Doctoral Dissertation Research: How Congregational Participation Shapes Higher Education Pathways in a Subpopulation

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project provides information on how students from a growing subpopulation and their parents understand the connection between religiosity and higher education attainment. This is a subpopulation with high levels of religious adherence and low levels of higher education attainment. The role of these students’ religious perspectives in influencing their higher education achievement has been largely overlooked yet may be a vitally important piece of understanding educational stratification in this subpopulation. This project uses existing national and local administrative data and further conducts semi-structured interviews to investigate behaviors and attitudes toward education, the relationship between religious affiliation and college pathways, and the influence of faith leaders. The administrative data will be used to examine the association between religious affiliation and advanced course-taking patterns, college applications, enrollment and college choice. The interviews, with clergy, parents and young adults from three congregations, will explore the extent to which congregational dynamics have an impact on youths’ decisions about college. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.