Social capital and higher education success for first-generation college students

Bartelmay, Ryan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121472 Copy

Description

Title

Social capital and higher education success for first-generation college students

Author(s)

Bartelmay, Ryan

Issue Date

2023-07-12

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Cope, William

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Cope, William

Committee Member(s)

• Kalantzis, Mary
• Goodnight, Melissa
• Montebello, Matthew

Department of Study

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ed.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• social capital
• higher education
• first-generation college student

Abstract

The study will examine the ego networks (i.e. personal networks) of first-generation college students who started their first term of college during the AY2021-22 academic year at a private, non-profit, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in an urban setting in the midwestern United States. The dissertation uses Lin’s (1999) definition of social capital: resources embedded in a social network that an actor uses for purposive action as well as Lin’s three phases of social capital: availability of social capital, access to social capital, and activation of social capital as an analytical framework to understand the role of social capital to aid a first-generation college students’ first term success. The study features social network analysis while taking a convergent mixed methods (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) approach to examine the role social capital plays in 14 first-generation college students. The study findings social capital scarcity is not an issue for first-generation college students and proposes a taxonomy of beneficial social capital for first-generation college students. Other findings include: first-generation college students turn to strong ties with whom they frequently interact, especially family, when accessing social capital, especially expressive social capital and have fear about forming new ties with classmates and institutional agents once arriving on campus. They’re able to overcome their fear to form new ties with institutional agents who provide access to necessary and valuable schoolwork social capital.

Graduation Semester

2023-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Ryan Bartelmay

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