if only you knew · key outcomes using)asigniﬁcance)of)p=.05,)four)variables)were)analyzed)...

"If Only You Knew"

An Analysis of the 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) for Understanding Activities that

Promote Success for Black Students

Copyright by Brenda LaJoyce Harrison, 2014

Good News, Bad News

  Enrollment of Black students in higher educa5on showed a steady increase of 10-‐14% during the years of 1976-‐2008.

  Even though there con5nues to be a steady increase in enrollment, Black students are not gradua5ng at the same rate as their White and Asian counterparts.


Low Persistence and Graduation Rates

  Several factors may account for this phenomenon (e.g. finances, work/family obliga5ons, school fit, etc.)

  Student engagement is another factor worth considering.

  Defined as par5cipa5on in ac5vi5es that have been demonstrated to promote learning and posi5ve student development (Kuh, 2000)


National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

  Developed by Dr. George Kuh in 1999 and administered na5onwide.

 Measures the degree to which students complete ac5vi5es such as wri5ng papers, mee5ng with faculty, discussing ideas with other students, par5cipa5ng in co-‐curricular ac5vi5es, u5lizing cri5cal thinking skills, etc.


Five Key Benchmarks

  Approximately 50 ques5ons are divided into five benchmark areas as follows:

1. Levels of Academic Challenge;

2. Ac5ve and Collabora5ve Learning;

3. Student-‐Faculty Interac5on;

4. Suppor5ve Campus Environment; and

5. Enriching Educa5onal Experiences.


Student-Faculty Interaction

  Interac5on with faculty is purported to be one of the most important ac5vi5es students can engage in.

  Student-‐Faculty interac5on, within and outside of the classroom, produces many benefits such as enhanced cogni5ve skills, intellectual growth, persistence, problem solving ability, and a more enjoyable collegiate experience (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Komarraju, Musulkin, & Bhaaacharya, 2010).


Research Questions

  Do Black undergraduate students view student-‐faculty interac5on at the same levels as White undergraduate students?

  How do Black undergraduate students describe the behaviors of faculty at a predominantly White ins5tu5on? What behaviors are perceived as caring? What behaviors are perceived as uncaring?

  How do these caring/uncaring behaviors impact the student’s desire to persist?


Importance of Study   Census data projects minori5es will outnumber Whites by 2020.

  Enrollment of minority students in Predominantly White Ins5tu5ons (PWI) con5nues to increase.

  Faculty con5nue to be predominantly White.


Methodology   Mixed methods research.   Sequen5al Explanatory design that uses a two-‐phase

approach where qualita5ve data is used to explain or expound on ini5al quan5ta5ve data.

  Par5cipant selec5on varia5on used to “iden5fy and purposefully select par5cipants for follow-‐up, in-‐depth, qualita5ve study (Creswell & Plano-‐Clark, 2007, p. 74).

  Homogeneous sampling strategy for qualita5ve phase.


Research Setting and Participants

  Predominantly White Midwestern public university  Masters degree gran5ng ins5tu5on with over 120 degree programs

  Over 8,000 students   Larger female than male student body   Seventy-‐two percent White, 12% Black, 4% other or unknown, 3.6% Hispanic, 3% Non-‐Resident Alien, 2.4% two or more races, 1.5% Asian, and 1.5% American Indian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Copyright by Brenda LaJoyce Harrison, 2014

Research Setting and Participants

  Five hundred thirty faculty members.   Seventy-‐eight percent White, 9% Black, 5% Asian, 2% Non-‐Resident Alien, 2% Hispanic, and 4% American Indian, two or more races, an unknown.

  University located in an urban city where 56.6% of the residents are Black, 37.4% White, 3.9% Hispanic, and 2.1% American Indian, Alaska Na5ve, Asian, and two or more races.


Quantitative Phase

  The quan5ta5ve research addressed the first ques5on and sought to discover if Black students aaending a predominantly White urban ins5tu5on viewed the student-‐faculty rela5onship the same way as White students aaending the same ins5tu5on.

  2009 NSSE results from a Midwestern university were analyzed using descrip5ve and inferen5al sta5s5cal methods.

  Database of over 800 freshmen and senior students.


