Examining the Systemic Barriers Impacting Career Development for Underrepresented Students in Postsecondary Education

• In Event: Higher education for workforce development: Pathways, systems, and challenges

Proposal

Objectives: Access to higher education has increased globally; however, access is not equitable, with individuals with lower incomes having less access to - and less success - in higher education. In the United States, community colleges serve as open-access, low-cost, and geographically accessible institutions that enroll 41% of undergraduate students, including students who have been historically underrepresented in higher education, such as students from minoritized groups, first-generation students, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Bok, 2013; Community College Research Center, 2021; de Brey et al., 2021). In 2004, the state of Pennsylvania developed the Keystone Education Yields Success (KEYS) program to address barriers to access and success in higher education for individuals living at or below the poverty line and implemented the program throughout all community colleges in the state. The KEYS program is a comprehensive program designed to address multiple barriers to student success, including academic and financial barriers. Additionally, students in the KEYS program are partnered with a KEYS facilitator who helps them navigate higher education and refer them to necessary resources within the college and the community.
As a relationship-oriented program, the KEYS program is interesting for two key reasons. First, KEYS eschews a reliance on technology and predictive analytics to support students and help them identify potential careers. Second, KEYS focuses instead on dismantling institutional barriers, recognizing power-laden relationships which prevent student success, and cultivating productive long-term relationships that can support individualized needs and aspirations. Since this program could inform any global higher education environment attempting to expand educational access, this qualitative institutional case study focuses on depth and context to examine the multiplex ways in which students’ relationships with KEYS facilitators potentially impact educational achievement and career development. The following research questions guide data collection and analysis: (1) What do students in the KEYS program identify as crucial institutional and non-institutional barriers to their academic success? and (2) How do students’ relationships with KEYS facilitators impact student success and career development?

Theoretical Framework: To address these questions, two frameworks were utilized. The first framework, the Nontraditional Undergraduate Student Attrition Model designed by Bean and Metzner, addresses multiple barriers and facilitators to student retention that are common among community college students, including environmental factors – such as employment, dependents, and financial issues (Bean & Metzner, 1985). This framework will be used to analyze barriers and supports perceived by KEYS students as influential in their academic pursuits. The second model, social capital, emphasizes the utility of interpersonal relationships and social networks that can be used for the benefit of the individual. Following the work of James Coleman (1988), this study examines the relationship between social capital, a concept that is “embodied in the relations among persons,” and human capital, a concept that is “embodied in the skills and knowledge acquired by an individual” (p. 304). Theoretically, an individual who is able to build social capital through “rational action and individual agency” (Musoba & Baez, 2009, p. 152) will also be able to generate human capital through access to information held by social structures. This belief has important ramifications for this study. If students have the ability to acquire social capital and transcend class stratification, it can be argued that facilitators in the KEYS program play an integral role in securing educational and career resources for those students.

Analytical methods, research design, modes of inquiry: This study utilized an institutional case study approach to investigate the experiences of KEYS students and facilitators.

Data sources or evidence: Two data collection methods were utilized: 1) observations and 2) interviews. Approximately 15 hours of interactions between students and facilitators were observed; 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted virtually and in-person with students, and 4 interviews were conducted with facilitators. Participants were asked to share information about their experiences and perceptions of KEYS program benefits, academic achievement, and personal attributes/assets as they related to student success.

Results and/or conclusions: Based on preliminary data analysis, KEYS facilitator-student relationship had a positive, significant effect on student success by providing students with the necessary social capital to navigate higher education. This social capital included institutional knowledge regarding available educational and financial resources, tutoring services, including how to complete financial aid applications and how and when to register for classes. The KEYS program also offered a variety of material resources less related to social capital, such as access to childcare, bus passes, and gas money. However, the connections with facilitators were unequal in terms of depth, with some facilitators actively taking on a bonding and bridging role by getting to know their students and deliberately introducing them to key resources and industry representatives. Other facilitators were less focused on the bridging and bonding functions significant for the transfer of social capital.

Significance of the study: The KEYS program provides a unique opportunity to study a statewide program to increase student success in community colleges within Pennsylvania. As described above, the KEYS program addresses multiple student barriers to student success and implements the use of a facilitator to act as liaison and guide for the student to navigate higher education and access valuable resources to promote student success. To the author’s knowledge, no study has been published describing the efficacy of the KEYS program and the potential challenges related to its institutional implementation. Therefore, this study is relatively unique in the higher education literature in its foci on how the student-facilitator relationship and the comprehensive KEYS program resources impact student success. From an international perspective, the findings from this study affirm the importance of relationships in improving student success for marginalized student populations in access institutions. It also raises questions about institutions that solely view the implementation of technology and predictive analytics as the contemporary drivers of student success. Additionally, the findings from this study could inform more effective regional and national policies to support access institutions and improve higher education outcomes for underrepresented students.

Authors

• Katlynn Fisher, University of North Georgia

• Michael Lanford, University of North Georgia