What Do You Expect? Tensions Between a Liberal Education and a Neoliberal Reality

• In Event: 61.027 - The Role of Higher Education in a Neoliberal Reality

Abstract

This study explores how college students’ educational experiences align with their expectations while they are enrolled. Specifically, we examine this alignment by interviewing students at a public research university. Our study is informed by institutional confidence theory, which posits students succeed on a host of outcomes when expectations align with experiences. Preliminary findings suggest that despite unclear expectations and stereotypical views students express, they perceive their college experience to be misaligned with their perceptions of the higher education experience. We posit that this misalignment reflects the tension between a liberal education and a neoliberal reality, which in turn can shape students’ institutional confidence.

Authors

• Marcela G. Cuellar, University of California - Davis

• Alicia Garcia, University of California - Davis

• Kem Saichaie, University of California, Davis