African American male students’ perceptions about the influence of a minority male initiative program on persistence and completion at a community college
Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Community colleges play a significant role in the American higher education system, and in sustaining local and federal economies in the United States. One of the challenges facing community colleges is the need to increase the performance of African American male students who enroll in great numbers but do not achieve comparable success. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of community college African American male students regarding minority male initiative programs designed to improve their persistence and degree completion. Of specific interest in this study was the students’ perspective of whether the state sponsored program, the minority male initiative (MMI) program in Texas, helped improve the persistence and degree completion among African American men in community colleges. \nThis qualitative study was conducted through the lens of the constructivist paradigm, incorporated in a collective case study research design, to address the four research questions that guided this study. The study was guided by a conceptual framework based on the socio-ecological model, which specifically accounts for factors that influence the success of men of color in community colleges. There were 10 study participants, all of whom were African American male students who participated in the MMI program at a very large, urban serving community college in Southeast Texas. The participants for this study were selected purposively. Data were collected through multiple avenues including the researcher, semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflective journaling, and documents. The constant-comparative method and axial coding were used to analyze the data collected, and credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were used to assure the trustworthiness of the study. \nThe results of the study indicated that community college African American male students view family participation, family situation, and supportive programs as factors that affect their persistence. Financial burdens, academic advising, and mentoring were perceived as factors that affect degree completion. The results also showed African American male students perceived the MMI program promoted peer support, increased student engagement, and increased student awareness, which improved their persistence from semester to semester and their degree completion. \nThe results of this study suggest several implications and recommendations for higher education practice. Implications include, community colleges must adopt meaningful ways to accommodate students of diverse backgrounds, to address their financial obstacles, and recognize that academic advising and mentoring are factors that impinge on degree completion. In addition, community colleges need to embrace, support, and implement the MMI program to improve African American male community college students’ persistence and degree completion. The recommendations to the practice of higher education based on the findings of this study include, institutions need to encourage greater participation of students’ families in their college experience, mandate advising for African American male students, properly implement and provide financial support for the MMI program, and design strategies for best use of the MMI program. Recommendations for future research include, a qualitative study examining the perceptions and experiences of African American male students at multiple community colleges about the effect of family participation and supportive programs on their persistence and degree completion. A quantitative study that compares the persistence rate of those community college African American male students who participated in the MMI program to those who did not.
Author: Fidelis Ngang
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3094337695