social Construction of Target Populations (SCTP) framework, these articles contribute to the theoretical understanding of how social identity at the group and individual levels impact a target population's understanding of and reaction to a policy that does not always align with the policy-makers' intent. Because the current SCTP literature has focused on how policy-makers construct target populations and the practices they use to mitigate any negative effects of policy feedback, these articles offer a new perspective by applying symbolic interactionism as a method for capturing the two-way interaction between the target population and the policy's intent. The articles focus on the policy feedback mechanism in the SCTP framework to explain why and how policies shape the identities of target populations, and how they in turn, engage in the policy process by first presenting student veterans as a new social concept, then presenting a case study of how an organization that represents student veterans achieved policy change, and finally, interviewing veterans, revealing that their individual interpretation of the policy is not always representative of the student veteran identity as constructed by policy-makers and advocates. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation takes a three-article approach to understanding how and why student veterans are different from other veterans based upon the latest policy changes to expand educational benefits available through the G.I. Bill. The first article describes what policy-makers and veterans’ organizations claim a student veterans is – a Post 9/11 veteran pursuing higher education that will lead to a career or fulfill the needs of 21st Century jobs. The second article presents a case-study of how an organization that represents student veterans was able to engage in the policy-making process and succeed in achieving policy changes that resulted in the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, also known as the Forever G.I. Bill. The third article focuses on the factors influencing veterans’ decision-making process about when and how to use their educational benefits based on how they understand and interpret the policy. All three articles provide a new perspective on the ways in which policy-makers and advocacy groups can create a new social identity group, such as student veterans, and design and implement policies based on the assumptions these policy actors have about the group. However, at the individual level, student veterans might not always behave in the way policy-makers expect them to, causing student veterans to use or not use their educational benefits based on their perceptions of what the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill means to them.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/101734 |
| Date | 14 July 2019 |
| Creators | Krewson, Rosa Castillo |
| Contributors | Government and International Affairs, Dull, Matthew M., Pencek, Bruce, Edisis, Adrienne T., Roberts, Patrick S., Cook, Brian J. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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