Disengaged or Differently Engaged? Students’ Motivations, Expectations, and Engagement in the Multi-Expectational Undergraduate Experience

Clifford Davidson, Western University

Abstract

This thesis examines the undergraduate experience from the student perspective, specifically as it applies to the dominant engagement success narrative. is narrative articulates that, for undergraduate students to successfully navigate and gain the most from their time at university, they must engage in educationally purposive activities and enriching educational experiences. Research also connects students’ motivations for enrolling in university to engagement and suggests that intrinsically motivated students are more likely to engage according to the dominant narrative, leading to a successful undergraduate experience. Conversely, students who are more extrinsically motivated tend to not engage correctly or at acceptable levels and are considered disengaged. However, this research excludes student voices and prescribes a universal undergraduate experience.

Using data collected from 33 interviews, I examined undergraduate students’ motivations for enroling in university and their expectations of the undergraduate experience. Data were analyzed using critical discourse analysis and compared students’ views of the undergraduate experience to the dominant engagement success narrative. Analysis showed that students’ motivations were a complex mix of various pressures, norms, influences, and personal wants, leading to an equally complex set of expectations of the undergraduate experience. This complexity resulted in tensions between students’ numerous and often competing expectations, leading to a variety of consequences. Additionally, students had to choose between these competing demands, picking between personal wants and normative expectations, highlighting this complexity and the challenges that come along with it. Students were shown to be differently engaged rather than disengaged, as they navigated and negotiated the undergraduate experience cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally. These differently engaged students were able to respond to this complexity in ways that allowed them to meet their individual educational goals.

Findings highlight the complexity of the undergraduate experience that is missing in the current discourse and draws attention to the importance of including student voices in discussions that directly impact them.