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oai:keep.lib.asu.edu:node-2001332025-04-03T16:14:46Zoai_pmh:alloai_pmh:repo_items

200133 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.200133 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ All Rights Reserved 2025 150 pages Doctoral Dissertation Academic theses en McCarragher, Kyle Bowers, Nicole Golden, Amy Winn, Kevin Arizona State University Partial requirement for: Ed.D., Arizona State University, 2025 Field of study: Leadership and Innovation Student sense of belonging, a dynamic and unique phenomenon continuously being experienced by students on a continuum, has gained traction within the higher education community in recent years. Often linked to retention efforts among higher education professionals, understanding and improving upon this concept is one way colleges and universities are looking to enhance their campus community, as well as simultaneously improving their stance among an increasingly scrutinizing public leery about the benefits of obtaining a college credential. Utilizing Actor-Network Theory as a methodological framework for understanding this unique concept through a lounge network intervention within a residence hall on a Lutheran university, this participatory action research dissertation explores the role a newly created lounge space had on an otherwise isolated living environment. The goal of this research, through student and researcher submitted photo solicitation prompts, semi-structured interviews, and researcher observations, was to deeply understand how students make sense of a communal lounge space within their residence hall. Among the major findings from this research include the lounge network emerging as: (a) a physical location for student belonging to be able to exist, (b) a desirable place for students to spend their time, (c) overcoming specific building challenges and (d) a place for student socialization. Among the recommendations from this research include: a need to assess and analyze other physical lounge spaces on campus to determine if they are also adequately meeting the needs of students, a need for student affairs practitioners to engage with communal lounge spaces within their own halls to determine functionality and usage patterns, as well as an overall need to include student participants in future research when it pertains to understanding involvement within networks. Higher Education Education Actor-network theory Communal Space Residence Hall Student Belonging Student Sense of Belonging and the Value of A Residential Communal Space: A Case Study Utilizing Actor-Network Theory