Adult female learners are constantly juggling roles amidst a chilly climate plagued by gendered stereotypes and their implications. Bronfenbrenner's interactive development model, encompassing the four components of process, person, context, and time, provides a baseline to understand how interactions between family, school, and work impact adult…

This manuscript focuses on student veterans' best option to start their post-high-school education: attending community colleges. It illustrates this point using the story of the author, a US Army combat veteran who began his career at a community college, and other veterans who also began their college careers at the community college. Using…

This case study focuses on researching the connections between policy and teaching practices in the context of English further education. It describes how an ethnographic approach was used to examine how teachers navigate policy directives in their day-to-day work, focusing particularly on quality improvement directives. It shows how two linked…

In the 22nd Century of the United States, student veterans' enrollment numbers have been increasing among higher education institutions. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore student veterans' experiences with the support services they have used and to identify which characteristics of support services student veterans find…

The purpose of this mixed-method pragmatic study was twofold: to identify the necessary classroom and campus supports student veterans require to create a veteran-inclusive environment. Additionally, the study investigated whether those supports differ for male and female student veterans. The United States has been at war for twenty years in…

This study seeks to develop Age-Friendly University (AFU) implementation guidelines to enable universities to self-identify their age-friendliness levels and establish specific strategies toward becoming an AFU. The survey was completed by primary leads for 26 AFUs-recognized institutions globally. The questionnaires included an inventory of 68…

While fostering a sense of belonging among university students is an objective of many universities, the landscape of belonging is complex and multifaceted. It is worthy of deeper interrogation, particularly for "non-traditional" students. This article draws on data from a national mixed-methods study that explored proactive ways of…

The problem investigated by this study is the low completion rates of nontraditional undergraduate adult students attending a 4-year university located in the West coast region of the United States. In 2020, the program completion rate was less than 44% at the study site and 45.8% for nontraditional undergraduate adult students nationally. The…

Military and veteran students face many challenges when navigating their journey in higher education. These non-traditional students have varied support needs when attending institutions of higher education that are different than the traditional student today. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of their satisfaction with the…

KC Scholars is a 501(c)(3) organization working to increase postsecondary education attainment in the greater Kansas City metropolitan region. Its Adult Learner program covers adult residents in the Kansas City region with some college but no degree, and adults with associate degrees who want to earn a bachelor's degree. This brief report…

The lived and collegiate experiences of adult learners, who are among the fastest growing student population in 21st century higher education, is the essence of this study. The study was conducted using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Fifteen baccalaureate level degree-seeking study participants consented to share their respective…

This article examines the transition of adult learners from adult general education to a college program. The ethnographic inquiry methodology used for this research relies on Long's theoretical model which postulates three different levels of dimensions in adult education (1989) and on Bélanger's lifelong learning model (2011). On this…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact competency frameworks as standardisation can have on the employee engagement of academic staff within higher education (HE) through their employment as managerial tools. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review is conducted from which the conditions for effective competency…

The purpose of this study was to examine the individual perspectives and experiences of adult college students and their life contexts, resources, and demands experienced as they engage in the college environment and explore how adult college students utilize developmental regulation strategies to overcome goal conflict and achieve success while…

This study sought to identify the support needed by returning baby boomers to succeed in online master's programs at a Midwest institution. Tinto's (1975, 1987, 1993) theory on social and academic integration, Kember's (1989) model of dropout distance education, Bean and Metzner's (1985) student attrition model, and Park's (2007) model for adult…