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Publication Reconciling the knowledge of scholars & practitioners: An extended case analysis of the role of theory in student affairs(2016-01-01) Kimball, EzekielThis paper utilizes a critical post-pragmatist epistemological lens in tandem with an extended case analysis to explore how student affairs professionals process truth claims related to student experience. Findings from the study, which include the limited usage of formal theory and the iterative reconstruction of informal theory, are used to demonstrate the utility of critical, theory-engaged methodology in educational research. Implications for future research and methodological decision-making are offered.Publication Being Black (and) Immigrant Students: When Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity Collide(2017-01-01) George Mwangi, Chrystal A.; English, ShelviaWhile Black immigrants share some of the racialized experiences of native-Black Americans, they also have distinctive experiences. U.S. education presents an important environment to investigate these experiences as immigrants have the fastest growing child population and these children are increasingly entering the education system. This paper engages a systematic review of the growing body of literature centering on Black immigrants across the U.S. P-20 pipeline (preschool through graduate school). Findings reveal that the presentation of Black immigrants is incomplete in terms of the frameworks and research designs used to examine their educational experiences, pointing to a larger issue of a single narrative concerning this group.Publication Engaging Disability: Trajectories of Involvement for College Students with Disabilities(2017-01-01) Kimball, Ezekiel; Friedensen, Rachel; Silva, EltonThis study draws on the narrative accounts of eight students with disabilities at a small liberal arts college in order to understand the connections between disability and student engagement. We found that disability plays a mediating role in the classroom; there are variations in access to institutional support; supportive peer networks are important’ and disability identity has a variable salience for these students. We also found that engagement for students with disabilities is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted. We include recommendations for supporting engagement for students with disabilities as well as suggestions for future research.Publication Financial Planning for College: Parental Preparation and Capital Conversion(2017-01-01) Manly, Catherine A.; Wells, Ryan S.; Bettencourt, GeniaThis study explores the conversion of cultural capital into economic capital, and specifically financial capital in the form of parental financial planning for children’s college education, including reported financial preparations and savings. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002), logistic regression-based analyses of aspects of cultural capital indicated that parental involvement exhibited the most prevalent relationship with financial planning and the amount saved, and that parents’ expectations, but not their aspirations, corresponded to engagement in financial planning. Findings support the conclusion that some parents convert part of their cultural capital to financial capital in preparation for paying for their child’s college education, perhaps representing a typically hidden facet of social class reproduction.Publication Researching Students with Disabilities: The Importance of Critical Perspectives(2015-01-01) Vaccaro, Annemarie; Kimball, Ezekiel; Wells, Ryan S.; Ostiguy-Finneran, Benjamin J.In this chapter, the authors critically review the current state of quantitative research on college students with disabilities and examine the exclusion of this marginalized population from much of our research. They propose ways to conduct research that more fully accounts for this diverse and important college population. The authors argue that critical quantitative research will produce more thorough knowledge and, in turn, policies and practices that will lead to more equitable college outcomes for students with disabilities.Publication Student Affairs Professionals Supporting Students with Disabilities: A Grounded Theory Model(2016-01-01) Kimball, Ezekiel; Vaccaro, Annemarie; Vargas, NadiaIn an action-based grounded theory project, the authors collected data from 31 student affairs professionals. During seven focus groups, practitioners described feeling unknowledgeable about disability law, accommodations, and diagnoses. However, they drew upon their core values and transferrable skills to support individual students. Participants wanted to move beyond "small wins" with individual students to campus-wide inclusion. To achieve this goal, they engaged in self-directed learning, collaboration, and proactive strategies. An emergent model is presented.Publication High School–University Collaborations for Latinx Student Success: Navigating the Political Reality(2020-01-01) Bettencourt, Genia; George Mwangi, Chrystal A.; Green, Keisha; Morales Morales, DanielLatinx students are a growing population in postsecondary education but attain degrees at a pace behind their non-Latinx peers. This research examines a partnership between a research university (RU) and career and technical education (CTE) high school, Hillside Technical High School (HTHS). Through a 2-year ethnographic case study, we found that different logistics and cultural values were primary contributors to the bifurcated pathway between high school and college. These pathways were most successfully connected through strategies such as flexibility, personal relationships, and incorporation of