Key Outcomes   Using a significance of p=.05, four variables were analyzed

(Student-‐Faculty Interac5on, Enriching Educa5onal Experiences, Suppor5ve Campus Environment, and Grades) using t-‐tests.

  Three variables were found to be significant in terms of differences between Black and White students (Enriching Educa5onal Experiences, Suppor5ve Campus Environment, and Grades)

  While Blacks students report a higher percep5on of Student-‐Faculty Interac5on, Enriching Educa5onal Experiences, and Suppor5ve Campus Environment, they also report lower grades than their White counterparts.


Independent Samples Test T Sig (2 tailed)

SFI 1.646 .100

EEE 2.965 .003

SCE 2.616 .009

Grades 6.829 .000

Race differences (between Black and White students) on the three composites.

p=.05


More Analysis

  Given that grades represent success or failure of classes, more analysis was necessary. A modera5on analysis was performed.

  A modera5on analysis seeks to discover which of the variables is affec5ng the others. In this case, which of the three components being analyzed is affec5ng grades.


Key Outcomes

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

7

0 50 100

Grades

Score on Student-Faculty Interaction

Black White


Key Outcomes

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

7

7.5

8

0 50 100

Grades

Score on Enriching Educational Experiences

Black White


Key Outcomes

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

7

0 50 100

Grades

Score on Supportive Campus Environment

Black White


Analysis   The gap between Black and White student performance

does not seem to close with this dataset.

  This suggests that more informa5on is needed regarding the lived experiences of Black students on predominantly White campuses.

  Qualita5ve analysis may enlighten us as to why increased interac5on with faculty produced nega5ve results.


Qualitative Phase   Sought to answer the second and third research ques5ons.

  Two focus group sessions, seven students par5cipated.

  Sophomore to senior standing, ages 19 -‐60

  Case study at one ins5tu5on, hereamer known as Mid-‐West University.

  Goal was to hear the voices of Black students.


Teacher Caring   Ten ques5ons were addressed to ascertain the students’

percep5on of faculty caring.

  Caring is significant because it focuses on the antudes and behaviors exhibited by faculty which either invite students to or prevent students from forming rela5onships with them.

  A growing body of research addresses the issue of teacher caring and its impact on students (Buaner, 2004; Jenkins & Speck, 2007, Teven, 2007; Cox & Orehovec, 2007; Panson, Hale, & Gowens, 2011)


Teacher Caring   Three types of contact:

1.  Course Related Faculty Contact 2.  Advice and Cri5cism from Faculty 3.  Mentoring Rela5onship with Faculty (Cole, 2010)

  Four categories of faculty caring: 1.  Affirma5on of students 2.  Focus on the Classroom Environment 3.  Taking Time 4.  Communica5on (Paaerson, Hale, & Gowens, 2011)


Teacher Caring   Six categories of disrespecqul behaviors: 1.  Insensi5ve treatment 2.  Lack of help with in-‐class related ac5vi5es 3.  Defensiveness 4.  Lack of recogni5on 5.  Unfair treatment 6.  Failure to respond to concerns (Buaner, 2004)


Focus Group Questions 1.  During your 5me at this ins5tu5on, have you had any interac5on with

instructors, either within or outside of classes, whom you felt really cared about you?

2.  What behaviors/ac5ons did those instructors exhibit which you perceived as caring?

3.  How did those behaviors/ac5ons make you feel?

4.  During your 5me at this ins5tu5on, have you had classes with instructors, either within or outside of classes, whom you felt really did not care about you?

5.  What behaviors/ac5ons did those instructors exhibit which you perceived as uncaring?


Focus Group Questions 6.  How did those behaviors/ac5ons make you feel?

7.  Have either the caring or uncaring behaviors/ac5ons exhibited by faculty influenced your desire to remain at this ins5tu5on?

8.  Have you developed a close bond with any instructor here at this ins5tu5on?

9.  If so, does that bond impact your academic performance and/or your percep5on of your ability to succeed here at this ins5tu5on?

