Renegotiating parents' role: a case study examining parent/college official communication and messaging during freshman onboarding

David Feldman

doi:10.17918/etd-7038

Parents of incoming students and college officials often engage during freshman onboarding to support college student success. Elements of college success includes the student's development of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills; and success is often measured by annual retention and persistence to degree. This qualitative case study answers the central question of this investigation and fills a gap in the literature by determining that the communication and messaging taking place between parents and college officials during freshman onboarding predominately met each party's intentions and expectations and established a foundation by which the two stakeholders can work to support student success. Eight parents and nine college officials participated in interviews where they shared their goals for students and voiced their interpretations of the messages they received during freshman onboarding. Five themes emerged from the data: (a) parents are active participants in their student's college investigation; (b) parents and college officials are focused on strengthening readiness for the safe and successful transition from home to college; (c) parents and college officials share common goals for students;(d) parents acknowledge receipt of college officials' primary messages; and (e) parents and college officials align on issues but differ on tactics to address the issues. The findings of this study, coupled with a thorough analysis of the literature on the streams of: college readiness, messaging and onboarding, led to three major results: (a) parents and college officials are focused and united on their goal of developing students' non-cognitive skills; (b) parents and college officials place a low priority on critical measures of college student success; and (c) the foundation has been established for a partnership between parents and college officials focused on student success. Three recommendations were offered to parents and college officials: (a) increase focus on student cognitive development during freshman onboarding; (b) establish intentional communication and messaging promoting the goal of student retention and persistence to attaining the degree; and(c) strengthen the structure by which parents and college officials can communicate with each other. Three recommendations were offered to the community beyond the scope of this investigation: (a) conduct similar studies with stakeholders at other higher education institutions; (b) conduct studies focused on parents who hail from similar educational and cultural backgrounds; and (c) measure outcomes of efforts to focus on cognitive skill development, retention and persistence to degree.

Renegotiating parents' role: a case study examining parent/college official communication and messaging during freshman onboarding

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Renegotiating parents' role: a case study examining parent/college official communication and messaging during freshman onboarding

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