Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cultural Capital and Students' Experiences in College: The Role of Parents in Facilitating Student Success

SES-1602743 Josipa Roksa Denise T Deutschlander弗吉尼亚大学学院被普遍认为是一条向上流动的道路。这种讨论往往没有认识到，即使来自社会经济弱势家庭的学生有机会接受高等教育，他们也不一定能毕业，而且他们毕业的可能性远远低于他们的同龄人。先前的研究表明，学术准备和财政支持虽然重要，但并不能完全解释大学毕业的社会阶层差距。为了理解社会阶层的不平等，社会学家越来越多地将注意力转向促进与社会机构（如学校）成功互动的知识和实践。到目前为止，大多数研究都集中在K-12教育或进入大学的过渡。很少有研究调查学生在大学的经历。此外，虽然父母是研究K-12教育和大学入学中社会阶层不平等的核心，但在学生进入大学后，他们很少被考虑。直升机父母的形象，在流行话语中很常见，并没有描绘出那些不太称职的父母的经历，他们可能会在大学期间努力支持他们的孩子。该项目调查来自弱势背景的父母如何支持他们的孩子走上大学成功之路。通过纵向的定性访谈，本项目的第一部分探讨了学生和家长如何发展对大学经历的期望，以及这些期望在高中和大学之间如何变化。该项目这一部分的目标是了解父母如何支持他们的孩子上大学，以及他们的行为是否以及如何随着时间的推移而改变。第二部分实施和评估（通过随机对照试验）的干预措施，以帮助家长鼓励他们的孩子与教师和其他机构的资源。在治疗和控制条件下对学生进行的调查将说明缺乏信息和缺乏寻求支持和资源的权利在多大程度上助长了不太聪明的学生所遇到的挑战。第一部分中的纵向访谈也将有助于探讨父母是否会改变他们的行为，以应对教育干预。本研究旨在阐明低收入家庭的具体做法和学生在大学期间的经验，促进学生的成功。因此，它可能会促使高等教育从业者改变他们用来吸引家长的方法，并开发更有效地支持学生成功的基础设施。最后，通过这个项目获得的理论见解将有助于更广泛的社会学理解教育机构如何通过隐性障碍促进不平等。通过提请注意这些障碍，这项研究可以促进更广泛的社会目标和期望，即教育提供平等机会，并作为向上流动的机制。

SES-1602743Josipa RoksaDenise T DeutschlanderUniversity of VirginiaCollege is popularly considered a path to upward mobility. Often missing from this discourse is the recognition that even when students from socioeconomically disadvantaged families gain access to higher education they do not always graduate, and they are much less likely to graduate than their more advantaged peers. Prior research indicates that academic preparation and financial supports, while important, do not fully explain the social class gap in college completion. To understand social class inequality, sociologists have increasingly turned attention to the knowledge and practices that facilitate successful interaction with social institutions, such as schools. To date, most of this research has focused on K-12 education or the transition into college. Few studies examine students' experiences in college. Moreover, while parents are central to research on social class inequality in K-12 education and college entry, they are rarely considered after students enter college. The image of the helicopter parent, common in the popular discourse, does not depict the experience of less advantaged parents, who may struggle to support their children during college. This project investigates how parents from disadvantaged backgrounds can support their children on the path to college success. Through longitudinal, qualitative interviews, part one of this project explores how students and parents develop expectations about college experiences and how those change between high school and college. A goal of this portion of the project is to understand how parents support their children through college and whether and how their behaviors change over time. Part two implements and evaluates (through a randomized controlled trial) an intervention to help parents encourage their children to engage with faculty and other institutional resources. Surveys administered to students in both treatment and control conditions will illuminate the extent to which a lack of information and a lack of entitlement in seeking support and resources contribute to the challenges encountered by less advantaged students. The longitudinal interviews included in part one will also help explore whether parents change their behavior in response to the educational intervention. This research aims to illuminate specific practices of low-income families and student experiences during college that facilitate student success. Therefore, it may spur higher education practitioners to change the methods they use to engage parents and develop infrastructure that will more effectively support student success. Finally, the theoretical insights gained through this project will contribute to broader sociological understanding of how educational institutions may contribute to inequality through implicit barriers. By drawing attention to these barriers, this research can contribute to the broader societal goal, and expectation, that education provides equal opportunities as well as serves as a mechanism for upward mobility.