THE SWING SET THEORY

Amber Covington

Rosalyn Robinson

Mary Toll

Travis Tucker

INTRO Our presentation will be looking at the

experiences of students who identify as low socioeconomic status (SES) here on Miami’s campus.

We have looked at the themes in our interviews.

We have compared it to other theories We have created our own theory

POPULATION Our population was found through the Miami

Advising Resource Center (MARC) as well as personal acquaintances. Our main contact was Dr. Charles Burt, Director of the MARC center.

The MARC center offers, book and emergency loan programs, helps students navigate the advising system and has services for special populations such as low SES, veteran students, prospective transfer students, etc.

Dr. Burt who also oversees Miami Access Initiative defines low SES as a total family income equal to or less than $35,000.

This definition helped us identify our participants whose names are:

Charlotte, Jasmine, Nathaniel, and Phil.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS “Key” questions depending how our participants

directed the conversation were: What kind of experiences do you find challenging? What are some ways that you want to grow as a person? Are you a student worker or do you hold some type of

outside job? How is your education being financed? Tell us about your high school Do you feel your high school prepared you for college?

How or how not? How do you compare your self to what you see as the

“typical” Miami student? Based on your experiences at Miami would you

recommend Miami to family members, friends, classmates, etc.?

EXPLAINING THE THEMES Concluding our interviews we noticed

these overlapping themes in our participants experiences:

Drive/Ambition, Passion Servant leadership careers Continuing higher education Struggles balancing social life Consistent worries about funds Participants still recommend Miami to

other students See figure 1.1

Figure 1.1

Themes Regarding Low SES Students at Miami University

1. A Common Value (Drive/Ambition) “Drive. If you do not have drive, it does not seem like you’re going anywhere.” –Nathaniel This student SES had changed from middle to lower when she was in high school due to sickness in the family. When talking about how that changed had shaped her she said, "I used to be mad but now I feel that if I had kept up the life style I had had before I would have never learned to be this resilient." -Charlotte

2. Servant Leadership Careers

“I want to be a family relationship counselor and maybe start off in schools for college counseling…I want to make a difference and change a life like how my life was changed” -Nathaniel

3. Recommends Miami to Other Students

"Yes, I would (recommend Miami) and I have. It is not perfect and there is a lot of improvement that needs to be made but at the end of the day it is a good school. It is clique-y and you are expected to stay with the group that you look like. But I found a strong black community that is loving and caring, something some of my friends at other school have not found. Also working in the professional world will be like this, mostly white people, so needs to learn how to work in this environment." -Charlotte

4. Continuing Higher Education

“Being successful and achieving all the goals I’ve set for myself is important to me, like making it to grad school for student affairs and being content with everything I am doing in all areas of my life.” -Phil

5. Consistent Worries about Funds "When it hits July, I usually get nervous." –Jasmine “Educational debt is good debt. I would underestimate school if I do not think about it” - Nathaniel

6. Struggles Balancing Social Life “Time management was difficult in my transition; not knowing what to expect and how to balance a social life. My academics struggled, because I didn’t have the right mind set to perform.” -Phil

EXPLANATION OF SWING SET THEORY

HIGH SES VS. SWING SET THEORY

EXPLAINING HOW IT RELATE TO OUR PARTICIPANTS

EXPLAINING HOW IT RELATES TO OTHER THEORIES

Kübler-Ross model, "5 Phases of Grief and Loss:" (We did not study this model in class.)

Our Theory:

This model deals with the stages the people go through when dealing with intense grief such as losing a loved one. Stages are "Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance."

When compiling the data from our interviews we found we laid out the steps that we had heard the students talk about in their adjustment to Miami. These adjustments reminded us of the Kübler-Ross model.

Linear Model

Our Theory also started out with linear stages which started with students gaining access to college and ended with them finding a place in the community.

Each step can take any amount of time Our students had experienced many similar challenges and had all found a drive to get through their challenges, but they found them in different orders and it took them different amounts of time to accomplish each "step."

Has an eventual end point Our theory does not have an end point. The student can gain more "drive" to help them with the challenges but they are never truly done facing these challenges. Because of this we went away from using this theory as a model.

Chickering and Reisser (1993) Vectors : Our Theory: Recycling Pattern Also a recycling pattern. This helped develop our

visual (i.e. started as a ball bouncing on a foundation, to a person jumping on a trampoline, and then a person swinging on a swing set)

Come back to different vectors each time while being able to handle them differently maybe better

We eliminated the stages or set order. Students could experience all at different times and may come to experience them again

Direction and magnitude Direction was side to side and the magnitude increased as the student reflected more.

Gets more difficult as you go down but not perfectly linear The first set of our phases were more challenging in the beginning but became less towards the latter

Abes, Jones, and McEwen model : Our model: The use of contextual influences: such as peers, families, norms, stereotypes, sociopolitical conditions.

Our theory also acknowledges the use of context in the meaning making of a person’s experiences. Things like campus involvement, peer interaction, and financial circumstances play into the reflection.

Meaning Making Filter is dependent on complexity, contextual influences, and pass through to different degrees

The filter acknowledges that every individual’s reflective experience is going to be a different one depending on the experiences that come with them.

Self-Perceptions of Multiple Identity Dimensions-things such as race, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion.

During the reflection phase, students take the time to comprehend the things that have occurred to them in “the action phase” in relation to their status as a low SES student.

Figure 1.5

SWING SET THEORY AS APPLIED TO COGNITIVE, INTERPERSONAL, AND INTRAPERSONAL DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT

Cognitive: How does one learn about the “swing” or about using ones

legs as drive to gain momentum? When I was younger (the family member that got sick) would be so

proud of my good grades, education was important to him. But after he got sick I had to motivate myself." - Charlotte

Interpersonal: How does one swing in relation to their friends or people

around them or did anyone push their swing? When asked how much the opinions of people you are close to her

affect her decisions she said: "They are very important to me. I try not to decided based on others but if (the people) are important to me their opinions mean the world to me.“- Charlotte

Intrapersonal: How high does one swing, how fast does one swing, why

does one swing and what does the individual make of themselves as a result of swinging?

“ I am not Northface, white, Sperry’s, salmon colored shorts, father with 100 grand, vacations every year[and] Greek” -Nathaniel

LIMITATIONS We didn’t research this group for YEARS

like other theorists! The sample we were able to get all

identified as African American. Our sample was all from the same

geographic region The students from our sample were all

second and third years and still have a year or more in which their experience could gain depth, leaving our theory incomplete

QUESTIONS?? 1. in thinking about your experience in

working with students from low SES background, do you find this theory applicable?

2. Do you see any other identities that this theory could apply to?

3. Do feel this theory could inform your practice?

Open to the floor!

THANK YOU!

We hope you enjoyed our presentation!

RESOURCES

Abes, E. S., Jones, S. R., & McEwen, M. K. (2007). Reconceptualizing the Model of Multiple dimensions of identity: The role of meaning-making capacity in the construction of multiple identities. Journal of College Student Development, 48, 1-22

Axelrod, J. (2011). The 5 stages of loss and grief. Psych Central. Retrieved from: http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/the-5-stages-of-loss-and-grief/ Chickering, A. W., & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and identity, second edition. San Francisco: CA: Jossey-Bass.