Rebecca D. Cox

Teaching Qualitative Research to Practitioner–Researchers

Practitioner–researchers are well-positioned to apply qualitative methods to the study of significant problems of educational practice. However, while learning the skills of qualitative inquiry, practitioners may be compelled by forces outside of qualitative research classrooms to think quantitatively. In this article, the author considers two sources of pressure on novice education researchers that may hinder their development as qualitative researchers. Drawing on the long-established tradition of reflexivity in qualitative inquiry, the author outlines an instructional approach that can guide students in examining and responding to these pressures.

I Would Have Rather Paid for a Class I Wanted to Take: Utilitarian Approaches at a Community College

This article examines community-college students’ goals within the dominant framing of higher education, in which education serves primarily as preparation for the new economy. Specifically, it explores students’ motives for acquiring college credentials and how they apply the principles of utility and efficiency to their pursuit of those credentials. This examination of students’ strategies illuminates their assumptions about what is worth learning and how one learns and, in turn, how their hopes of “learning something” can lead to disappointment. Ultimately, this analysis illustrates the consequences of students’ highly instrumental goals for their participation in college and in college coursework.

Complicating Conditions: Obstacles and Interruptions to Low-Income Students' College "Choices"

Although a major focus of current research and policymaking efforts involves understanding and minimizing the barriers to postsecondary access, conventional reform strategies do not appear to be effecting substantial change in the college-going opportunities for students from low-income and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. This article presents the results of a qualitative, longitudinal study of the high school-to-college transition for a sample of 16 low-income, Black and Latino students at two inner-city high schools in the Northeastern United States. Drawing on interviews with students over a three-year period—from their junior year of high school through one year after high school graduation—this analysis highlights the interruptions to students’ postsecondary plans. In this sample, students’ actual postsecondary paths, which included delayed college enrollment and two-year college matriculation, diverged substantially from the initial plans participants developed during high school. Ultimately, the findings illustrate how these students’ life circumstances engender decisions that preclude the kinds of choices assumed in the college choice model.

You've Got to Learn the Rules: A Classroom-Level Look at Low Pass Rates in Developmental Math.

Objective: Given the current concern across the United States with improving community-college student outcomes, particularly in developmental education, understanding what students encounter inside developmental education classrooms is a necessary first step. Method: Drawing on data from a study of teaching practices inside developmental math courses at two large, urban-serving community colleges in the Northeast United States, I open up the “black box” of developmental math teaching at the community-college level. Focusing specifically on data gathered through classroom observations, instructor interviews, and curricular artifacts from six sections of developmental math, I explore two distinct curricula as they were enacted in class sessions and through the classroom discourse around solving math problems and analyze the extent to which each approach reflects the recommendations for mathematics instruction advocated by professional mathematics associations. Results: I found that differences in pedagogical goals (and related notions of mathematical proficiency) were integrally linked to differences in the what and how of assessing student learning, and that contrasting approaches to assessment maintain critical implications for accounting for failure inside developmental math classrooms. Contributions: I conclude with insights regarding future research and reform, for developmental math instruction both to realize robust mathematical learning goals and to facilitate students’ successful completion of developmental math courses.

Neoliberalism Across Borders: A Comparative Case Study of Community Colleges’ Capacity to Serve Student-Parents

ABSTRACT Community colleges in the United States and Canada operate within postsecondary environments that are being reshaped by neoliberal policymaking. As community colleges in both countries respond to the pressures of neoliberalism, their capacity to serve students already marginalized by their “nontraditional” status may be affected in contradictory ways that benefit some students while further disadvantaging others. This article drew on data from a comparative case study of two urban community colleges, one in the United States and one in Canada, to explore how the increasing marketization of postsecondary education in both countries is affecting each college’s position within its particular postsecondary environment and, in turn, is shaping its capacity at the organizational level to support its student population. As a means of highlighting the consequences of neoliberal processes on marginalized students, we focused our attention at the organizational level on resources and supports targeted at students with dependent children, a group of students who are often rendered invisible—both by neoliberal discourses and traditional postsecondary policies and practices.

(Mis)Measuring Developmental Math Success: Classroom Participants’ Perspectives on Learning

ABSTRACT Poor completion outcomes in community colleges’ developmental education programs have spurred reforms in developmental education policies and practices in order to increase students’ chances of success. In the case of developmental math, the focus of this article, such changes include revisions to testing and placement policies, amendments to the intended curriculum, and restructuring of the format and sequencing of courses. However, the measures that have highlighted the inadequacies of developmental math are, in themselves, insufficient for assessing the effectiveness of reforms to developmental math. Drawing on interview data from a classroom-level study of a community college’s pilot reform initiative in developmental math, we explore the learning goals articulated by the instructors and a sample of students across four pre-algebra classrooms. Through our analysis of their goals, as well as the extent to which students reported accomplishing those goals, our research underscores the important distinction between course completion and learning. This study highlights the need to assess the effectiveness of developmental math coursework in ways that extend beyond completion rates.