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Understanding the Working College Student: New Research and Its Implications for Policy and Practice Laura W. Perna (Editor) Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2010, 328 pages, $32.50 (Softcover)
Most students today, across all types of institutions, are employed while enrolled in college. The "working college student" has become the modus operandi for undergraduate life for traditional-age, dependent undergraduate students and independent and adult students alike, who work on average 24.0 and 34.5 hours per week, respectively. However, despite the prevalence of this characteristic in undergraduate education, little attention has been given to studying (a) how employment affects students' educational experiences: specifically, the influence of employment on engagement experiences and learning outcomes of students who work; or (b) how the benefits and costs of working differ between traditional age-students and adults.
The collective authors of Understanding the Working College Student address the topic by reviewing research and sharing insights that enrich our understanding of the realities of working students-both traditional-age and adult-including why students work and the consequences relative to student identity, learning, student engagement, and educational outcomes. The volume explores the difficulty of funding a college education and the challenges of trying to meet the multiple and sometimes conflicting demands of the roles of student, employee, and family, and the resulting high levels of stress and barriers to degree completion. Higher education scholars, policy makers, and campus administrators and student affairs educators are presented with a comprehensive review of a wealth of research regarding the experiences of students who work. Each chapter offers a sensible balance between solid research findings and implications for practice.
This volume is organized into five distinct sections, with a range of edited chapters contributing to each topic. Given that this book is the first to fully address the working college student experience, it understandably has a lot of ground to cover. Perna's introduction provides a helpful orientation to the topic, including a compelling warrant for the importance of understanding the working college student with a clear overview of the chapters that comprise the body of the text.
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