Assignment 4

Final Project Proposal

EDLPS 558: Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods in Education

Autumn 2021

Course Instructor: Dr. Ana M. Elfers

Valerie Fetzer

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 A highly stratified and multi-year game: Navigating the admissions process to a 4-year
institution as a BIPOC and low income identifying public high school senior in east Salmon,
County, Washington.

INTRODUCTION & STUDY CONTEXT

As Washington state’s job market continues to grow, we also continue to see outside

talent being brought in. Although a job or career can feel like a long time out for many high

school juniors and seniors, how does Washington prepare them to succeed in their home

state? Given the competitive job market, largely due to big tech and STEM related

industries, having a degree from a four-year institution is a huge advantage in bolstering

talent from within. That said, a large part to higher education attainment lies in the

resources that your family, high school and community can provide. For historically

underrepresented student populations, like BIPOC identifying and low-income students,

there lies inequities that blockade many from pursuing a bachelor’s degree. By better

understanding the barriers that are presented to these student populations during the

admissions process, we can have a more concrete idea as to why there are low higher

education enrollment rates within the state of Washington. The ultimate benefit to

familiarizing oneself to this type of research is in hopes that by having more dialogue

centered around K-12 to post-secondary transitions, specifically K-12 to bachelor’s

attainment, we can better prepare Washingtonian students to be competitive in their own

backyard when they apply for jobs.

Qualitative research methods are best suited for this type of research as we seek to

learn from a specific set of graduating high school seniors what their lived experiences of

navigating the multi-year college admissions process was like. The reasoning for utilizing

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 qualitative research methods over quantitative is because we ultimately want to capture

this process as it naturally occurs through immersing ourselves into our setting. We will be

conducting interviews with not only high school seniors but also other key actors in this

process, such as teachers, counselors, and parents. That way, we can interpret meaning

from their words of common feelings throughout this process. Additionally, we will be

observing informational school sponsored events, plus collecting school released

documents to further our context of our study setting.

According to a labor market projection tool from Washington STEM, Washington state

has a five-year projection that the most in demand occupation statewide will continue to be

roles in software development (Washington STEM, labor market report). They also project

that there will be roughly 34,350 spots open in this sector annually. All but about 4,000 of

these spots have been identified to be within Salmon County, a county that is

occupationally dominated by the tech and manufacturing industries. In almost all cases,

applicants must have a bachelor’s degree to remain competitive within these projections

(Washington STEM, labor market report). Right now, in the state of Washington, 45.7% of

students enrolled in public high schools are BIPOC identifying. That said, only 31% of

students enrolled in a four-year institution are of the same identification (Kwayke, 20).

Some of this percentage may be pulling from out of state students currently enrolled in

Washington institutions. Although Washington has some of the highest funding resources

for higher education available, like the College Bound Scholarship, students must complete

the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to qualify (Kwayke, 14). As of 2020,

Washington has found itself with some of the lowest FAFSA completion rates in the nation,

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 marking it in the bottom 5 of states in the U.S. (FAFSA Tracker, 2020). That said, because

there is a direct correlation between FAFSA completion rates and higher levels of higher

education enrollment, Washington needs to address this disparity in opportunity (National

FAFSA Completion Rates for High School Seniors and Graduates). This issue amplifies for

BIPOC identifying and low-income students. According to Washington State Achievement

Council, BIPOC identifying students complete FAFSA at lower rates and are more likely to

have higher error rates than their white peers (Kwayke, 16). And even when their FAFSA

comes back with promise of aid, there are matriculation fees that pose yet another micro

barrier for students and their families.

In 1987, a report was released from the Higher Education Coordinating Board in

Olympia, WA outlining a master plan for creating a more accessible statewide system to

enroll more students of lower socioeconomic status in both urban and rural areas. The plan

states, “For governing boards and institutional administrators, this plan is offered as a guide

for developing role and mission statements, enrollment policy, budget requests, and

institutional planning. Finally, we offer this plan to community groups and the public as a

framework for debate and discussion of those educational issues that are so important to

the future of our state,” (Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board). Their

goal was to increase accessibility to higher education and ensure that by 1995 the state

higher education system and public school system would be well funded enough to support

the demand of enrollment. That said, over three decades later why do enrollment rates

within the state of Washington remain so low if there is funding available?

