The solo journey

Abstract

The purpose of this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study was to discover how community college students from first-generation immigrant backgrounds made sense of their experiences as the first in their family to go to college. The need for this study is highlighted by research that finds that almost one-quarter of college students come from immigrant backgrounds, and this number is projected to rise for some time into the future. While open access community college education offers first-generation students from immigrant backgrounds opportunities to earn degrees, first-year students are twice as likely as their peers to leave college before their sophomore year (Choy, 2001). The problem of practice examined was that college systems designed for traditional students do not consider first-generation students with immigrant backgrounds and their unique personal experiences, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and values, which amounts to a lack of support that can contribute to isolation and high dropout rates for this population. The tenants of academic resilience theory and critical race theory were applied to gather insight into how students make sense of experiences in education and specifically navigating the community college system. This qualitative study with six students enrolled in two community colleges in Washington State revealed that students viewed adverse experiences as the foundation of personal strengths that they use to overcome obstacles as community college students. Students identified relationships with individuals at school, at home, and in the community as impacting their perceptions of their academic achievement. The study also revealed that perceptions about on-going academic achievement and value of a college degree were linked to having a clear sense of purpose and the opportunity to make a difference for others who share aspects of their history and background experiences. This study serves to move beyond a descriptive model that categorizes students to a prescriptive strength-based approach based on the particularities of individual linguistic and cultural background experience. The recommendations in this study could be used to provide educational leaders and policymakers with information to guide decisions about how community college educational systems support first-generation community college students in persisting in their post-secondary experience. Keywords: interpretative phenomenological analysis, first-generation community college students, academic resilience, community college students from immigrant backgrounds, student persistence, English as a Second Language, community college guided pathways