Complicating College-Transition Stories: Strengths and Challenges of Approaches to Diversity in Wise-Story Interventions

Abstract

In response to the growing numbers of minoritized students (e.g., low-income, first-generation, students of color) transitioning into U.S. systems of higher education, researchers have developed transition-assistance strategies, such as psychologically wise-story interventions. Through a rigorous, theory-driven approach, wise-story interventions use stories to encourage students to develop adaptive meanings about college-transition challenges, subsequently allowing students to persist. Yet there is one critical distinction between existing wise-story interventions. Well-known examples endorse a color-evasive message that all students, regardless of their demographic backgrounds, share similar struggles when adjusting to college. One variation in wise-story interventions ties transition struggles explicitly to students’ identities, adopting more of a multicultural perspective. Drawing from diversity frameworks, we offer in this article a comparative analysis of these variations; we outline under what conditions, for whom, and through which processes these varying approaches to identity affect student outcomes. In this discussion, we reflect on both the strengths and challenges of wise-story interventions and offer considerations for extending these approaches. Specifically, we ask whether integrating critical perspectives into wise-story interventions better addresses the experiences of minoritized students as they navigate institutions historically built for dominant groups.