Non-Residential Single Parent Students

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The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine why non-residential single parent students failed or succeed to persist in obtaining a degree of higher education. Moreover, this study will help identify the obstacles that hinder the non-residential single parents’ persistence in completing a college degree. Such research will be applicable to stakeholders (college administrators, faculty, staff, students or to anyone interested in the degree completion rate among non-residential single parent students.
Upon approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) research began first collecting data through triangulation. “Triangulation allows a researcher to investigate the research problem from a variety of angles and perspectives.
…show more content…
The focus group allowed the reseacher to get a broader view of how single parents felt when it came to obtaining an education. At the beginning of the meeting the purpose of the focus group session was again explained. Time was given to the participants to clarify any questions they had. The participants were informed that at no time would their identity be jeopardized because pseudonyms were used in place of their names.. The focus group session took place on a Saturday morning lasting only one hour. The session began with the reseacher asking semi-structured questions. (See Appendix C). As the session began the female participants seemed to be more vocal in expressing their opinions than the men. Once the session got going the participants seemed pleasant and eager to interact with each other, sharing lived experiences of obstacles that hindered their persistence in degree completion. At the end of the focus group session the participants agreed to a one-on-one interview. The participants were given a consent form to sign and a participant profile questionaire. The participant interviews were scheduled at a time that was suitable to them. The reseacher thanked the participants for coming and they were

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