Hidden pieces of the student retention puzzle: Student perceptions of mattering

Catherine Tucker, Ph.D.Will Barratt, Ph.D.

Indiana State University

1 – r2 = .81• 81% of the quantitative retention puzzle is

missing.– We can predict about 19% of our students’

success using every measure we can.

It’s the relationship

Building relationships = social capital

• Knowledge and skill are required to build and maintain relationships.

Relationships

• Meaning• Connection• Fit

Who pays attention to you at work?

Mattering is:

• The fundamental human need to feel important to be needed, to be wanted, to be valued, and significant to others.

Rosenberg & McCullough

• Mattering is integral in individuals’ self-concepts

• All individuals experience varying perceptions of general mattering and interpersonal mattering

• Rosenberg, M., & McCullough, B. C. (1981). Mattering: Inferred significance and mental health among adolescents. Research in Community & Mental Health.

Nancy Schlossberg• Marginality and mattering: Key issues in building community. • In D. Roberts (Ed.) Designing Campus Activities to foster a sense of

community. New Directions for Student services, N. 48. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1989

Why now?

• Mattering has only recently earned attention in social science research and literature.

Flow

• Mattering is a central concept to humanistic psychology

• Mattering is a philosophical stance from which action can flow.

• Mattering is not a program, curriculum, or method.

It’s the relationship

• Mattering is a foundational relationship concept that can bring individuals within a school together.

Mattering to others:

• We need to feel significant to others, to feel needed, to feel wanted, and to feel valued by others.

• Others depend on us, would miss us if we were gone, and care about our fate and futures.

Mattering & wellness Research

• Mattering reduces feelings of anxiety and depression

• Mattering increases self-esteem• Mattering enhances general wellness – (Dixon Rayle, 2005).

Mattering & wellness Research

• Feelings of mattering among children and adults require constant nurturing in a strengths-enhancing environment

• (Dixon, Rayle & Myers, 2004; Kroger, 1999).

Who depends on you at work?

• Are they lateral, above, or below you?

Relational Cultural Theory

• Goal of human development is relational competence. – It is not individuation, self-actualization, or

autonomy.

Relational Cultural Theory

• Highest need of all people is to be in connection with other people. – Being connected is growth-fostering.– Relationship isolation causes suffering.

Relational Cultural Theory

• Traditional approaches to psychology use ideas of separation and individuation as benchmarks for “healthy” development

• This leads to an attitude of “us VS. them” • This creates a culture of competition• This reduces cooperation and collaboration

Retention and graduation

• How might collaboration and competition be related to retention and graduation?

Relational Cultural Theory

• According to RCT – growth occurs as we work towards connection and through our disconnections

• When people are able to be authentic in relationships, and when others are able to be authentic in return, a cycle is created where mutual empathy, connection, and growth are possible.

Relational Cultural Theory

• Disconnection is viewed as the primary source of human suffering, while healthy connections are seen as key components of satisfaction and growth.

Relational Cultural Theory

• “RCT is based on the assumption that the experiences of isolation, shame, humiliation, oppression, marginalization, and micro aggressions are relational violations and traumas that are at the core of human suffering and threaten the survival of humankind” – Comstock, et al, 2004.

Why?

• We need to give students more powerful reasons to stay than they have to leave.

• A degree is not a good enough reason to stay.

What?

• What are the reasons you use to get students to stay until graduation?

Mirror Neurons

Mirror Neurons at Work

Brain Research

• Human brains are hard wired to connect• Connection (eye to eye, person to person) is

neurogenetive• Connections release dopamine and serotonin

Diversity – People Like Me

• Student – Campus interactions around gender, ethnicity, and social class.

• “If there is no one like me on campus then people like me don’t matter.”

• How many first-generation faculty do you have on your campus?

• “Isolation is the glue that holds oppression in place”– Laing, 1998

Person-Environment Fit

• “If I don’t matter to anyone on campus, I will leave.”– Kurt Lewin B=f(P,E)– Jim Banning B=f(PxE)– Bandura B P E– Work Satisfaction– Career Development (Holland’s RIASEC)

Social Class Fit

• “Are there people like me on campus?”– Social class of origin of students– Current felt social class of students

– Attributed social class of faculty– Attributed social class of staff

It’s the relationship

• On your campus who is building relationships across– Gender?– Ethnicity?– Social Class?– Generation?

Who would miss you at work if you left?

• What does this person do that makes you feel that you matter to them?

Indiana State UniversityFirst-time Freshman Profile

What else?

• 53% Women

• 80% Live on Campus

• Almost half are Pell Recipients

• Over half are 1st Generation

Where are they from?

• 85% Indiana

• 13% Out of State

• 2% International

Where in Indiana?

• 28% Marion & surrounding

• 19% Vigo & surrounding

• 10% Northwest Indiana

Year 4 Year 4+?Also: About 1 of every 2 transfer students to ISU graduate from here.

ISU Retention/Graduation

2011 First-time Freshmen

No pell Pell No pell Pell No pell PellAll Students Conditional Unconditional

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

200520062007200820092010

ISU 1-Yr Retention Rates (FTFTBS)Pell Recipients

To whom are you important at work?

• How would you become that person for others at work?

• How would you become that person on campus?

19%

81%

PredictableUnknown

Homesickness Study Skills

Self-Confidence

Motivation Paying for school Relationships Support Systems

Predicting Retention (1-r2)

Mattering and Retention

• Career and Life Planning – COUN 135– Four sections– Fall 2011 assessed mattering– Fall 2012 re-enroll at ISU

Fall 2011 Career and Life Planning students enrolled in Fall 2012

Female Male0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

16 16

30

25

No Yes

Mattering Survey scores for Fall 2011 students enrolled and not enrolled Fall 2012

No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No YesParents Friends Classmates Professor RA

9.00

14.00

19.00

24.00

29.00

34.00

39.00

44.0041.82

42.62

40.27 40.82

28.8830.04 29.79 30.22

27.12

24.60

High or Low

• Students who had mattering scores over 30 with parents and friends were no more likely to persist than students with mattering scores below 30.

• Level of mattering to faculty, classmates, and RAs makes NO difference.

Qualitative Follow-Up

• Students don’t identify themselves as mattering to anyone on campus.

• They are generally pleased with how they’re treated by faculty and staff. – Do students expect to matter?

• They name friends from home and new friends on campus as support system.

The Ultimate Question

• What can you and others do on your campus to make students matter?– What behaviors?– What policies and structures?

Who?

• Dr. Catherine Tucker– Department of Communication Disorders,

Counseling, School, and Educational PsychologyCatherine.tucker@indstate.edu

• Dr. Will Barratt– Department of Educational LeadershipWill.barratt@indstate.edu