Nontraditional Approaches with Nontraditional Students: Experiences of Learning, Service and Identity Development

This phenomenological inquiry examines the lived experiences of highly nontraditional students enrolled in credit-bearing, undergraduate higher education courses, and engaged in pedagogy related to service and learning to examine civic and student identity development reflecting the extent to which students perceive these identities as marginalized. Introduction To match best performing countries, the United States will need to graduate 10.1 million adults between the ages 25 and 64 with associates and bachelor’s degrees by 2020 (Kelly & Strawn, 2011). This situation, exacerbated by complex home and work demands frequently results in a lack of persistence to graduation with only 11% of highly nontraditional students attaining a Bachelors degree (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002). These students are referenced as nontraditional or adult students and learners. This study used these terms interchangeably with a focus on the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) seven characteristics: delayed enrollment in postsecondary education, part-time enrollment, financially independent of parent, work full time while enrolled, have dependents other than a spouse, are single parents, or lack a standard high school diploma. NCES further defines nontraditional students on a continuum of minimally nontraditional, presenting one nontraditional characteristic, to moderately nontraditional, presenting two to three characteristics, to highly nontraditional, presenting four or more characteristics (NCES, 2002). From 2011 to 2021 there will be no national growth in the number of high school graduates (Kelly & Strawn, 2011). Conversely college enrollment for adults ages 25 and older is projected at 22.6% by 2019 (Kelly & Strawn, 2011). Yet these students continue to struggle. Nontraditional students are twice as likely as traditional students to leave higher education without attaining a degree, and half as likely to complete a degree (NCES, 2002). Complete College America’s work (2011) reflects that only 24.3% of part time bachelor’s level students graduate within 8 years of beginning their course of study (CCA, 2011). This study focuses on identity, specifically categorization which reflects people’s tendency to classify themselves and others into various social categories or constructs, leading to identification with others having similar characteristics or roles (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Multiple identities are often classified into common social demographic categories known as race, class, gender, sexual orientation and age (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) as well as role categories such as students, parents, workers. Group members engage in comparison, resulting in distinctiveness related to power and prestige. Comparison leads to Ingroup experiences where people identify with the group that has power and prestige or Outgroup experiences where people identify with the group that does not, affecting self-esteem, producing internalized perceptions and effecting behavior (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). This examination of identity includes nontraditional student identities which are layered and drawn from multiple sources, past and present, shaped by beliefs that are contradictory in nature such as the ideal student image, not reflective of their own (Kasworm, 2005). Outgroup status in higher education reflects a unintentional systematic oppression of a particular identity through established laws, customs and practices producing inequities that are often an invisible set of barriers limiting people based on their membership. Higher Education privileges traditional students despite the fact that they have no social standing, offering power and privilege in the designs for access to enrollment and financial aid, socialization, faculty support as well as the successful outcome of academic retention and completion. Closing the boundaries of this study is the concept of Civic Identity as defined by a feeling of belonging or an experience of ownership in the political communities to which one belongs. Conceptual Framework The study engages Saddington’s (2000) dimensions of experience in adult learners’ lives, which draws from Malcolm Knowles, noting the learner at the center of a process of discovery and self-actualization, seeking acceptance and wholeness as a central value for knowledge. In this thinking, the learner’s life experience is utilized for integration, not only as a source of knowledge but also as the content of the curriculum. The study connects Saddington’s (2000) model with Weil and McGill’s (1989) Four Villages of Experiential Learning, engaging two of those Villages focusing on experiential learning’s influences on personal growth and social change. In addition framework constructs from Identity Development theory provide a foundation to examine study data noting how the nontraditional student has utilized service and learning pedagogies to respond to their student status. Adult learners have vast cultural and contextual experience, as well as pre-constructed meaning schemes and service connects to community role identities and can trigger the exploration and redefinition of identities. Engaging a Phenomenological Inquiry approach to unearth the essence of the nontraditional student’s experience, this study used an inductive process of building from the data to develop a model or theory (Moustakas, 1994). All 13 student participants were ages of 30 and 50 years and enrolled in credit-bearing courses during the time of the study which engaged them in explorative, open ended, face-to-face interviews. Each held at least four characteristics defining them as Highly Nontraditional Students, with 23% of participants holding five and 15% holding six characteristics (NCES, 2002). Study participants were 46% males and 54% females and 61% identified as White with the remainder as Black or MultiRacial. All participants additionally identified as low income and commuter students, factors known to challenge student success. Data analysis was completed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Moustakas, 1994) which enabled explication, reflection and interpretation to examine the data to reveal structure, meaning, configuration, coherence and circumstances clusters. The analysis results in statements revealing general “essence” descriptions (Moustakas, 1994). The study’s central question explored the relationship between the pedagogical intervention of service and learning and the nontraditional student’s identity development.