Critical Transitions, Junctures, and Interactions for Postsecondary Success: Low-Income Students’ Meaning-Making of Their Educational Pathways

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

The purpose of this symposium is to share findings from case studies focusing on how low-income youth experience and make meaning of their postsecondary pathways. The papers in this session include: 1) an examination of critical transitions and experiences of low-income high school youth into the postsecondary world; 2) a case study of critical junctures for community college students in career/technical programs; and 3) a case study of critical interactions that shape how low-income women navigate community college. Together, the papers in the symposium document the experiences of low-income youth and the educational institutions and social systems that support and/or constrain access, retention, and completion at critical junctures of their postsecondary pathways.

Sub Unit

• Division J - Postsecondary Education / Section 2: College Student Access, Success, and Outcomes

Chairs

• Daniel Gilbert Solorzano, University of California - Los Angeles

• Amanda L. Datnow, University of California - San Diego

Papers

• Critical Transitions: Understanding the Postsecondary Worlds of College and Career for Low-Income High School Youth - Makeba Jones, University of California - San Diego; Susan S. Yonezawa, University of California - San Diego

• Critical Junctures in the Educational Pathways of Career and Technical Education (CTE) Community College Students - Tara Watford, University of California - Los Angeles; Maria C. Malagon, California State University - Fullerton

• Critical Interactions: How Student-College Personnel Interactions Shape Low-Income Students’ Navigation of a Community College - Christine Cerven, University of California - San Diego; Vicki Park, San Jose State University

Discussant

• Rebecca D. Cox, Simon Fraser University