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 Another study was done where researchers relied on critical race theory to better

understand the lived experiences of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students

in Ohio in their navigation of the high school to college admissions process. They coined

their epistemological perspective the scheme game, which outlines how foreign-born youth

of Color, who were raised in the United States, conceptualized their persistence through a

complex admissions process and exclusion from educational funding. In their participant

interviews, or testimonios, all students shared that they faced barriers in qualifying for in-

state tuition, as well as other major educational subsidies. By employing critical race theory,

researchers were able to examine ways in which these students had to find creative ways to

fund themselves through college.

Many of the participants found unconventional ways to pay out of pocket for their

education, in three different themes, “grindin’”, “hustlin’”, and “schemin’”. Macías

describes these themes as, “Rooted in hip-hop. These terms originally refer to the ways

Black, Brown, and immigrant communities navigate the barriers of a formal economy and

participate in an informal economy to financially sustain themselves,” (Macías). Although

this study will not be specifically analyzing foreign-born youth, there is an inclination that

there will be intersectionality within the experiences of historically underrepresented

student populations navigating a complex and highly stratified admissions process. My hope

is that through employing my research as a qualitative case study, we can compare it to

qualitative case studies like the scheme game and better understand how historically

underrepresented students navigate themselves in a bounded system within the admissions

process and how can this enact policy reform and implementation.

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 RESEARCH QUESTION

That said, how do BIPOC and low-income public high school seniors in east Salmon

County navigate the admissions process to a four-year institution and what resources were

available to them? The eastern side of Salmon County is a lower income, multicultural,

urban area. Although it’s less than 30 minutes away from industry leaders in tech and

manufacturing, most of the workforce within these companies comes from out of state.

Therefore, there is reason to believe that with lower higher education enrollment rates,

students from east Salmon County are not equipped with proper preparation in the K-12

sector to help navigate the admissions process. This ultimately contributes to their chances

of employment within this competitive market.

The rationale for choosing 12th graders, rather than 10th or 11th, is to focus on students

who have already gone through the full admissions process. This meaning that they can

reflect on the preparatory work that they did during their sophomore and junior years

before filling out their college, FAFSA and any other scholarship applications that they

completed. In other words, I’d like to understand the full life cycle of the admissions process

through their eyes. This question relates to prior research done because currently, the

Washington labor market is a highly competitive scene that requires a credential for about

70% of jobs that provide family sustaining wages (Washington STEM). While there is more

than one pathway outside of the bachelorette track, better understanding the pipeline

between K-12 to a four-year institution is a huge indicator of inequitable systems, as well as

local economy.

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 POSITIONALITY

As a graduate student who has been able to attend a private undergraduate college

prior to pursuing my masters as a large public research institute, I realize that I have had

access to a privileged education throughout my life. Growing up in a predominately white,

middle-class community as biracially Latinx and white, I was told in many spaces that I do

not fit in a monoracial majority. While this caused feelings of confusion over my identity and

purpose throughout the years, it spouted my interest in understanding race relations

throughout the United States. Moreover, seeing my foreign-born mother gain citizenship

and her Ph.D. during my childhood also contributed to my interest in equitable access to

higher education. That said, when it came to applying to a four - year institution my senior

year I tackled feelings of frustration and confusion.

While my family highly encouraged education, both my parents did not pursue college in

the “traditional” high school to four-year institution pipeline, in the United States.

Therefore, it was new terrain to navigate for all of us. Meanwhile, I found very little help in

my high school counselors when I came to them for advice. While our school was fairly

ranked as a “good school”, most of my peers had hired outside help in navigating the

college admissions process. For my family, this was simply not an option. As I am sure there

were many embedded resources that I could have taken advantage of, like after school

programs or community organizations, I had no orientation of what was available to me

then due to lack of engagement. Through this, I realized that applying to a four-year

institution is a highly stratified, multi-year game in that it caters to those who have higher

amounts of cultural, social, and economic capital. While I grew up very privileged in many

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 ways, I began to wonder that if I had such a hard time navigating this process, how must it

be for others in lower income and urban areas and how does this in turn perpetuate

systems of inequality?

