Ideal for Whom? A Cultural Analysis of Ideal Worker Norms in Higher Education and Student Affairs Graduate Programs

Abstract

This chapter explores the consequences of ideal worker norms for graduate student‐parents in higher education and student affairs programs. Using Schein's (2004) levels of culture as a conceptual lens, this chapter considers the ways that programmatic structures and interactions with faculty and peers reflect and reproduce a culture across graduate programs that privileges the norm of the always‐working and engaged student, thereby creating barriers to full participation for students with children.