Classroom (In)Validation: How Faculty and Peers Shape Student Parents' College Experiences

• In Event: Peer Groups, Boundary-Work, and Educational Mobility

Abstract

Student parents make up a significant share of today’s college population, yet their experiences remain understudied and often misunderstood. Guided by ecological validation theory, this study examines how student parents perceive interactions with peers and faculty and how these encounters shape their sense of belonging, comfort, and academic engagement. Drawing on interviews with 40 student mothers and student fathers at a public university in the southern U.S, we find that participants experienced peer and faculty invalidation in the form of subtle or overt messages that parenting was incompatible with the expectations of the ideal (or even “normal”) student. These interactions undermined belonging and reduced comfort seeking academic accommodations, which prior research associates with diminished college success for marginalized students. At the same time, instances of validation from faculty and peers served as powerful counterforces that had a markedly positive effect on participants’ college experience. By treating peers as meaningful sources of (in)validation and analyzing how classroom interactions shape belonging, comfort, and help-seeking, this work expands the conceptual boundaries of validation theory beyond interactions with institutional agents alone. Findings underscore the need for pedagogical and institutional practices that affirm student parents’ identities and recognize validation as critical equity work in higher education. We conclude by offering practical strategies for institutions and individual faculty to validate student parents in their classrooms.

Authors

• J. Bart Stykes, Sam Houston State University

• Mary Larue Scherer, Sam Houston State University