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THE MANIFESTATION OF SOCIAL CAPITAL WITHIN THE MATHEMATICS,
ENGINEERING, AND SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT (MESA) PROGRAM
by
David Angel Martínez
____________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
December 2007
Copyright 2007 David Angel Martínez
Object Description
| Title | The manifestation of social capital within the mathematics, engineering, and science achievement (MESA) program |
| Author | Martínez, David Angel |
| Author email | david.martinez@canyons.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Education |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Education (Leadership) |
| School | Rossier School of Education |
| Date defended/completed | 2007-09-11 |
| Date submitted | 2007 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 1 Oct. 2009. |
| Date published | 2009-10-01 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Baca, Reynaldo |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Cardoza, Raul Peña, Edlyn |
| Abstract | This study analyzed the presence of social capital within the context of a specific community college program, called Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA), a retention program that serves underrepresented and low-income community college students in an effort to increase persistence and transfer rates to four-year institutions in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Institutional agency refers to persons who use their influence, capacity, and resources relative to their position to assist others in gaining access to networks, resources, information, and opportunities essential for social mobility. Five research questions guided the study: (1) What are the characteristics, features, and composition of the social resource networks of intervention program coordinators? (2) What are some of the factors that facilitate or constrain the program leader's access and mobilization of resources on behalf of themselves, students, program associates, and program agenda? (3) How do these institutional agents work to enhance program participants' social networks so that students themselves become independent and learn to network and access resources? (4) Serving as an institutional agent can be an emotionally draining task. How do institutional agents deal with this pressure and time consuming task?; An inductive analytical methodological orientation was utilized within this study. The inductive segment of this study revolved around the mindset and ideas learned from the interviewing of MESA administrators and students. A clear vision was established as to how social capital can permeate the MESA program based on these interviews. However, the question remains as to how underrepresented college students can be empowered to persist on to graduation and enter STEM careers. The empowerment of students relies heavily on the involvement of institutional agents on a college campus and how these agents can mobilize resources on behalf of students. The problem that plagues underrepresented college students within STEM majors is one of ensuring that these institutional agents have strong social networks that serve as conduits to beneficial resources for minority students. As a consequence to the scope of this study, analysis of every instance of emotional connection, identity creation, and institutional agency on a college campus extends beyond the limitations of this study. |
| Keyword | institutional agent; Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement; institutional agency; social capital |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m833 |
| Rights | Martínez, David Angel |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Martinez-20071001 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume14/etd-Martinez-20071001.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | THE MANIFESTATION OF SOCIAL CAPITAL WITHIN THE MATHEMATICS, ENGINEERING, AND SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT (MESA) PROGRAM by David Angel Martínez ____________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION December 2007 Copyright 2007 David Angel Martínez |
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