RESEARCH METHODS

Type of approach

This study will be rooted in aspects of a qualitative case study, critical qualitative

research, narrative analysis, and even grounded theory because through an in-depth

analysis of a bounded system I can better understand the lived experiences of these

students from their stories. I also hope that my findings critique and challenge the current

power dynamics in the K-12 to post-secondary transition system. Furthermore, I will build

theory through a reflexive process so that I can continuously refine the themes I encounter

(Merriam, p.38). Under the study of narrative analysis, I will conduct interviews of a sample

of BIPOC and/or low-income seniors who have undergone the multi-year admissions

process to a four-year institution from four different public high schools in east Salmon

County.

Setting and Participants

The sampling process for student participants will be done through homogenous

sampling because the goal of my research is to understand and describe a particular group

of students who underwent the admissions process. The criteria for students will be BIPOC

identifying and/or low-income high school seniors from four public high schools in east

Salmon County who have completed their cycle of the admissions process to a four-year

institution. I will also use homogenous sampling for counselor participants since there are

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 only two counselors per school and I would also like to purposefully understand their role in

this process. As for teachers and parents, I will rely on snowball sampling because I will

defer to students’ network to inform myself on which two teachers at each school are the

biggest agents and how do parents of students engage in this process. In this study, only

one parent will be needed per student I interview and a student’s ability to participate will

be contingent on their parent’s availability to be a participant as well. While this may seem

like a rigid standard that relies heavily on the parent’s scheduling, the reasoning for this is

so that I can have a streamlined understanding of what page the student was on compared

to their parent. This can help identify gaps between student to parent engagement in

relation to the admissions process.

At each school I plan to interview five students with the intention of doing one

individual interview and one group interview – the other participants will only have one

interview. That is because I want to be cognizant of the power dynamic that may be present

when interviewing students. Because I am a graduate student, asking them questions about

a process where I may not have faced as many barriers, may trigger a negative interview

response. I believe in some cases that students will feel more validated in telling me their

experience if they realize that it is a shared experience with their peers.

When I conduct interviews with teachers and counselors, I will be employing a method

used by qualitative researchers Julia D. Duncheon and Stefani R. Relles in their qualitative

interview study that critiques the dual credit system in Texas. In their study, they explored

the agent interactions of their bounded system. They describe this as an assumption that,

“agent activities are not only shaped by their personal goals, but also by the activities of

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 other agents, as well as the pressures from a larger environment,” (Duncheon & Relles, p.

994). While this method is rooted in complexity theory, the idea that organizations are

complex systems that do not change instantaneously, I can embed this particular method

(agent interactions) into my interviews with teachers and counselors to gain a better

understanding of what limitations the school might have in the admissions process.

Parents are also a key agent in this process, as qualitative researcher Gustavo Pérez

Carreón demonstrates in his narrative analysis that investigates the barriers immigrant

parents face when engaging with their child’s schooling. Because parent participation is a

contingency for student participants, I will create a pool of students who I have

homogenously sampled at each school. Of those in the pool, I will pick five of which have at

least one parent who can guarantee their participation. As I mentioned earlier, while this

may seem like a rigid method, Carreón provides equitable ideas to help encourage parent

participation. In his study he ensured that he held interviews in the evening, provided free

baby-sitting services, and offered interviews in English and Spanish (Carreón, p. 472). This is

also something that I would do when working with parents.

What is also important is that the study timeframe be from February to May of their

senior year. This is because I would like them to have had time to reflect on their process. I

would also imagine that some of the outcomes of these students who had applied may not

have gone forth and enrolled into a four-year institution for various reasons. This

information is helpful too as it will help us understand barriers as to why they did not enroll

after applying.

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 Data collection

According to qualitative researcher S.B. Merriam, building your data collection in a

triangulation of different methods is a beneficial in promoting validity and reliability in

research (Merriam, 6). Therefore, my data will be taken through interviews, setting

observations, and document collection. Interviews are a reliable method in data collection

because we can hear on their account what their frustrations were, what they were most

confused on, who they turned towards for help, what their biggest stressors were and

more. Based on these findings, I will also interview a handful of senior year teachers and

counselors at each school to understand how many students utilized them as a resource.

