This chapter offers a "single-system, multi-theory" approach to understanding and improving the "oppositionally-intertwined" ecologies of marginalized students as they navigate to and through higher education. Drawing from research conducted with Indigenous students in Peru, we use Ecological Systems Theory (EST) as a schematic…

Multiple national calls centered on critical thinking and social justice have been made to improve and reform higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses to increase the representation of students from marginalized groups in the STEM workforce and equip all students for success. To help answer this call,…

Undocumented college students, who often live off campus for financial reasons as well as family obligations, cannot take advantage of what is considered to be a primary factor in facilitating student success: the sense of community and of mattering that are provided by residence halls, residential staff, and thoughtful programming. In order to…

Racial inequities in retention and graduation rates are a top concern in higher education, yet scholars and practitioners rarely look to racism to explain these disparities. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a vehicle to reveal and challenge power and oppression dynamics between racialized groups. This article proposes a practical model for student…

Background: College sexual violence (CSV) victimization is associated with mental health issues with more recent research showing that victimization also has a negative impact on academic outcomes. While many universities offer a wide range of both advocacy and supportive services for survivors that can help address the negative impacts of CSV,…

Evidence shows that a mere 36% of Black males graduate from a four-year institution in less than six-years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). While research shows many factors contribute to this problem, campus climate and the social environment have an influence on their feelings of acceptance and ultimately self-efficacy to…

One of the most fundamental innovations in higher education is the introduction of the method known as problem-based learning (PBL). While literature has largely focused on its learning goals and the transition from lectures to tutorials, little research has problematised why this is a successful methodology and what we consider as students'…

This article explores the educational processes of the high-school youth and higher education youth of parents who were imprisoned following the coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016. Data was collected from parents who are involved in their children's education and who have been subjected to political persecution. The research is focused on…

Studies in relation to working-class students at elite universities document on the one hand the role of 'mundane reflexivity' in dealing with class domination while on the other indicate a new form of domination and disadvantages working on these working-class 'exceptions' -- they may achieve academically at university but experience various…

Higher education yields individual and collective benefits, to include higher earnings, increased civic engagement, and national economic growth. While social and democratic benefits are included in the expansive lists of positive outcomes, economic benefits, both for the individual as well as for society, remain at the forefront of national…

This research focused on the barriers faced in college by foster-adopt students with same-sex parents. Through specially developed training sessions designed to train and educate college faculty, staff, and administrators, peer reviewers provided feedback on the relevance of the content in the training sessions. The conceptual framework of the…

Graduation and retention rates for men in higher education are falling while instances of violence against women on campus are rising. This environment has produced a focused effort to stem the tide of violence against women in college and a desire to restore men to previous levels of academic achievement. The authors commend and support these…

The expression "mental health" has become ubiquitous when discussing college students' lived experiences. While effective, this expression has not, problematically, been deconstructed. In this article, we explore what "mental health" means. Through doing so we identify three unintended effects embedded within its usage: (a)…

How do we make of students learning something their teacher did not intend to teach? Researchers suggest it unnecessary extras, learning of implicit rules of the game, or keys to understand power structure. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork of a college alternative break trip to learn about poverty through simulation, this article suggests such…

Faculty serve as a primary point of contact for students in college, playing vital roles in students' retention and attainment. The perceptions and beliefs held by these institutional actors are important for understanding the context that shapes students' experiences while they are in college and potentially, long after they leave. The purpose of…