"Why am I in school?": a mixed methods investigation into stopping out of college.

stopout;retention;persistence;student success;college;returners

Kathryn Gardner Adamchik

University:University of Louisville

Department:Sociology

关键词: stopout;    retention;    persistence;    student success;    college;    returners;   

Others  :  https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4278&context=etd

美国|英语

来源: The Universite of Louisville's Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Higher education research often looks at student retention as a dichotomous outcome, either students stay enrolled or not; however, students’ enrollment pathways are more complicated than that as they frequently transfer, swirl between institutions, and stopout and return. This study was designed to explore students who stopout and return to the same institution within their six-year graduation window. More specifically, I sought to learn who stops out, why they stopout, what happens while out, why they come back, and what may be different upon their return. Four conceptual frameworks were applied to understand students’ experiences with stopping out including Tinto’s (1993) theory of college student departure, Arnett’s (2004) theory of emerging adulthood, Baxter Magolda’s (2001) theory of self-authorship, and Bourdieu’s (1986) theory of social reproduction. Participants of this study were students at a large, public research institution who initially enrolled in fall 2010 or 2011. I employed a mixed methods investigation to explore the complexities of stopping out. I conducted 27 in-depth interviews and conducted a constant comparative method of analysis to explore students’ motivations and decision-making regarding decisions of whether to and where to apply, initial enrollment, stopping out, and returning. Qualitative findings revealed that students enrolled in college out of obligation with little personal motivation and quickly struggled to engage academically as they faced the uncertainty with why they were in college. Few students identified utilizing support services, such as advising or meeting with faculty, during their initial enrollment. Students chose to leave the institution due to their uncertainty and lack of academic engagement. While they were not enrolled, students learned about themselves and found academic interests leading them to return to college for themselves instead of enrolling due to familial or societal expectations. Finally, upon returning, participants actively engaged with their academics and defined the value of their college education as more than simply a credential. Institutional records were used to conduct quantitative secondary analyses on two full cohort populations. There were approximately 5000 students in the fall 2010 and fall 2011 cohorts combined, and the analyses covered their entire 6-year windows. Bivariate chi-square and ANOVA tests were utilized to understand the characteristics of the stopout population relative to the total population as well as the other enrollment pathways; binary logistic regression was used to identify factors that predicted stopping out; and multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate factors that predicted stopping out compared to other