Autoethnographic Literature Review

Introduction 

As you read this autoethnographic literature review, you will confront the pronoun, “I” more often than you may expect. Yet, it is this “I” that comes to this dissertation work after five decades of experiencing higher education through multiple avenues. It is this “I” that has sifted through mountains of reading (Corson & Schwitzman, 2018), first during my doctoral course work and then during my literature reviews. My “I” is connectional: to my past experiences in higher education, on the   construction of the student center, to my teaching practice, to the care I have for my students, and to the educational spaces I work in and my students learn in. 

 With more college students continuing to choose online learning and fewer students coming to the physical campus, the way the campus space is being used is also being affected, changed, and transformed. Within this new learning context, how community college students are using college spaces today is the emphasis of my own qualitative research – which is inspired by my college’s strategic framework.

My dissertation research project took a new turn after I read my college president’s strategic plan, during Fall 2022 Convocation, for increasing student success. The current strategic plan emphasizes the urgency of increasing student success through various strategies implemented by administrators, staff, and faculty. This plan has specific goal dates of 2025 and 2030, adding even more urgency. Midwestern Community College has the goal of closing the equity gap by 2025 with 2030 as the college system wide goal. The strategy that is of greatest interest to me is: “Evaluate campus spaces (physical and virtual) using an equity lens and current research to decenter whiteness and create an environment that is inclusive and welcoming for historically marginalized students and employees” (Strategic Framework, 2020). This institution-wide concern is my launching point for my research. To understand the effect of campus spaces on student success and wellbeing, a multi-pronged approach is needed. Thus, for my literature review, I ask how scholars have understood how campus spaces, on community college campuses, help create inclusive, welcoming environments which build wellbeing and a sense of belonging for college students, especially students from historically marginalized populations? To answer this question, I will examine three scholarly approaches: College Student Wellbeing and Student Success; Campus Climate, Student Wellbeing, and Sense of Belonging; and College Space, Student Wellbeing, and Sense of Belonging.

Understanding the relationship between student success and student social and emotional wellbeing informs my first body of literature. Of critical concern among administrators, student affairs staff, and faculty across academia and at my own community college campus is the student success rate. Very often, researchers focus  upon student success and analyze it through the lens of retention, completion and transfer rates. However, in seeking to understand  what makes students successful, there are many directions to take. For my first body of research, I look at how scholars understand the relationship between college student wellbeing and student success. Increasingly, researchers and educational leaders are examining the effect student wellbeing has on student success (Bladeck, 2021; Travia 2022). Students need to be healthy to be successful. However, much scholarly research defines community college success in terms of completion rates. At Midwestern Community College, institution-wide goals and strategies are in place to improve the success rates of degree, certificate or transfer seeking students to 50% from the national average of 25 – 35% (Strategic Framework, 2020). For my first body of research, I examine how scholars understand the relationship between college student wellbeing and student success.

College student wellbeing is also impacted by campus climate. What seems inclusive and welcoming for one student, can be experienced as exclusionary by other students (Evatt-Young & Bryson, 2021). No assumptions can be made that community college students - many first generation, students of color and of lower socio-economic status - feel as though they belong when they step onto campus. They may not feel included in the curriculum or see themselves reflected in the faculty's faces which can lead to feeling they do not  belong (Morgan, 2020). Yet, having a sense of belonging is vital to success and wellbeing at college (Strayhorn, 2019). Creating welcoming, culturally relevant campus environments is one way to address this barrier to belonging. For my second body of literature, I seek to understand how scholars have looked at campus climates, specifically in terms of how welcoming and inclusive environments help to build students’ sense of belonging.

Finally, as discussed above, college campus space is not neutral (Brook, 2015). Social interactions that lead to student wellbeing and a sense of belonging occur in space. Importantly, when students walk onto a community college campus, they are walking into a place that has both physical and social spaces. Campus college spaces include parking lots, classrooms, administrative and recreational buildings, cultural centers, a dining hall, a library, hallways with artwork and signage, restrooms, mother rooms, study spaces, and hangout spaces among many others. These college spaces can be understood as having both physical and social components and must be navigated during every students’ educational journey. The ways in which students interact with these spaces influences their educational experiences. Using a spatial lens, understanding how scholars have understood the effect of college space on college student wellbeing and sense of belonging makes up my third body of literature. Before discussing the literature, it is important to consider the basic human needs that must be met in order to find the stability needed to be successful in college.