Reserach Blog #7

Frame

One theoretical concept that has helped me in my research about commuting students and their ability to integrate themselves in the "college experience" was the research of Rebekah Nathan in her book, "Student Culture and Liminality". Nathan uses the term, "liminality" to discuss the transitional qualities that college provides. According to Nathan, college is an institute that creates an environment that will foster growth and positive change in young adults. That will be close to what I plan on discussing in my paper. By discussing the importance of how student integration and engagement, are vital to academic success and personal development in college I can highlight why commuter students tend to do less well than their residential counterparts in college.

I will also like to include Barbara Jacoby's book, "Why Involve Commuter Students in Learning?” who uses the term "transitional events" to describe college. A transition is an event that will change a person's relationships, routines, and perspective of the world. Jacoby goes deeper into this argument detailing how the everyday tasks and responsibilities that commuter students face disrupt their ability to view college as a "transformative event". The combination of Nathan and Jacoby's theoretical concepts will create a frame that I can base my research around.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Research Blog #1

Image
Topic: On-Campus vs. Commuting I have been a commuter for the majority of my attendance at Rutgers. My first year I was a resident  at the University and resided in a dorm. In order to save money I moved back home, and have been commuting to school for the last three years. I believe that commuting and residing at the dorms each had there pros and cons for my academic and social college experience. I would like to research the statistics of students who both dormed and then commuted and their academic performance as a result. I would also like to look at their social life and if they preferred one over the other.
Read more

Research Blog #8

Case   Because commuter students tend to be from lower to middle class backgrounds, are usually first-generation college students, and are usually less affluent than their residential counterparts I plan on using Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton's book Paying for the Party to make a real world representation of my frame. While, Armstrong and Hamilton's book does not expressly use commuter students in their study, they do use residential students who share many of the same qualities. They use students who work part time jobs, are poorer than the normal resident student, and find themselves with fewer  opportunities to take advantage of all of their university's resources. As a result these students are usually socially isolated from their dorm mates. These issues are all similar to the ones that commuter students face. One of the examples I plan on using in the book is of Amanda. Due to her status as a less affluent student she found it hard to find a common connect...
Read more

Literature Review #1

Image
John J. Newbold John J. Newbold, Sanjay S. Mehta, Patricia Forbus. "Commuter Students: Involvement and Identification with Institution of Higher Education."  Academy of Educational Leadership Journal . Pg 141-153 (2011). The reading discusses the conflicts students have with commuting to college. Their academic performances, involvement with their school, and relationships on campus are all affected by their off-campus lifestyle. Part-time work, family, and the stresses of travel are all factors that can affect their academic lives as well. Newbold, Mehta, and Forbus discuss their findings compared to their data on students who reside on campus. The authors for this paper are Dr. John J. Newbold, Sanjay S. Mehta, and Patricia Forbus who are all professors at Sam Houston University in Tennessee. They each are certified marketing professors and have written several papers regarding student struggles in relation to commuting. They together written an article called, Un...
Read more