Toward a nuanced understanding of first-generation students
This study details a new continuum that better captures how students are differentially positioned in social space, and identify three clusters based on their capacity to mobilise capital.
Davis / / March 2012
More first-generation students are attending college than ever before, and policy makers agree that increasing their participation in higher education is a matter of priority. Despite this, there is no agreed definition about the term, few institutions can quantify how many first-generation students are enrolled, or mistakenly conflate them with low-income students, and many important dimensions to the first-generation student experience remain poorly documented. Few institutions have in place a clear, well-articulated practice for assisting first-generation students to succeed.