Understanding Community Partners’ Motivations to Participate in Academic Outreach Douglas Barrera, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles IARSLCE.

Understanding Community Partners’ Motivations to Participate in

Academic Outreach

Douglas Barrera, Ph.D.University of California, Los Angeles

IARSLCE Annual ConferenceBaltimore, MD

September 24, 2012

Social Responsibility of Higher Education

•History of purposes extending to the public good

•Need to expand access to postsecondary education

•The role of outreach programs

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Literature on Outreach Programs

•Most studies focus on student outcomes (Gándara & Bial, 2001; Gónzalez & Moll, 2002; Tierney & Jun, 2001)

•Need research that focuses on the relationships with school partners•Hearing directly from community

stakeholders

•The effects of current economy on outreach•What it means for the university meeting its

diversity and social responsibility goals

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Theoretical frameworks

•Why do the school partners participate?• Resource Dependence• Power differentials (Emerson, 1962)•Organizations dependent on resource-rich partners

(Jacobs, 1974)•Desire to reduce dependencies (Emerson, 1962)

• Interdependence•Collaboration (Hall et al, 1977; Lundin, 2007)•Beyond material reasons (Johnson, 1995)

• Civic Interdependence44

Research Questions

1. Why do community partners participate in college preparation outreach?

2. How does the university articulate its commitment to social responsibility and diversity, and how does participation in college preparation outreach affect community partners’ views of the university’s commitment?

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Case Studies

•University of the Public•University Outreach•System-wide program•Works with schools throughout region•Criteria for underrepresented students•College advising for select group•Open to rest of school when available

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Case Studies

•Science & Math Outreach•Statewide program•Works with schools in narrow

geographic area•Open to all students in the schools•Goal to prepare students to be STEM

majors•Prepares students for annual

competitions77

Data Collection

•Document Analysis• Service agreements• Advertising material (web content &

brochures)

• Interviews• School partners• Program staff• Two directors, two coordinators for UO

• Standardized protocol• Interviews lasted average of 45 minutes

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Sampling

•Science & Math Outreach•Only high school partners• Interviewed 4 teachers & 2 counselors• Interviewed program director at UP

•University Outreach•Only high school partners• Interviewed 15 counselors (at 14 schools)• Interviewed program director and 2 site

coordinators at UP99

Analysis

•Documents•Document analysis by case

•Interviews•Divided data by case & constituency• First cycle coding within case looking for

converging and diverging data• Second cycle coding within case looking for

categories•Clustered categories across the cases

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Analysis

•Developing Themes• Partitioned and clustered the data (both

interview & document data)•Developed emergent themes across cases•Civic interdependence emerged from

themes on motivation

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Findings

1212

MUTUAL RESOURCE DEPENDENCE

Providing Task SupportTechnical AssistanceUniversity PrestigeAccess to Students

IDEOLOGICAL MOTIVATION

Need to Increase Access for URMs

Social ResponsibilityCommitment

Motivations to Participate

Findings

•Mutual Resource Dependence•Task support•Technical assistance•University prestige•Access to students

1313

Findings

•Ideological Motivation•Need to increase access• Social responsibility•Commitment

1414

Conclusions

•Budget cuts have small impact on how partners view the programs

•Civic interdependence explains partners’ participation•Mutual need for resources•Mutual responsibility to address access gap•Shared commitment to increase access•Shared desire to increase engagement

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Conclusions

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Contributions

• Understanding the motivations of school partners to participate in academic outreach• Both resource dependency and ideological motivations

• Better understanding of what actions lead to good relationships between schools and universities in the context of academic outreach• Effects budget cuts have on these relationships

• Addition of community voice to research on institutional civic engagement

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Questions?

Contact Information:

Doug Barrera

dbarrera@college.ucla.edu

UCLA Center for Community Learning

www.communitylearning.ucla.edu