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Conceptualizing Student Socialization in Higher Education: An Intellectual Journey

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Socialization in Higher Education and the Early Career

Part of the book series: Knowledge Studies in Higher Education ((KSHE,volume 7))

Abstract

This chapter contains a brief synopsis of and reflection on the intellectual journey that brought the author to where he is today with respect to the study of student socialization in higher education as well as other directions his career has taken over the course of more than half a century. Evolution of the frameworks developed for understanding the socialization of undergraduate students in higher education is described, starting with the basic model used for his doctoral dissertation (Weidman JC, The effects of academic departments on changes in undergraduates’ occupational values. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Chicago. Published as final report, project no. 1-E-111, Grant No. OEG-5-72-0010 (509), U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, National Center for Educational Research and Development (Regional Research Program). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED087364.pdf, 1974). This was followed by elaboration in subsequent empirical work (Weidman JC, J High Educ 50 (January/Feburary:48–62, 1979, Res High Educ 20 (4):445–476, 1984) as well as conceptually focused literature reviews (Weidman JC, Undergraduate socialization: a conceptual approach. In: Smart JC (ed) Higher education: handbook of theory and research, vol 5. Agathon Press, New York, pp 289–322, 1989, Socialization of students in higher education: organizational perspectives. In: Conrad CC, Serlin RC (eds) The Sage handbook for research in education: engaging ideas and enriching inquiry. Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp 253–262, 2006). All of the figures depicting each subsequent framework are reprinted in this chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Vincent Tinto and I shared an office at the University of Chicago during the summer of 1969 while working for our respective advisers. That began a series of conversations about the significance of social and academic integration for college student impact, including persistence, that we continued off and on for more than three decades.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    John C. Weidman

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  1. John C. Weidman
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Correspondence to John C. Weidman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    John C. Weidman

  2. School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Linda DeAngelo

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Weidman, J.C. (2020). Conceptualizing Student Socialization in Higher Education: An Intellectual Journey. In: Weidman, J.C., DeAngelo, L. (eds) Socialization in Higher Education and the Early Career. Knowledge Studies in Higher Education, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33350-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33350-8_2

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