Persistent women: What colleges and universities are doing to keep women on welfare in the educational pipeline.

Abstract

Both individual and national social, economic, and political well-being has been and continues to be in large part predicated on educational access and degree attainment. While it is generally accepted that all individuals stand to benefit from college attendance, the potential benefits of postsecondary education may be greatest for America's poorest citizens, public welfare recipients. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the postsecondary educational experiences of welfare-receiving students in baccalaureate-degree granting institutions and consider how institutional practices affect these students' ability to integrate into postsecondary institution settings, persist and earn their degrees. A qualitative multi-case research approach is used, with the primary unit of analysis being the institution and the secondary unit being the student. A total of 55 individuals are interviewed, including 18 students and 37 staff and faculty members. Each case has a distinct descriptive storyline, but all three cases describe a cycle in which welfare-receiving students enter college with a broad range of responsibilities, burdens, and support. This combination, unique to each woman, determines what she needs to survive, and perhaps even thrive in the college setting. Her persistence is influenced by the extent to which the institution can and does respond to these needs. Research findings demonstrate that welfare-receiving students' background characteristics, particularly the absence or presence of support for their educational pursuits from family and friends and their degree of college knowledge, affect the goals and expectations they have for their interaction with higher education environments. Students interact with a wide range of institutional agents, programs and practices within the academic, financial, social and structural domains of the three institutions. The kinds of support and encouragement students receive in these interactions affect their likelihood of integrating into the institution and persisting to degree. Among the conclusions of this study is the finding that in order to keep welfare-receiving women in the educational pipeline institutions must know their students, treat them with respect, offer them guidance and support in a variety of ways, convey to them essential college knowledge, and teach them in ways that acknowledge their life experiences.