Poverty and Knowing: Exploring Epistemological Development in Welfare-to-Work Community College Students

Pizzolato, Jane Elizabeth; Olson, Avery B.

doi:10.1353/rhe.2016.0025

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Educationally purposeful strategies, such as first-year programs, student engagement opportunities, and practices that align with the institution's mission on diversity and inclusion, promote the four-year degree attainment of historically underrepresented students (Bettinger et al, 2013;Kuh, 2013;Pizzolato & Olson, 2016). Increasingly, scholars have argued that higher education institutions should focus resources to increase academic success for disadvantaged students (Pizzolato & Olson, 2016;Schroeder, 2013). Furthermore, research has revealed that postsecondary educational practices that support underrepresented students have strong positive outcomes for all students (Felten et al, 2016;Schroeder, 2013).…”

Section: College Support Services For Underrepresented Studentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, learning communities typically follow a prefixed schedule, which may not fit with other obligations of single mothers receiving TANF benefits, such as maintaining mandatory participation requirements, while managing multiple family and school priorities (Goldrick-Rab & Sorenson, 2010). Although students in receipt of public assistance are implicitly part of non-traditional student groups, the activities and engagement required for success do not usually take into account the mandatory TANF work participation and the demands and challenges it poses for single mother college students in particular (Dave et al, 2012;Pizzolato & Olson, 2016).…”

Section: College Support Services For Underrepresented Studentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Single mother students receiving public assistance experience more challenges to college persistence than their counterparts not receiving benefits (Bettinger et al, 2013;Mahaffey et al, 2015). Although this student population is implicitly part of non-traditional student groups, the supports and engagement required for success do not usually take into account the mandatory TANF work participation requirements and the demands and challenges these pose for single mother college students in particular (Dave et al, 2012;Pizzolato & Olson, 2016). The existing college student supports in place for underrepresented groups do not comprehensively address the needs of single mothers receiving public assistance pursuing four-year degree programs (Austin & McDermott, 2003;Cerven, 2013;Goldrick-Rab & Sorensen, 2010;Tovar, 2015).…”

Section: Implications For Practice and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Higher education institutions encounter challenges identifying the experiences of underrepresented students that promote persistence to graduation (Austin & McDermott, 2003;Cerven, 2013;Schumacher, 2013), and research shows that students of lower-income families achieve four-year college graduation rates at significantly lower rates than students from higher income families (Brock 2010;Greenstone et al, 2013). In this context, scholars have argued that higher education institutions should focus resources to increase academic success for disadvantaged students (Pizzolato & Olson, 2016;Schroeder, 2013). Before creating strategies to meet the needs of this study population, higher education institutions must understand the types of barriers single mother receiving public assistance face while pursuing a four-year degree.…”

Section: Implications For Practice and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Support structures : perspectives of single mother graduates who received public assistance while pursuing their degree

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This interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) sought to understand the experiences that promoted the persistence to graduation efforts of six bachelor-degree recipients who were single mothers and received public assistance while pursuing their degrees. The question that guided this study was: How do single mother bachelor degree recipients from an urban comprehensive college who received public assistance while in school make sense of the experiences that facilitated their self-efficacy to persist to graduation? The research question was informed by Bandura's self-efficacy theory, which postulates that people's beliefs about their capability to perform is influenced by four sources of information: enactive mastery experiences, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. The data for this IPA study was collected through semi-structured, one-to-one interviews with a commitment to an in-depth idiographic approach that focused on how each participant made sense of her experiences. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) accepting their reality, (b) overcoming barriers to graduation, and (c) encouragement and support. As per the findings, accepting their reality explained the resilient sense of self-efficacy participants developed as a function of mastering experiences with adapting and changing in the face of adversity; overcoming barriers to graduation lent support to the development of perceived self-efficacy based on previous successes or failures and its influence on the participants' perceptual lenses in relation to their capability to achieve academic success; and encouragement and support underscored the value faculty supports embodied on participants' self-efficacy beliefs to persist to degree completion. These findings have relevance for higher education institutions, state and federal policymakers, and student constituencies.

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