Browsing by Subject "Underrepresented students"
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Item Academic and social influences of underrepresented adolescents' perceptions of opportunity and plans for the future(2016-08) Kyte, Sarah Blanchard; Riegle-Crumb, Catherine; Callahan, Rebecca M; Crosnoe, Robert; Muller, Chandra; Raley, KellySociologists of education have long stressed the importance of students’ expectations for their subsequent success. Yet, an insufficient amount of previous work has considered how academic and social psychological factors guide when and how students develop their expectations for the future, particularly for the socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority students attending our cities’ schools. By using rich survey and administrative data from a large, urban district serving low income and predominantly Hispanic and African American students, this dissertation identifies how these students develop expectations related to higher education in general as well as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in particular at the start of high school. Chapter 2 examines whether Hispanic girls hold higher college expectations than Hispanic boys because they acquire a superior toolkit of academic resources including achievement, attitudes, and relationships, and/or whether girls are better able to leverage these resources. Further, it considers the potentially gendered role of nativity, language-minority, and socioeconomic status in shaping college expectations among Hispanic students. Chapter 3 analyzes how students’ perceptions of the relevance of science outside of school contribute to gender differences in expectations to major in specific areas of STEM, namely the biological and physical sciences as compared with computer science and engineering. Chapter 4 unpacks the extent to which minority students expecting to major in STEM anticipate that gender- or race-based discrimination may act as a barrier to their goals. Taken together, the findings of these studies underscore the importance of perceptions related to schools, society, and opportunity at the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity for guiding students’ expectations, an important precursor to subsequent behavior and success.Item Undergraduate peer mentors serving underrepresented students at a predominantly white institution(2014-05) Smith, Jennifer Lee; Reddick, Richard, 1972-Higher education is facing national calls for increased graduation and retention rates (Good, Halpin, & Halpin, 2000; Obama, 2009). In an effort to answer these calls, administrators are using peer mentoring programs to provide social, personal, and academic support to first-year students (Crisp & Cruz, 2009; Jacobi, 1991). This study drew on the disciplines of business, medicine, and higher education to demonstrate the prevalence of mentoring (Crisp & Cruz, 2009; Buddeberg-Fischer & Herta, 2006; Scandura, 1992). Focusing on the area of higher education, the existing literature supports the positive effects of peer mentoring for mentees, but there is a dearth of information regarding the lived experiences of undergraduate peer mentors. As institutions continue to seek ways to support students from underrepresented populations through the use of peer mentor programs, it is critical for administrators to clearly understand both sides of the mentoring relationship in order to use it as an effective educational tool. Moreover, peer mentor programs also utilize the unique influence peers possess in order to create supportive environments for underrepresented students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the lived experiences of undergraduate peer mentors who served underrepresented students at a predominantly white institution. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, this study adapted the psychosocial and vocational functions of mentoring in relation to the development of the mentor in order to understand how peer mentors experienced their role, interactions with mentees, and feelings of connectedness to the institution (Kram & Isabella, 1985). Additionally, Schlossberg's transition theory, specifically the coping resources of the 4S's (situation, self, support, and strategies) were utilized to understand how peer mentors experienced their transition from mentee to mentor (Goodman, Schlossberg, & Anderson, 2006, Seidman, 2006).