Required impact of the relationship between college counselors' critical listening and first-generation culturally diverse college level students' acquisition of social and academic capital

Abstract

Abstract The research study explored whether the critical listening phenomenon was perceived by diverse, first-generation mentees in a community college mentoring program and whether that phenomenon had any impact on the acquisition of social and academic capital. The theoretical basis which guided the study was the unique cultural inequities which face diverse, first-generation community college students who are at risk for retention and graduation (Wunch, 1994; Crisp & Cruz, 2009). Mentorship had a proven record for providing a connection-making intervention and a venue where their voices could be heard (Bakhtin, 1984; Polkinghorne, 1995). Mentors provided direction and enhanced student persistence toward graduation (Yamamoto, 1988; Laden, 1999; Wang, 2012; Johnson, et.al., 2018). Using a qualitative, phenomenological case-study approach, initial interviews of nine participants representing three points of progress in the community college academic career (mid-first year, mid-second year, and graduates) were conducted with participant follow-up and sense-making reviews of the data transcripts. The components of critical listening were derived by the researcher from scholarly literature on listening and mentorship (Johnson & Ridley, 2008; Sims, 2017; Miller, 2018; Bodie, Vickery, & Gearhart, 2013; Cananaugh, Vigil, & Garcia, 2014; Foss-Kelly & Protivnak, 2017; O’Sullivan, et al., 2017; Sulimani-Aidan, Melkman, & Hellman, 2019). The interview question protocol was developed by the researcher as derived from research literature on listening, mentoring, and the theories of social and academic capital (Bourdieu, 1986; Stanton-Salazar, 2001; Moschetti & Hudley, 2015; Portes, 1998; Lund-Chaix & Gelles, 2012; Coleman, 1988; Coleman, 1990; Stich & Reeves, 2016). Primary findings included: (1) all components of critical listening were experienced by six out of nine participants, (2) critical listening had a definite impact on the acquisition of social and academic capital, (3) trust and confidentiality were essential, (4) mentees more quickly acted upon advice of mentors who shared similar life experiences, (5) listening without judgment was critical, and (6) there was no gender difference in responses of participants within each of the three stages. While no preconceived assumptions were made prior to the study, the main conclusion which answered the research questions was that critical listening, as perceived by the participants, had a direct correlation with their acquisition of social and academic capital.