University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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

Bartelmay, Ryan

Content Files
BARTELMAY-DISSERTATION-2023.pdf

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

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
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121472
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2023 Ryan Bartelmay

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