Validating Students: A Conceptualization and Overview of Its Impact on Student Experiences and Outcomes

• In Event: Roundtable Session 78
  In Roundtable Session: Revisiting Validation Theory: A Theoretical Dialogue With Research and Practice Implications

Abstract

The importance of the validation of students through transformative teaching and counseling (Rendón, 1994) emerged as a framework to conceptualize the underlying mechanisms necessary to validate the experiences, expectations, and performance of college and university students, particularly low income students. In this paper, we examine the divergent perspectives of how validation has been defined since its foundation. We also draw upon a corpus of qualitative and quantitative data that centers on the role of validation in all its different proxy forms as well as on its impact on an ethnically diverse group of secondary and postsecondary students’ experiences and outcomes in educational settings. The findings on validating both secondary and postsecondary students’ experiences point to implications and recommendations for policy and practice that illuminate ways to increase the engagement, persistence and graduation rates of these students.

Author

• Amaury Nora, The University of Texas - San Antonio