Belonging Through Bourdieu: Belonging as a Community College
Author:
Emily Rivera ’25Co-Authors:
Faculty Mentor(s):
Gulay Guzel, MIDEFunding Source:
PURAbstract
The study aims to understand the feeling of belonging as a community college transfer student that has transitioned to a four year university. Utilizing Bourdieu’s (1997) capital theory as a framework, this qualitative study seeks to answer what capitals students need to feel belonging, how to provide different types of capital to transfer students and fill the gaps students are experiencing. We find that the three capitals posed by Bourdieu (1997) (social, economic, and cultural) influence a student’s sense of belonging and that by providing different types of capital to transfer students and fill the gaps students are experiencing does successfully influence the feeling of belonging. Through articles, literature, and interviews we identify that capital, economic, and social capital all pose important roles in a transfer student’s experience and the presence of these capitals can improve the overall experience of a student’s transfer process. Students tend to come in with a variety of skill sets related to each of these capitals including self efficacy, resilience, and perseverance. However, these students also need help in obtaining the capitals that they are lacking. There are many actions that can be taken to help in improving each of these capitals including advising and mentorship programs, increasing opportunities for involvement in campus activities, expansion of scholarship programs, and the development of networks of support. In increasing the necessary capitals that enable transfer students to thrive we see that the sense of belonging in academic and social environments increase.