While transformative learning often leads to positive experiences, it can also be a complex, emotionally turbulent process. The process for some can represent a messy and emotionally chaotic journey, where learners may find themselves in conflict with their emotional comfort zones as they question belief systems, who they are, how they see the…

In this article, authors examine literature on the enrollment, degree attainment, and experiences of Black women graduate students. Authors use socialization to examine the failures of academia to account for Black women's intersectional identities and identify ways administrators and faculty can further support these women's success.

This study used archival data from 46 semi-structured interview recordings and notes, collected from Fall 2021 through Spring 2023. The interviews were part of a bigger study of disabled graduate students (DS) at a large university with locations across California. Participating disabled students were mostly female (70%) and White (53%). Purposive…

The claim made is that dignity matters in both legal and recognitional aspects for flourishing and lifelong learning opportunities for young adults. Dignity is understood here as a foundational capability and functioning to be and to do in ways which matter to a person, requiring the material and non-material conditions which enable and secure…

This qualitative study explores Asian international students' academic experiences in Korean graduate education, focusing on their relationships with Korean advisors. The findings identify three themes in how these international students perceive their Korean advisors, namely as (a) academically and professionally supportive, (b) responsive but…

This study explores how students' professional learning is distributed across and mediated by multiple learning environments during student affairs graduate preparation. Utilizing activity system analysis and qualitative case study, the study reports on the experiences of four second-year Master's students at a Midwest preparation program.…

Political factors and the COVID-19 pandemic have had profound impacts on international students in the U.S. These factors include anti-immigration rhetoric, the policies of the executive branch, and the additional COVID-19 restrictions placed on international students in 2020. In this study, we interviewed international students in graduate STEM…

Responding to student demand for flexibility in the delivery of classes as well as the potential barriers and enabling factors supporting student success, universities have introduced distinctive educational models, including replacing the standard 12-week, sequential delivery of units of study with 4- or 8-week blocks of one or two units at a…

Chinese international graduate students (CIGs), growing up without siblings, under China's One-Child policy, are particularly impacted by peer dynamics. This study explored the influence of peer dynamics and family structure on the academic motivation of CIGs in the U.S., using Bandura's self-efficacy theory as a framework. A single-case study…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to understand the role that whiteness has in shaping the graduate education experiences of Southeast Asian American students in the United States. This study explores two research questions. (1) How do Southeast Asian American graduate students describe their graduate education? (2) How…

The experiences students have as they pursue graduate degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are governed by numerous dynamics that are at play outside the context of any classroom. The relationships students share with their peers, advisors, administration, and university significantly impacts their trajectory as…

This article describes the inclusion of a novel online student-centered resource--a Virtual Executive in Residence (VER)--who was embedded within four graduate online asynchronous courses across three semesters. Pre- and post-qualitative student perceptions from two consecutive semesters (across 48 students) were initially used to explain the…

This qualitative study using narrative inquiry as methodology explores the ways in which five parents experienced the phenomenon of graduate studies within the context of parenthood. The study uses Connelly and Clandinin's (2006) three-dimensional narrative inquiry space to examine, deconstruct, analyze, and gain insight into dominant themes. The…

This paper reports on an innovation of allowing higher education students to select their preferred mode of feedback. The aim was to investigate how a sample of 35 postgraduate students perceived and experienced self-selected feedback mode (audio, video or written) as part of an online research subject. Participants were invited to complete a…

First generation college students, or students whose parents have not completed a four-year degree, face many obstacles in their academic careers (Banks-Santilli, 2014). Research on this group has found that these students face many obstacles to their academic success (Jean, 2010). These obstacles lead to high attrition rates for first generation…