“Mirando adelante”: Assessing the Impact of Peer Role Models on Latinx Students’ Intentions to Persist in College

Scholars of academic success in higher education in South Africa struggle to find an integrated framework that can explain the interplay between heterogeneous elements that combine in dynamic ways to influence the academic success of students. Language of teaching and learning is indicated as an important element in academic success in higher education. In South Africa, students are multilingual and this is often ignored or perceived as a hindrance to academic success. Conversely, there are studies that have found a positive relationship between bi- and multilingualism and cognitive development during the past 40 years. The aim of this article is to view multilingualism and academic success in higher education in South Africa from a complex systems approach. It is argued that a complex systems approach provides an integrated framework for studies of multilingualism and academic success in higher education in South Africa.

A Higher Calling: Toward a More Spacious Role for Academic Advisors

Over time, many students that enroll in programmes at the university end up dropping out without completing their studies. This trend is worrisome as it points to a defeat of the objectives of entering and graduating from the university. Therefore, this study explored the perspectives of contributory factors to student success in higher education at a South African University. The study addressed one objective namely, participants’ understanding of factors that contribute to student success in higher education. To address this objective, a qualitative case study design located in the interpretive paradigm was employed to generate data through a semi-structured interview from twelve participants purposively selected from undergraduate and postgraduate students. Of these twelve participants, four represented First Time Entering (FTEN) students, four (4) second year and third year respectively and four (4) postgraduate students across two faculties, namely the Faculty of Education and School Development and Faculty of Economics and Information Technology Systems , Komani campus,Walter Sisulu University, South Africa. The data was analysed thematically. The results revealed the following themes, namely, no student left behind, the need for an enabling environment, students as partners, data-informed practices, assessment for sustainability, and a multi-dimensional approach for success. With these findings, the study concludes that addressing the needs of all students collectively, creating an enabling environment, involving students as partners, the use of data-informed practices, and assessment for sustainability among others all impact students’ success in higher education. Thus, as part of the contribution to the body of knowledge, these findings highlight factors that contribute to the debate on students’ success in higher education. Key Words: First Time Entering Students (FTENs), Higher Education, Enablers of Student Success

The current trend of refugees from Central America entering the United States through the U.S. and Mexico border since the fiscal year 2014 have continually challenged the United States Immigration Laws and the American educational system.as these young refugees have been continually entering the country seeking for a better life and American education. To care and educate these young immigrants necessitate the implementation of appropriate pedagogical and educational leadership strategies, methods, and approaches to pre-service teachers' and educational administrative training programs to make a positive impact in the lives of these least privileged and culturally different young children and their families. In this light, this paper seeks to highlight the positive effects of transformational leadership, intercultural competence, and multicultural education theories to students' success in higher education. In doing so, I define Transformational Leadership (TL), Intercultural Competence (IC); Multicultural Education (ME) theory in teacher education; and explain TL, IC, and ME as effective appropriate teaching tools in higher education via review of literature pertinent to the effects of TL, IC, and ME to students' success in higher education.

Late adolescents and emerging adults often report lower sleep quality. Recent studies have shown that many of these individuals are also characterized by ongoing development of executive functions, such as self-control and self-monitoring. These functions are not fully mature until later in the twenties. As both suboptimal sleep and improper executive functions can impact academic performance, there could be a relationship between these processes. However, few studies have examined these relationships simultaneously to more fully understand the effects of sleep on academic performance in higher education. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate the extent to which sleep quality influences study success in higher education, and to what extent self-perceived executive function influences this possible relationship. A large survey was conducted among 1760 first-year students at a University of Applied Sciences to evaluate this aim. Results showed that sleep quality and study success are related: lower self-reported sleep quality is related to less study success. A high level of self-control and self-monitoring appears to compensate for the negative effect which sleeping problems have on obtaining study credits. The results of this large-scale study emphasize the need to include sleep and skills in self-control when planning educational innovations aimed at fostering study success in higher education.

