TY - JOUR
T1 - A Dream Deferred
T2 - Post-Traditional College Trajectories and the Evolving Logic of College Plans
AU - Spencer, George
AU - de Novais, Janine
AU - Chen-Bendle, Emily Carolyn
AU - Ndika, Elizabeth
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Ohio State University.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Despite high college expectations and enrollments among young people, their trajectories through higher education have become increasingly complex. Even after initially starting as “traditional” students, many college graduates are only able to complete a bachelor’s degree after a series of stops and starts across multiple institutions. While there is a growing body of research regarding nontraditional students, we know very little about how these individuals make sense of their trajectories. This qualitative study draws on interviews with 40 college graduates who attained a bachelor’s degree following an extended and interrupted path. We consider how these individuals, who we define as post-traditional graduates, come to understand the value of college, distinguishing between the moral value, referred to as the expressive logic, and more practical and economic explanations, referred to as the instrumental logic. Our study found that an instrumental logic characterized the beginning of their college journeys, but what sustained our participants over time was an expressive logic: an evolved understanding of college as a process conferring personal development and moral worth.
AB - Despite high college expectations and enrollments among young people, their trajectories through higher education have become increasingly complex. Even after initially starting as “traditional” students, many college graduates are only able to complete a bachelor’s degree after a series of stops and starts across multiple institutions. While there is a growing body of research regarding nontraditional students, we know very little about how these individuals make sense of their trajectories. This qualitative study draws on interviews with 40 college graduates who attained a bachelor’s degree following an extended and interrupted path. We consider how these individuals, who we define as post-traditional graduates, come to understand the value of college, distinguishing between the moral value, referred to as the expressive logic, and more practical and economic explanations, referred to as the instrumental logic. Our study found that an instrumental logic characterized the beginning of their college journeys, but what sustained our participants over time was an expressive logic: an evolved understanding of college as a process conferring personal development and moral worth.
KW - aspirations
KW - expectations
KW - nontraditional
KW - persistence
KW - Post-traditional students
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161449602&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/00221546.2023.2216611
DO - 10.1080/00221546.2023.2216611
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161449602
SN - 0022-1546
JO - Journal of Higher Education
JF - Journal of Higher Education
ER -