Brown Bag Seminar: The Social Construction of College-Going Culture: Variation and Change in High-Need Schools in Transition

In this SCOPE Brown Bag Seminar, Professor of Education Anthony Antonio and graduate student Jesse Foster will present findings from their study of college-going culture in high-need schools across the country. They will question popular depictions of college-going culture (largely defined by college-going rates, ACT/SAT test scores, GPAs, and math course completion) to present a more nuanced typology of the cultures present in schools that captures features such as cohesion, segmentation, and centrality. Antonio, Foster, and Santikian will discuss the implications of this new conceptualization for assisting schools in developing cohesive, coherent, and integrated college-going cultures.

Professor Antonio's research addresses many of the major issues currently facing American higher education. First, as admission spots into higher education institutions become more competitive and more acute, he seeks to achieve a better understanding of how college-going cultures are developed and maintained in schools. Second, his research investigates the impact that increasing racial and cultural diversity is having on higher education. His current projects also include studies of engineering education.

Antonio is an associate professor of education and the associate director of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research.