The Swing Set Theory

1. The Swing Set Theory Amber Covington Rosalyn Robinson Mary Toll Travis Tucker

2. Intro • Our presentation will be looking at the experiences of students who identify as low socioeconomic status (SES) here on Miami’s campus. • We have looked at the themes in our interviews. • We have compared it to other theories • We have created our own theory

3. Population • Our population was found through the Miami Advising Resource Center (MARC) as well as personal acquaintances. Our main contact was Dr. Charles Burt, Director of the MARC center. • The MARC center offers, book and emergency loan programs, helps students navigate the advising system and has services for special populations such as low SES, veteran students, prospective transfer students, etc. • Dr. Burt who also oversees Miami Access Initiative defines low SES as a total family income equal to or less than $35,000. • This definition helped us identify our participants whose names are: • Charlotte, Jasmine, Nathaniel, and Phil.

4. Interview Questions • “Key” questions depending how our participants directed the conversation were: • What kind of experiences do you find challenging? • What are some ways that you want to grow as a person? • Are you a student worker or do you hold some type of outside job? • How is your education being financed? • Tell us about your high school • Do you feel your high school prepared you for college? How or how not? • How do you compare your self to what you see as the “typical” Miami student? • Based on your experiences at Miami would you recommend Miami to family members, friends, classmates, etc.?

5. Explaining the themes • Concluding our interviews we noticed these overlapping themes in our participants experiences: • Drive/Ambition, Passion • Servant leadership careers • Continuing higher education • Struggles balancing social life • Consistent worries about funds • Participants still recommend Miami to other students • See figure 1.1

7. Explanation of Swing Set Theory

8. High SES vs. Swing Set Theory

9. Explaining how it relate to our participants

10. Explaining how it relates to other theories

11. Swing Set Theory as applied to Cognitive, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal domains of development • Cognitive: • How does one learn about the “swing” or about using ones legs as drive to gain momentum? • When I was younger (the family member that got sick) would be so proud of my good grades, education was important to him. But after he got sick I had to motivate myself." - Charlotte • Interpersonal: • How does one swing in relation to their friends or people around them or did anyone push their swing? • When asked how much the opinions of people you are close to her affect her decisions she said: "They are very important to me. I try not to decided based on others but if (the people) are important to me their opinions mean the world to me.“- Charlotte • Intrapersonal: • How high does one swing, how fast does one swing, why does one swing and what does the individual make of themselves as a result of swinging? • “ I am not Northface, white, Sperry’s, salmon colored shorts, father with 100 grand, vacations every year[and] Greek” -Nathaniel

12. Limitations • We didn’t research this group for YEARS like other theorists! • The sample we were able to get all identified as African American. • Our sample was all from the same geographic region • The students from our sample were all second and third years and still have a year or more in which their experience could gain depth, leaving our theory incomplete

13. Questions?? • 1. in thinking about your experience in working with students from low SES background, do you find this theory applicable? • 2. Do you see any other identities that this theory could apply to? • 3. Do feel this theory could inform your practice? • Open to the floor!

14. Thank You! • We hope you enjoyed our presentation!

15. Resources