Aim/Purpose: Persistence rates among Black and Latinx students continue to fall behind those of their White peers. One way to address this issue is to promote a stronger college sense of belonging. While student involvement has been linked to sense of belonging, postsecondary institutions need to seriously reflect on, and recommit to, their own role in engaging Black and Latinx students to promote their sense of belonging, a strong correlate of persistence and college completion. Background: A sense of belonging has been linked to college success, including student persistence. One potential way to promote a sense of belonging among Black and Latinx students is through student engagement. This paper examines the relationship between student engagement and college sense of belonging among a national sample of 10,475 Black and Latinx students. Guided by student engagement theory, we parse out the role of student involvement and institutional engagement to examine the unique and net impact of each facet of engagement as it relates to college sense of belonging among Black and Latinx students. Methodology: This study employs hierarchical linear regression modeling to examine the unique and net impact of two facets of student engagement: (a) student involvement, and (b) institutional engagement, as each relates to college sense of belonging among a national sample of 10,475 Black and Latinx students. Contribution: This paper contributes to scholarship on persistence, engagement, and belonging among Black and Latinx students. Guided by engagement theory, the study takes a nuanced view of student engagement that acknowledges the role of student involvement, and critically, examines the role of institutional engagement in terms of variance explained in sense of belonging among Black and Latinx students. Consistent with calls from the literature, this study provides an empirical examination that recognizes institutional responsibility for promoting a sense of belonging among Black and Latinx students, who are often marginalized in higher education, rather than placing the onus on the students alone. Findings: Overall, student engagement explains 18% of variance in sense of belonging among Black and Latinx students, controlling for a range of student characteristics. Student involvement explains a significant amount of variance above and beyond student background characteristics alone. Institutional engagement explains unique variance in belonging above and beyond student involvement alone, and it has the largest impact on sense of belonging of any variable in our models. Recommendations for Practitioners: Administrators, practitioners, and leadership at postsecondary institutions should acknowledge their central role in engaging Black and Latinx students. Institutions should seek out ways to communicate the resources, support, and involvement opportunities they offer through appropriate venues such as minority student and allied organizations, cultural events, and by working with existing networks of minorities on campus. Increased efforts on the part of institutions to have a broader and more inclusive reach to engage their students may communicate to students that they matter and the institution cares about their success—leading to a greater sense of belonging. Findings from this study suggest there may be ways for students and university staff to collaborate on student success to promote desirable student outcomes like sense of belonging. Recommendation for Researchers: The results provide evidence for the utility of a multidimensional conceptual or theoretical model in research that parses out involvement, engagement, and sense of belonging as independent constructs and specifies the relationship between each construct. It also calls attention to the important role of institutional support and engagement as a means of promoting sense of belonging among Black and Latinx students, and supports shifting the onus of engagement and belonging away from the student alone and toward institutions and their practices. Researchers should continue to explore how to promote belonging through different facets of engagement, and acknowledge the role of the institution in promoting belonging. Impact on Society: This paper contributes to addressing seemingly intractable gaps in college persistence rates among Black and Latinx students and their White counterparts. Specifically, it contributes to an understanding of practices and policies to promote sense of belonging through student engagement to reap associated benefits such as college persistence and completion. Closing the persistence and completion gaps among student racial/ethnic groups can contribute to greater educational equity and in turn greater societal equity. Future Research: Future research should continue to parse out student involvement, institutional engagement, and sense of belonging as distinct constructs when examining the relationship between student engagement and belonging. The present study demonstrates the merit to this approach, permitting the researcher to determine the unique and combined influence of each element of engagement on belonging that would have otherwise been obscured if treated as a single construct. Adopting this approach also offered insight into the specific facets of engagement that appear to impact belonging for Black and Latinx students instead of a monolithic treatment of student involvement or engagement, allowing for a more nuanced understanding.

