Critical and Poststructural Considerations for College Student Success

This chapter considers and challenges the concept of college student success through critical and poststructural theoretical perspectives informed by the history of higher education and the power dynamics involved in defining success. Before outlining critical and poststructural theories, it provides an account of the collective and individual positionalities that situate how authors hold the prism they present. With some initial concepts of critical and poststructural theories in mind, the chapter describes the ways in which researchers study phenomena—like student success—using these perspectives. It details how scholars use these paradigms from an identity and system lens. These forms of analysis are not the only ones that exist, but they represent two approaches used by various scholars across disciplines in higher education studies. The chapter discusses two analytical refractions of the prism—identity analyses and structural analyses—and highlights exemplars that have mobilized critical and poststructural frameworks toward reimaginations of what success means and for whom.

Engineering ethics · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Sociology · Engineering · Higher Education Research Studies · Psychology

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