“I (Still) Need Help on Many Things”: A Writing Center Replication Study of First-Generation College Students’ Writing Challenges and Cultural Capital

Red Douglas, Ashley Cerku, Isabelle Lundin, Mary Gallagher, Xavier Iriarte, Sophia E. Williams,; Kaylie Williams

doi:10.7771/2832-9414.2043

Writing Center Journal 2025 web Open Access

“I (Still) Need Help on Many Things”: A Writing Center Replication Study of First-Generation College Students’ Writing Challenges and Cultural Capital

Red Douglas, Ashley Cerku, Isabelle Lundin, Mary Gallagher, Xavier Iriarte, Sophia E. Williams, ; Kaylie Williams

Abstract

Research has increasingly addressed first-generation (FG) students both in and outside the center (Baelemian & Feng, 2013; Bond, 2019; Denny et al., 2018; Ward et al., 2012), but there remains a need to address this unique student population from the perspective of critical theory. In a replication study of Bond’s 2019 “‘I Need Help on Many Things, Please’: A Case Study Analysis of First-Generation College Students’ Use of the Writing Center,” we examined the needs and perceptions of self-reported FG students in a writing center at a large, regional, public R2 university in the Midwest. We gathered preexisting digital data from WCOnline, consultants’ postsession notes, and our office of institutional research. Using thematic analysis, we coded, categorized, and compared FG college student and non-first- generation student data to better understand their unique needs. Thereafter, we corroborated our qualitative findings using quantitative analyses, specifically the Pearson chi-square test. Situated within the framework of cultural community wealth, our findings illustrate that FG students bring their own forms of cultural capital to the academy, challenging prior deficit-oriented narratives (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977; Yosso, 2005). Our study can be used to better address the academic needs of FG college students and to extend replicable, aggregable, and data-driven (RAD) writing center research (Driscoll & Wynn Perdue, 2012; Haswell, 2005) into conversations of justice, equity, and inclusion.

Journal: Writing Center Journal
Published: 2025
DOI: 10.7771/2832-9414.2043
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Open Access: OA PDF Gold
Topics: writing centers empirical research qualitative research race and writing
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“I (Still) Need Help on Many Things”: A Writing Center Replication Study of First-Generation College Students’ Writing Challenges and Cultural Capital

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