Understanding Community Partners’ Motivations to Participate in Academic Outreach Douglas Barrera, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles IARSLCE Annual Conference Baltimore, MD September 24, 2012
Jan 18, 2016
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
1010
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
1515
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
1717
Questions?
Contact Information:
Doug Barrera
UCLA Center for Community Learning
www.communitylearning.ucla.edu