To remain competitive in the global economy, the United States needs skilled technical workers in occupations requiring a high level of domain-specific technical knowledge to meet the country’s anticipated shortage of 5 million technically-credentialed workers. The changing demographics of the country are of increasing importance to addressing this workforce challenge. According to federal data, half the students earning a certificate in 2016-17 received credentials from community colleges where the percent enrollment of Latinx (a gender-neutral term referencing Latin American cultural or racial identity) students (56%) exceeds that of other post-secondary sectors. If this enrollment rate persists, then by 2050 over 25% of all students enrolled in higher education will be Latinx. Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) are essential points of access as they enroll 64% of all Latinx college students, and nearly 50% of all HSIs are 2-year institutions. Census estimates predict Latinxs are the fastest-growing segment reaching 30% of the U.S. population while becoming the youngest group comprising 33.5% of those under 18 years by 2060. The demand for skilled workers in STEM fields will be met when workers reflect the diversity of the population, therefore more students—of all ages and backgrounds—must be brought into community colleges and supported through graduation: a central focus of community colleges everywhere. While Latinx students of color are as likely as white students to major in STEM, their completion numbers drop dramatically: Latinx students often have distinct needs that evolved from a history of discrimination in the educational system. HSI ATE Hub is a three-year collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Program (NSF ATE) being implemented by Florence Darlington Technical College and Science Foundation Arizona Center for STEM at Arizona State University to address the imperative that 2-year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) develop and improve engineering technology and related technician education programs in a way that is culturally inclusive. Interventions focus on strengthening grant-writing skills among CC HSIs to fund advancements in technician education and connecting 2-year HSIs with resources for faculty development and program improvement. A mixed methods approach will explore the following research questions: 1) What are the unique barriers and challenges for 2-year HSIs related to STEM program development and grant-writing endeavors? 2) How do we build capacity at 2-year HSIs to address these barriers and challenges? 3) How do mentoring efforts/styles need to differ? 4) How do existing ATE resources need to be augmented to better serve 2-year HSIs? 5) How do proposal submission and success rates compare for 2-year HSIs that have gone through the KS STEM planning process but not M-C, through the M-C cohort mentoring process but not KS, and through both interventions? The project will identify HSI-relevant resources, augment existing ATE resources, and create new ones to support 2-year HSI faculty as potential ATE grantees. To address the distinct needs of Latinx students in STEM, resources representing best practices and frameworks for cultural inclusivity, as well as faculty development will be included. Throughout, the community-based tradition of the ATE Program is being fostered with particular emphasis on forming, nurturing, and serving participating 2-year HSIs. This paper will discuss the need, baseline data, and early results for the three-year program, setting the stage for a series of annual papers that report new findings.

Some African American students with challenging early life experiences appear vulnerable to failure in higher education. This vulnerability may be exacerbated when educators fail to recognize the relationship between the life experiences of African American students and their academic performance and college success. African American students are challenged further as they attempt to successfully adjust to collegiate environments which often do not validate them or their experiences. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate this challenge with selected African American students, to learn about how the life experiences of African American students can enhance their success in higher education. A secondary purpose is to learn how these students develop their sense of resiliency and how they think this knowledge can be utilized to promote their own greater self-efficacy and trust. Therefore, the overall purpose is to engage selected students in the development of grounded theory about how educators can learn from African American students about their perceptions of the connections between life experiences and success in higher education. This research is qualitative in nature and based on grounded theory methodology, which allows theory to emerge from subject participation: the theory that emerged was generated specifically from the input of the eight African American student interviewees. The information derived from this study may encourage a more creative approach to educational practices in the future, based in part on specific contributions from African American students. This study confirms that including students in the ongoing dialogue about schooling can be a powerful way to help them examine the ideological nature of their experiences by reflecting on them in a constructively critical manner. The major implication is if the interrelatedness between students' life experiences and academic success were understood more clearly, educators could become more open to enjoying an educational setting in which both students and teachers learn from one another--a setting that better fulfills the fundamental educational goal of preparing students to be successful

The influence of a senior high school (SHS) on academic performance in college is an interesting topic that involves exploring how the specific curriculum and focus of senior high school education can impact students’ success in higher education. In this context, this study explored the influence of senior high school strands on the academic performance of Accountancy students. Data for this descriptive study were collected from 128 respondents using a 30-item, self-made data-gathering instrument that has passed rigorous tests for validity and reliability. The data show that age and senior high school strands significantly influence students’ academic performance in foundational knowledge. However, the level of influence of the SHS strand and the level of academic performance have no significant relationship. This suggests that regardless of the specific strand a student pursues during their SHS years, their performance in higher education is not directly affected by this choice. Keywords: Accountancy, senior high school strand, academic performance, Negros Occidental, Philippines

This article offers a systematic review of what the literature tells us about how First Nations students perceive the factors that contribute to or hinder their success in Australian higher education. It builds on the ‘Aboriginal Voices’ project that investigated the many and varied issues that have contributed to the underachievement of First Nations students in Australian schools. Focusing on research published between 2010 and 2020, we examine the key enablers of and barriers to Indigenous student success at university, concentrating on the views of Indigenous students themselves. This review highlights that this topic is crucially divided between the motivation and mobilisation of First Nations students and the fixed institutional and cultural structures through which they move. The review concludes that the primary barriers to Indigenous success in higher education are racism and whiteness in universities, and socioeconomic disadvantage in Indigenous communities; the primary enablers of Indigenous success are family and community support, Indigenous-specific support services, peer support and mentoring, and trusting and supportive relationships with university staff.