community resources as well as viewing the students as resources. Our study suggests a need to reframe partnerships in recognition of the assets that students bring to these e orts, while also creating opportunities for additional faculty support and community involvement.Publication Is first-gen an identity? How first-generation college students make meaning of institutional and familial constructs of self(2020-01-01) Bettencourt, Genia; Mansour, Koboul E.; Hedayet, Mujtaba; Feraud-King, Patricia Tita; Stephens, Kat J.; Tejada, Miguel M.; Kimball, EzekielInstitutions increasingly use first-generation categorizations to provide support to students. In this study, we sought to understand how students make meaning of their first-generation status by conducting a series of focus groups with 54 participants. Our findings reveal that students saw first-generation status as an organizational and familial identity rather than a social identities. This status was connected to alterity and social distance that was most salient in comparison to continuing-generation peers. Our recommendations include re-examining the role of first- generation specific programming on campus, creating opportunities for meaning-making, supporting students within changing family dynamics, and exploring the interaction between first-generation status and other marginalized identities.Publication STEM degree completion and first-generation college students. A cumulative disadvantage approach to the outcomes gap(2020-01-01) Bettencourt, Genia; Manly, Catherine A.; Kimball, Ezekiel; Wells, RyanPublication The Dropout Effects of Career Pathways: Evidence from California(2020-01-01) Bonilla, SadeContemporary Career and Technical Education (CTE) models have shifted from isolated courses to sequences of study that integrate academics and skills in high-demand sectors. Providing career pathways to high school students may reduce asymmetries about the available careers and strategies for attaining them but they may also catalyze students’ intrinsic motivation by shifting their understanding of their social role and capacity for success. In this study, I estimate the effects of an ambitious $500 million effort to encourage the formation of career pathways in California. Funding supported the formation of tripartite partnerships between K-12 school districts, employers and community colleges to develop career pathway curricula (i.e., articulated course sequences) in high-demand occupations and sectors. I provide causal estimates of implementing this multifaceted intervention by leveraging a natural experiment that occurs at the margin of grant receipt. Using Regression Discontinuity (RD) designs, I provide evidence on the most proximate mechanism, increased CTE spending. Per pupil CTE expenditures increased by 21.7 percent for grant recipients at the assignment threshold relative to the CTE spending of unsuccessful applicants. Furthermore, dropout rates declined by 23 percent in treatment districts but were more pronounced for females than males.Publication The effects of school reform under NCLB waivers: Evidence from focus schools in Kentucky.(2019-01-01) Bonilla, Sade; Dee, Thomas S.Under waivers to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the federal government required states to identify schools where targeted subgroups of students have the lowest achievement and to implement reforms in these “Focus Schools.” In this study, we examine the Focus School reforms in the state of Kentucky. The reforms in this state are uniquely interesting for several reasons. One is that the state developed unusually explicit guidance for Focus Schools centered on a comprehensive school-planning process. Second, the state identified Focus Schools using a “super subgroup” measure that combined traditionally low-performing subgroups into an umbrella group. This design feature may have catalyzed broader whole-school reforms and attenuated the incentives to target reform efforts narrowly. Using regression discontinuity designs, we find that these reforms led to substantial improvements in school performance, raising math achievement by 17 percent and reading achievement by 9 percent.Publication Narrowed Gaps and Persistent Challenges: Examining Rural-Nonrural Disparities in Postsecondary Outcomes over Time(2019-01-01) Wells, Ryan; Manly, Catherine A.; Kommers, Suzan; Kimball, EzekielEmpirical studies have concluded that rural students experience lower rates of college enrollment and degree completion compared to their nonrural peers, but this literature needs to be expanded and updated for a continually changing context. This article examines the rural-nonrural disparities in students’ postsecondary trajectories, influences, and outcomes. By comparing results to past research using similar national data and an identical design, we are able to examine change over time. Results show narrowed gaps from the 1990s into the 2000s, but with rural students still facing persistent challenges and experiencing lower average rates of college enrollment and degree completion.Publication Who are Rural Students? How Definitions of Rurality Affect Research on College Completion(2019-01-01) Manly, Catherine A.; Wells, Ryan S.; Kommers, SuzanGiven a revived national discourse about rural populations, more educational research on rural students is necessary, including ways that rural students transition to college and the success (or lack thereof) that they experience once there. However, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has changed the definition of rurality used in each iterative dataset over the last few decades, casting doubt on the consistency of what is meant by the term rural. The purpose of this study is