Furthermore, we can also ask teachers and college counselors if they believe there are

resources that are being underutilized or misdirected, like funding opportunities or non-

profit partnerships, and what other support their students need. Parents of student

participants will also be interviewed as to better understand in what ways parents feel

engaged in this process and might there be ways to tighten any gaps, if there are any.

Another helpful tool for data collection will be through observations and obtaining

documents. Moreover, attending a school sponsored informational event with their school’s

college guidance counselor(s) would be illuminating in that we can observe patterns in

promotion leading up to the event and behavior during them. By collecting documents, like

flyers, days prior to the event, we can gain a better sense of how accessible these well

intended resources are. Furthermore, collecting flyers and programs during the event will

allow us to see what information students take home with them and how clear they are.

Regarding engagement, we can observe what types of questions are being asked and who

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 attends these informational events. Paying attention to student interactions with their

classmates, seeing if they share similar feelings of confusion, excitement, or whatever else

they are feeling will be salient in understanding the morale of students during this process.

We can see if there are family members or teachers that are in attendance during these

presentations. This would be a good indication as to how informed other points of support

for students are. In doing so, we can understand what is of most relevance to a student

when applying to a four-year institution. Throughout the course of the study, I will be

following Merriam’s advice to constantly update my audit trail so that I can keep a detailed

account of methods, procedures, and decision points. Furthermore, by submitting my audit

trail for peer review can bolster validity and reliability as I will invite fellow researchers to

discuss my process of student, the congruency of emerging findings with raw data, and

tentative interpretations (Merriam, 229).

Data Analysis

This research will be analyzed using a thematic analysis framework. According to

qualitative researcher Corinne Glesne, this is a type of analysis that, “involves searching for

themes and patterns through segregating data into categories through a process of coding

and then analyzing the coded clumps of data in a variety of ways,” (Glense, 301). Qualitative

researcher John W. Creswell suggests that in the spirit of conducting a narrative analysis

and case study, I should manage my data by creating and organizing files. Because the

majority of our data will come from student, teacher, counselor and parent interviews,

coding systems like Axial, would be helpful in identifying common themes from my

recorded interviews, which I will also transcribe. I will also adopt constant case comparison

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 for my study so that as new data arises from my interviews, I will code them and

continuously compare them to my to my collected data so that I, “can constantly refine my

theoretical categories,” (Glesne, 295). My coding system will help me identify common

words and phrases until I reach data saturation. According to Merriam, reaching saturation

is a sign that there has been adequate engagement in interview collection, thus increasing

reliability in my work (Merriam, 6).

Once saturation has been met, I can cross reference with commonalities I take from

programming observations and document collections. By taking detailed notes with rich,

thick descriptions I can provide readers with a thorough understanding of the classrooms

and informational presentations that I will sit in on. My hope is to give them a sense of how

engaged students in these resources and connect them to my saturated themes. Collecting

documents will further aid this approach because it will give some context into how

students hear of their resources. From there, I can take themes I am encountering and build

suggestions, in which will later be presented to policy makers.

DATA QUALITY/LIMITATIONS

One of the greater limitations that this study faces is that students may not be entirely

comfortable with me interviewing them and may therefore refrain from telling their whole

truth. As an outsider, it is important to understand the power dynamic that exists between a

researcher and participate. On top of this, there is an extra layer of limitation that may arise

from the fact that I am coming into a lower income community to talk to students about their

experiences navigating a challenging pipeline, one that I have surpassed into my graduate

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studies. Therefore, it is critical that I am cognizant and sensitive to this dynamic. For some of

them, a four-year institution may not have worked out in the end, therefore I must validate

their feelings. Asking them to pick an interview location might make them feel more

comfortable for them. On my end, I can build a relationship with them over the couple of

months, I am hoping that this study will take place from February to May of their senior year, so

that I can develop their trust. It is important that these interviews remain casual as to avoid

them from feeling like they have to say certain things to satisfy the research. Qualitative

researcher Sarah Dryden-Peterson does a notable job in building her relationship using the

methodology of portraiture to investigate the relationship between immigrant and long-time

resident youth. According to Dryden-Peterson, this is, “a methodology built on relationships

which mirror the theoretical issues under investigation,” (Dryden-Peterson, 2320). While this

study will not be rooted in portraiture, understanding aspects of participant relationship

building will help mitigate such limitations.

