Student Engagement Research

A confluence of national forces has elevated the level of urgency that many colleges and universities have in fostering positive student outcomes. The increasing reliance on performance-based funding, presidential initiatives focused on boys and men of color in education and community college students, as well as enhanced public scrutiny of student outcomes in recognition of the skyrocketing cost of college are some among a myriad of contributing factors to this heightened urgency (The Seven Centers Report, 2014; Zhang, 2005). Seemingly, a new era has emerged in American education that prioritizes, at least in concept, the notion of ‘student success’ and accompanying concepts such as ‘retention’, ‘achievement’, and ‘engagement’. This essay extends scholarly understandings of engagement by overviewing the concept of engagement, its critiques, and by offering ‘welcomeness to engage’ as an accompanying (yet critical) element that is necessary to advance discourse on student success.
Engagement involves the …show more content…
Extensive research on students of color has demonstrated that this assumption is erroneous, as many students experience college campuses as hostile, alienating, and marginalizing (Bush & Bush, 2010; Gardenhire-Crooks et al., 2010). As a result, critical-equity focused scholarship is evolving conversations on engagement from an equity perspective with the concept, ‘welcomeness to engage’.
Simple actions such as positively acknowledging students’ presence, smiling at students, saying “hello”, waving at students, and being open to informal conversations with them can go far in fostering preconditions that support welcoming engagement. Fostering a climate and culture where students feel welcome to engage is particularly critical for students of