The completion agenda and professional academic advisors at regional public universities

"This qualitative study explored the experiences of professional academic advisors at three broad access regional public universities as they worked in the policy environment of the completion agenda. Employing a narrative inquiry approach through single-session semi-structured interviews, I gathered the stories of the nine participants about their professional experiences. This dissertation includes an in-depth discussion of the state of the completion agenda when the study was conducted. The existing literature related to policy issues in higher education and academic advising is also presented. The study employs three theoretical frameworks to guide the analysis of the collected data. The first framework is the agency and structure theory as presented by Coburn et al. (2016). The second framework is based on the work of Cohen (1990) and is rooted in his foundational work on policy implementation from Mrs. Oublier's classroom. The final framework is the community of practice theory as presented by Coburn & Stein (2006). The key findings of this study are that the advisors lack agency in their professional roles and often times find themselves constrained by the structure and systems in their offices and universities. This manifests into three overarching themes that were found in the data. The first is that the participants are disconnected from the policy process at all levels. The frustration with this lack of agency leads to the second theme which is the advisors view themselves as student focused and not policy focused, which allows them to reclaim a level of professional agency. The third theme finds that often times the participants find themselves at odds with professional staff members in other departments on their campus that have different missions and purposes. Through the stories of the participants this study provides a context rich and empirical view of the experiences of academic advisors as they contend with the policy environment created by the completion agenda. The dissertation also provides implications for practice, research, theory, and policy. The key implication is the need for the involvement of advisors (and all student-facing professional staff) in the policy creation process at all levels. The advisors understand their work the best and should have a role in shaping the systems and structures that effect their ability to successfully work with students."--Pages ii-iii.