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INTEGRATING LOCAL AND ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE: AN EXPLORATION OF LOW-INCOME AND WORKING-CLASS COLLEGE STUDENT EXPERIENCES EMPLOYING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES

Carrubba-Whetstine, Christina R.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4992-3725
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437570487

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Education.
Low-income and working-class students have gained greater access to higher education, but their experiences on college campuses remain characterized by feeling devalued and excluded. Institutions of higher education privilege the reproduction of elite cultural values, beliefs, and ways of knowing and often marginalize low-income and working-class students by conceptualizing them as lacking and deficient. The present study abandons deficit conceptualizations of low-income and working-class college students operating from the assumption that they possess valuable local knowledge (i.e., knowledge gained from their family and local experience). The study explores how low-income and working-class students conceptualize, make sense of, and integrate their locally gained knowledge with their knowledge acquired from institutions of higher education. Data collection involved individual interviews, group interactions, and researcher autoethnographic writing. Inspired by Indigenous epistemologies and action/participatory research methods, the researcher engaged in the study as both researcher and participant. Participants were graduate students enrolled in a mid-size university located in the Midwest of the United States. Data analysis involved grounded theory methods and procedures (i.e., focused coding) and a collaborative theme development process with the study participants. Findings reveal that participants’ experiences challenge deficit conceptualizations of low-income and working-class students. Participants reported coming to college with extensive work experience that provided them with confidence and an ability to be both flexible and resilient. Participants communicated experiences of having their local knowledge and experiences marginalized by faculty, staff, and peers within the higher educational context. Though much of current scholarly research on low-income and working-class students focuses on their lacking of cultural capital, participants communicated feeling proficient in learning and performing the rules and norms of the university. Although participants revealed that their local and academic life remained separate throughout their undergraduate experiences (frequently having to make-sense of their academic experience for their families and their local experiences for the educational institution), in graduate school they felt compelled to integrate their local and academic knowledge and experiences by bringing their local narratives to the Academy. These findings and the overall research process encourages institutions of higher education to refocus their initiatives to support low-income and working-class students from supplementing and bolstering a seemingly deficient student to reevaluating their unwelcoming culture and environment.
Peter Magolda (Committee Chair)
Elisa Abes (Committee Member)
Kathy Goodman (Committee Member)
Ann Fuehrer (Other)
153 p.
Adult Education; Education; Education History; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration
low-income; working-class; college students; autoethnography; Indigenous; epistemologies; local knowledge; academic knowledge, higher education; at-risk; persistence; resilience

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Carrubba-Whetstine, C. R. (2015). INTEGRATING LOCAL AND ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE: AN EXPLORATION OF LOW-INCOME AND WORKING-CLASS COLLEGE STUDENT EXPERIENCES EMPLOYING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437570487

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Carrubba-Whetstine, Christina. INTEGRATING LOCAL AND ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE: AN EXPLORATION OF LOW-INCOME AND WORKING-CLASS COLLEGE STUDENT EXPERIENCES EMPLOYING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES . 2015. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437570487.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Carrubba-Whetstine, Christina. "INTEGRATING LOCAL AND ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE: AN EXPLORATION OF LOW-INCOME AND WORKING-CLASS COLLEGE STUDENT EXPERIENCES EMPLOYING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES ." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437570487

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.