“Lived Pathways”: Students’ Daily Approaches to Transfer Aspirations in Community College

• In Event: 2232 - The Economics of Aspirations and Expectations

Abstract

Sociologists of education have studied how a college’s institutional authorities and organization influence aspirations. Sociological theories often attribute power to counselors and faculty in the “cooling out” of community college students’ transfer aspirations without attending to students’ meanings or social interactions. Drawing on data from eleven months of participant observation and fifteen semi-structured interviews, I analyze how students’ meanings of community college as a place and organization of their time reveal distinct interpretations of being a transfer-bound student. In noting patterns in students’ sense of place and time, I find two “lived pathways;” with students who approach community college either as a “temporary stop” or “place to be present.” I argue that lived pathways have the potential to shape the type of social connections students make in college. This study offers a contextual and process-focused examination of the pursuit of postsecondary aspirations based on students’ experience and narratives.

Author

• Mary Ippolito, University of Southern California