As of 2014, Latinx youth have comprised roughly a quarter of the U.S. population younger than 18 years. Yet Latinx students have not been found to participate in school ensembles at rates consistent with their proportion of the total student population. This disparity has yet to be fully explained by the research literature. The purpose of this review of literature is to synthesize what scholars understand about Latinx student participation in school ensembles. Literature was chosen based on the following research question: What factors may contribute to the disparity between the Latinx student population and the rate of Latinx participation in secondary school music ensembles, nationally? This review revealed several factors that may influence participation rates of Latinx students in secondary music ensembles, including curricular and systemic factors, music teacher attitudes toward diversity, Latinx parental involvement, and Latinx students’ interests. Implications for increasing participation and improving music education for Latinx students are discussed.

Students can encounter significant challenges when transitioning from high school to university. Students must possess the necessary skills to adjust to the self-directed learning atmosphere of the university, however frequently lack the ability to take responsibility for their own learning. This study employs path-modeling techniques to investigate and analyze the multifaceted relationships between various factors, that can predict self-regulated learning as they impact learners' academic achievements in higher education settings, as informed by an extensive review of existing literature. The population for this study were university undergraduates using a researcher-designed questionnaire for data collection. The data collected was modelled reflectively using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Results show that the measurement model assessment showed strong reliability and convergent validity of the latent constructs. However, only technology significantly predicted self-regulated learning as contributing to students' academic success in higher education. The findings from this study contribute significantly to understanding the nuanced pathways through which various learning indicators interact to predict students' self-regulation as influencing students' academic performance in the higher education space. Insights gained from the analysis offer valuable implications for relevant stakeholders aimed at fostering properly tailored conduct that enhances students' academic success in higher education.

The issue of equity in higher education has gained prominence as it has become increasingly clear that opportunities for higher education are not equitably distributed among different student groups. This paper provides a thorough understanding of the key components of equitable access and success in higher education, primarily in the context of the United States. It also seeks to explore the effectiveness of affirmative action, financial aid and scholarship systems, successful initiatives, cultural and sociological attitudes, and institutional structures and services in promoting equitable access and success in higher education. The paper uses a systematic review methodology to analyze academic and policy documents, program evaluations, and case studies. The analysis includes a synthesis of key findings and themes from the literature review, an examination of successful initiatives and programs in higher education institutions in the United States. The findings suggest that while affirmative action and financial aid programs have been successful in promoting equitable access and success in higher education, further efforts are needed to address cultural and societal attitudes that perpetuate inequities in higher education. Recommendations for future research include the long-term effects of financial aid and cultural barriers to building a more equitable education.

The increasing migration and internationalization of societies require a new dynamic architecture in higher education. Understanding the educational journey of specific groups of students is, therefore, of great importance. This study describes the educational pathways of first-generation migrant family students (FGMFSs) who have been successful in their university education. For this grounded theory study, fifteen FGMFSs at universities in Finland were interviewed. Three main categories—the academic environment, academic performance, and academic well-being—were identified as critical factors influencing their educational success in higher education. The results of this study can help educators and policymakers better understand the factors that are important for FGMFSs’ sense of belonging and educational success in higher education.

Critical thinking competencies are not only seen as crucial for success in higher education, but also for future personal and workplace success. These competencies are commonly cited as a graduate attribute or goal of higher education, and resulting research has tended to focus on exploring and measuring the development of critical thinking competencies in students within higher education. However, few researchers have explored the curriculum and practice of academic staff within higher education in relation to their influence on developing critical thinking competencies in students, or how they theorise about the development of these competencies as part of their professional practice. Within the South African context, there is a perception of a decline in the development of critical thinking competencies within the secondary school system. This has informed policy imperatives to improve access and success in South African higher education through additional support for students, as well as through research into the first-year experience. Within a constructivist paradigm, and adopting a qualitative approach, this study takes the first year of higher education as its context in order to explore the curriculum, assessment, pedagogical and andragogical practices of academic staff designed to develop critical thinking competencies in first-year students. The aim is to explore how academic staff construct their theory and practice in order to contribute to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in South African Higher Education. Phenomenological case study research methods, which draw on data collection through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, enabled a better understanding of the lived experience of academic staff within private higher education. Academic staff, as research participants, were able to describe deliberate actions taken in their teaching practices to facilitate the development and assessment of critical thinking competencies. The findings revealed that academic staff – while having no coherent, well-articulated construction of critical thinking competencies – feel that such competencies are essential for academic and future life success. This not only affirmed previous research reviewed, but aligned to the inclusion of explicit and implicit references to critical thinking competencies found in the curriculum and assessment documents. Recommendations for professional development responded specifically to these findings.