Is It What You Know or Who You Know?: An Information Typology of How First-Generation College Students Access Campus Resources
- 21 December 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice
- Vol. 26 (1), 194-215
- https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251211068115
Abstract
While there has been increased investigation of the enrollment patterns and access to college for first-generation college students (FGCS), less is understood about how FGCS learn and utilize vital information to persist with limited familial knowledge about college success. In this paper we utilize focus group data of 62 diverse FGCS to create a typology of how students utilize information to succeed in college. Using theory from sociology and information sciences we categorize the sources FGCS learn from and how information is utilized. Our findings indicate that FGCS develop complex ways of finding information even with minimal support and those information sources that are most helpful are often connected to pre-existing and informal relationships. We conclude by offering implications for future research on FGCS student success and opportunities for administrators to incorporate information-finding and relationship-building concepts into student success practice.This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- Relational Bureaucracy: Structuring Reciprocal Relationships into RolesAcademy of Management Review, 2012
- Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysisText & Talk - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication Studies, 2008
- A Model of First-Generation Latino/a College Students' Approach to Seeking Academic InformationNACADA Journal, 2006
- People, places, and questions: An investigation of the everyday life information-seeking behaviors of urban young adultsLibrary & Information Science Research, 2005
- Internet Use for Health Information Among College StudentsJournal of American College Health, 2005
- Focus GroupsPublished by SAGE Publications ,2004
- A model of information practices in accounts of everyday‐life information seekingJournal of Documentation, 2003
- Focus GroupsPsychology of Women Quarterly, 1999
- ’I Heard It on the Grapevine’: ‘hot’ knowledge and school choiceBritish Journal of Sociology of Education, 1998
- Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life”Library & Information Science Research, 1995