to: (a) communicate to the educational research audience various ways of defining rural students, and specifically how NCES has changed their definition of rurality over their last three major data collections; (b) demonstrate how conclusions about rural students’ and their college degree completion may differ based on these alternate NCES definitions; and (c) discuss how this specific example using NCES data relates to the wider landscape of research on rural students. Results show that conclusions about college degree completion change depending on the definition of rurality used for analysis. Therefore, the education research community should consider the options for defining rural students, report transparently about the choices made, consider the sensitivity of results to the definition of rurality, and ultimately build a more robust body of literature concerning rural students’ college success. Gaining definitional clarity will be beneficial, particularly for those who wish to translate their research into practical action for the benefit of rural students.Publication (Social) Class is in Session: Becoming Student-Ready for the Working-Class(2019-01-01) Bettencourt, GeniaPublication Boys, Be Ambitious: William Smith Clark and the Westernisation of Japanese Agricultural Extension in the Meiji Era(2016-01-01) Gowen, Garrett; Friedensen, Rachel; Kimball, EzekielThis article examines the historiography related to the 1876 founding of Sapporo Agricultural College, the first institution of its kind in Japan. Focusing specifically on the involvement of William Smith Clark, who previously served as the president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, it argues that the nascent imperial ambitions harboured by both the United States and Japan are essential to a full understanding of Sapporo's founding, curriculum and subsequent history. Drawing on both primary and secondary sources as well as theoretical perspectives on empire, this article depicts Sapporo as one small part of a larger campaign of westernisation.Publication Embracing Problems, Processes, and Contact Zones: Using Youth Participatory Action Research to Challenge Adultism(2018-01-01) Bettencourt, GeniaPublication #Activism: Understanding how Student Leaders Utilize Social Media for Social or Political Change(2019-01-01) Bettencourt, GeniaPublication Criticality in international higher education research: A critical discourse analysis of higher education journals(2018-01-01) George Mwangi, Chrystal A.; Latafat, Sadaf; Hammond, Shane P; Kommers, Suzan; Thoma, Hanni; Berger, Joseph B; Blanco-Ramirez, GerardoThe purpose of this study is to critically and systematically examine current discourse within scholarship on the internationalization of higher education. Our study engages critical discourse analysis to review articles from four top-tier higher education academic journals published between 2000 and 2016. Findings across journals/articles demonstrate the absence of a clear definition of the concept of internationalization, a strong Western focus, and often inexplicit recommendations for practical application of research findings. Through critical discourse analysis, we explore the orientation of higher education research towards equity and inclusivity and challenge the perception of international higher education research and its distribution through academic journals as value-neutral. By continuing to recognize, articulate, and critique biases in research development and dissemination, higher education researchers and discourse may become more accountable and continue to develop a more critical lens for promoting globally inclusive scholarship. This study contributes to the ways in which discourse both shapes and is shaped by knowledge production in the higher education landscape, and future directions for this field.Publication "Black elephant in the room": Black students contextualizing campus racial climate within U.S. racial climate(2018-01-01) George Mwangi, Chrystal A.; Thelamour, Barbara; Ezeofor, Ijeoma; Carpenter, AshleyThe systemic racism in U.S. society being resisted through larger movements such as Black Lives Matter is also reflected and reproduced in U.S. higher education. This qualitative study examines how Black students contextualize their campus racial climate within broader race issues, tensions, and movements occurring across the nation. Findings reveal four themes: (1) Perceptions of Blackness on campus; (2) Campus racial climate mirroring societal racial climate; (3) Experiencing and engaging in movements on campus; (4) Impact of racial climate on future planning.Publication An Intersectional Understanding of African Graduate Students' Experiences in U.S. Higher Education(2018-01-01) George Mwangi, Chrystal A.; Changamire, Nyaradzai; Mosselson, JacquelineThe adjustment of African international students in the United States may be different from the experiences of international students from other regions as African students are considered racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S. who can be exposed to racism, nativism, and other discrimination. This study focuses on the structural systems impacting African international graduate students in the U.S. and the intercentricity of various forms of opportunities and oppressions impacting their experiences. Findings revealed four themes: (1) Assumptions made by American Peers and Faculty (2) Adjustment Challenges Situated within Campus Systems (3) Campus Internationalization Rhetoric (4) Conflicting Worldviews. While these themes illustrate how students’ experience negative social positioning and other challenges on their campuses, they also demonstrate students resisting marginalizing experiences.