10.  Are there any other comments you would like to make about your experiences with faculty here at this ins5tu5on?


Focus Group Results   Discussions yielded very good informa5on about the

students’ lived experiences with faculty at Mid-‐West University.

  Thirty-‐six open codes were categorized into three major themes and four sub-‐themes.


Caring

Theme Defini3on Example

Caring •  Focus on student needs

•  Going the extra mile

Faculty members who were willing to adjust their teaching schedules and address deficits in prior knowledge were said to be focused on the students’ needs.

Students felt that faculty who reached out to students and offered support, assistance, or encouragement were viewed as going the extra mile.

“…so this par5cular professor, he makes you understand. If you don't understand you come see him, but you goaa understand that if he get enough complaints where people don't understand, then he's gonna stop and change direc5ons.”

“Yes it does because she, she is so full of encouragement, you know, as a fact, um, in fact when she started this student business um, student business associa5on, or organiza5on…Business club, that’s what it was; she personally came up to me and wanted me to get involved with that.”


Uncaring Theme Defini3on Example

Uncaring

•  Disregard

•  Different Treatment

Faculty who were slow to respond to the students’ inquiries, exhibited a lack of concern for their requests, or showed liale interest in them were said to exhibit disregard.

Students described clear instances where they felt instructors made a dis5nc5on between them and White students.

“I'm coming to you as a student saying I have trouble in this area" and for you to tell me, ‘Oh, it's okay you'll get it’ makes me think no I won't cause I'm telling that you I've had trouble in the past and I know I can get it, but I need assisted learning or they're mee5ng with you in their office hours just to tell you to go to tutoring, they're not sinng down with you um on that one on one basis, they're just fending you off to the next solu5on or telling you to read the book, or telling you to form student group, or you know I needed help this evening and you email me two days later…”

“…the only person of color, put it like that, and um, some people are expected to know this stuff and I can understand that, but their ques5ons seem to outweigh mine, you know…”


Personal Coping Skills

Theme Defini3on Example

Personal Coping Skills Student omen expressed a need to focus on their own internal mo5va5ons and personal resources in order to deal with uncaring instructors.

“…actually, tell you the truth about it, I pray on it, you know what I mean; cause this is something that I want to accomplish not because of a job opportunity or nothing like that, but it just I just want it to be said that I did it, I accomplished this.”


Desire to Persist   Despite their nega5ve experiences, and in some cases, because of their

posi5ve experiences, all seven students expressed inten5on to persist and graduate from Mid-‐West University.

  One student’s account which prompted her to consider transferring:

I believe I would transfer, but being a transfer student here, looking back, um, it's a different set-‐up. My peers there, my White peers there didn't care so, but at least they weren't trying to make it so I couldn't get anything, they just didn't care about me and then I'm in a city where racism is extremely prominent; it's worse than on campus; on campus it's not as bad, but trying to get a job trying to go out into the city is horrible. Boom, I transfer back home to [Mid-‐West University], where I'm not dealing so much with racism in the city is bad, I kinda know my city, I know how to handle my city, but I'm in a university where not only am I not being acknowledged, I feel like people are trying to defeat me; so now on top of people not acknowledging me, I feel like people are going out of their way to make sure that I don't get what I want. I would rather you not acknowledge me and let me do what I need to do to try and excel, than to not acknowledge me and on top of not acknowledging me you want to defeat me.


Key Points   NSSE data needed to be disaggregated by race in order to

determine that Black students were not receiving the same benefits from engagement ac5vi5es on this par5cular campus as White students.

  The voices of Black students need to be heard in order to really understand their experiences.

  Faculty ac5ons and behaviors really impact students in both posi5ve and nega5ve ways.

  Faculty members need to be mindful of the cues they are sending to minority students.


Key Points   Administrators and other university personnel also influence

the percep5on Black students have of the campus environment.

  Anyone can be a champion for Black and other minority students.


Limitations of Research

  A larger dataset would have been preferred.   Focus was on only one aspect of student engagement;

all five benchmarks should be analyzed.

  Impact of age and gender were not considered.   Larger focus group would have been preferred.   Longitudinal study of disaggregated NSSE data for Mid-‐

West University would have provided informa5on about paaerns.


Questions/Discussion


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