Objective: Despite significant enrollment in community colleges, persistence and graduation rates are quite low. This study aims to better understand how students’ person–environment relationships and self-organization together contribute to the persistence decisions of community college students. Using Spencer et al.’s phenomenological variant on ecological systems theory (PVEST) framework, we aim to clarify the psychological functioning behind students’ persistence that is impacted by diverse systems, including the community college itself, family, and the broader community. Method: This study utilized qualitative interviews with 66 participants across two community colleges. Findings: We find that when participants’ experiences were analyzed through a PVEST frame, a majority of students described having phenomenological experiences around their student/learner identities. The feedback from these experiences prompted participants to negatively or positively reorganize their self-perceptions in regard to how they saw themselves as students and learners; this reorganization led to behaviors that influenced persistence plans. When participants’ microsystems (e.g., family, work, college) intersected, patterns emerged regarding how participants processed environmental feedback that resulted in a cyclical feedback loop, suggesting a more dynamic relationship with environments than previously presented. Contributions: Using PVEST as a framework allows for a more in-depth examination of the interface between students’ psychological foundations, processing of environmental feedback, and the resulting reorganization of self in regard to how role identities (e.g., student) provide greater insight into students’ persistence decisions. This study offers PVEST as an important framework for rethinking previous models of researching and supporting community college student persistence.

中文翻译：

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使用生态系统理论的现象学变体理解持久性

目标：尽管社区大学的入学率很高，但坚持率和毕业率却很低。本研究旨在更好地了解学生的人与环境关系和自组织如何共同促进社区大学生的坚持决策。使用 Spencer 等人关于生态系统理论 (PVEST) 框架的现象学变体，我们旨在阐明受不同系统影响的学生坚持背后的心理功能，包括社区学院本身、家庭和更广泛的社区。方法：本研究对两所社区学院的 66 名参与者进行了定性访谈。发现：我们发现，当通过 PVEST 框架分析参与者的经历时，大多数学生描述了关于他们的学生/学习者身份的现象学经验。这些经历的反馈促使参与者消极或积极地重新组织他们对自己作为学生和学习者的看法；这种重组导致了影响持久性计划的行为。当参与者的微系统（例如，家庭、工作、大学）相交时，参与者如何处理导致循环反馈循环的环境反馈的模式出现，这表明与环境的关系比以前呈现的更加动态。贡献：使用 PVEST 作为框架可以更深入地检查学生心理基础、环境反馈处理、以及由此产生的关于角色身份（例如，学生）如何更深入地了解学生的坚持决策的自我重组。本研究提供 PVEST 作为重新思考以前研究和支持社区大学生坚持的模式的重要框架。