Limitations may also arise from teachers and counselors as well when asking questions

of what resources are being utilized. Again, I have this dynamic that I have to be cognizant of

but in this instance, I want to avoid any assumption felt by our participants that any gaps are a

product of their work. The same approach is applied for parent participants as well. I want to

validate these individuals as well.

IMPLICATIONS

While there is much data on who applies to a four-year institution, who applies for

financial aid, and labor market reports there is very little empirical data on what the

experience leading up to these statistics is like for underrepresented students. Moreover,

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 by conducting a study that interviews other key agents in this process, like parents,

teachers, and counselors it helps add more contextual depth into how their roles might

affect a student’s navigation of the admissions process. Through observing school

sponsored informational events and collecting documents that are meant to guide students,

I can gain a better understanding of what resources are available to students right now. My

hope is that through the words and behaviors of our participants, gaps in the system

illuminated that help explain low enrollment rates and FAFSA completion rates in the state

of Washington. In turn, my overall hope is that through my findings I can provide

suggestions for policy makers so that more BIPOC identifying and low-income students in

east Salmon County have an equitable chance at economic opportunity in their own

backyard.

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 REFERENCES

Works Cited

Carreón G.P., Drake C, Barton A.C. “The Importance of Presence: Immigrant Parents’ School
Engagement Experiences. American Educational Research Journal. 2005

Crewell, John W. “Data Analysis and Representation.” Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design:
Choosing among Five Traditions, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2007, pp. 156–157.

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah 2010. Bridging home: Building relationships between immigrant and
long-time resident youth. Teachers College Record 112, no. 9: 2320-2351.

Duncheon, Julia C. and Stefani R. Relles. “ ‘We’re Caught In Between Two Systems’: Exploring
the Complexity of Dual Credit Implementation.” The Review of Higher Education, vol 43
no. 4, 2020, p. 989-1016. Project Muse.

Glesne, Corrine. Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction. Pearson, 2016.

Kwakye, Isaac, et al. Washington State Achievement Council, Olympia, WA, 2020, pp. 3–40,
Equity Landscape Report: Exploring Equity Gaps in Washington Postsecondary Education.

“Labor Market.” Washington STEM, 12 Feb. 2021, https://washingtonstem.org/labor-market/.

FAFSA Tracker. (2020). National College Attainment Network. https://formyourfuture.org/fafsa-

tracker/

Macías, Luis Fernando. “The Scheme Game: How DACA Recipients Navigate Barriers to
Higher Education.” Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies
Association, vol. 54, no. 6, Nov. 2018, pp. 609-628. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1080/0013194.2018.1530236

Merriam , Sharon B. “Types of Qualitative Research .” Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design

and Implementation , John Wiley & Sons, 2009, pp. 6–229.

Mitchell, Ted, and Amy McIntosh. US Department of Education, Washington D.C., Advancing
Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education.

National FAFSA Completion Rates for High School Seniors and Graduates. (n.d.). [National
College Access Network]. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from
https://www.ncan.org/page/NationalFAFSACompletionRatesforHighSchoolSeniorsand
raduate

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Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board, Olympia. Building a System… To Be
among the Best: The Washington State Master Plan for Higher Education. 1 Dec. 1987
EBSCOhost, search. ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED365218&site=ehost-live.

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 APPENDICES

Proposed Interview Questions

 
Questions:

1. What perceptions do your ninth graders think about when they hear the word,
“college”? 
2. What are other kinds of postsecondary pathways do they think about, if there are any
outside the four-year institution? 
3. When does the word “college” become more pertinent to students at your school? 
4. How does your school prepare students for the admissions process to a four-year
institution before they reach senior year? 
5. How does your school prepare students for other forms of post-secondary attainment? 
6. To what extent are your resources being utilized by students? 
7. Which actors do students come to for support during the college going process? 
8. In what ways do you interact with students in terms of postsecondary attainment? 
9. To what extent does your school know the outcomes of students who submitted
applications towards a four-year institution at your school?
10. In what ways does your school support or engage parents throughout the college going
process? 
11. In what ways does your school support or engage the community throughout the
college going process? 

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