A multiple case study on how a Hawaiian culturally compatible program influenced graduates' educational, career and personal development in emerging adulthood

Abstract

This study is a multiple case study of a group of eight graduates from a Hawaiian culturally compatible program. Interviewed five years prior for another study, the graduates and their instructors were re-interviewed to examine how the graduates have fared in academic, career and personal realms in emerging adulthood. Each student's life was examined in individual case studies while considering the Bridging Multiple Worlds Model and the Life Story models. The group of students was also analyzed as a group in a cross-case analysis. The study examined how the two models predicted the graduates' success through pattern-matching. The Bridging Multiple Worlds and Life Story models were found to be complementary, rather than competing, models that brought to light different aspects of the students' experience. One of the key findings was that students' responses on surveys five years earlier accurately predicted the level of educational attainment they reached in the future.