Exploring College Purpose

Abstract

Background:

Upon returning to in-person teaching at Kingsborough Community College after the pandemic, I realized something profound had shifted in my students. The well-documented drop in community college enrollment attributed to the pandemic seemed to reflect deeper disjunctures that had led students to an existential questioning of the purpose and value of a college degree.

Purpose, Objective, Research Question, or Focus of Study:

This study explores 30 community college students’ evolving perceptions of the purpose of college as they navigate through a first-year composition course with a curriculum that explicitly engages them in reading, writing, and researching various perspectives on the purpose, value, and challenges of pursuing a college education.

Research Design:

This qualitative, exploratory study involved redesigning my Composition I and II curricula to engage students in reading, writing, and thinking about the purpose of college; researching the challenges they and other community college students face in pursuing a degree; and proposing student-generated solutions to the community college enrollment and retention crisis. Data collected include two semesters of student essays, discussion boards, annotations on course readings, class activities, and notes from in-class discussions. Data analysis for this essay centered on student writing and followed a grounded theory approach with a focus on identifying salient themes related to student beliefs around college purpose and the impact of academic momentum policies on their college experience.

Conclusions or Recommendations:

The data from this study show that (1) community college students’ understanding of the purpose of college is diverse and malleable and (2) academic momentum policies that press students to attend college full time, despite their many life exigencies, are undermining community college students’ passions and purpose in pursuing a college education.