Modulations by Nontraditional Graduate Students to Overcome Imposed Withdrawal

Abstract

Failure to thrive among nontraditional graduate students—whether by attrition, degree noncompletion, or failure—may represent an inability to manage competing demands rather than an inability to perform academically. University personnel have considered themselves limited in the ability to support non-traditional students to overcome nonacademic barriers to persistence and degree completion. However, nontraditional graduate students possess a capacity to change in order to participate successfully in higher education, and university personnel can positively inform such changes. This study examined the experiences of nine students who overcame imposed withdrawal (i.e., dismissal or academic disqualification) and continued successfully or completed a graduate degree. An analysis of interview transcripts revealed eight change attribution themes demonstrating how nontraditional students enacted several changes to themselves or their approaches to learning and how they shared responsibility for changing in their relations to others—all as an effort to overcome failure and to succeed academically.