How Institutional Agents and Resources Shape Vertical Transfer Students’ Agency

Many students who aspire to attain a bachelor's degree begin their journeys at a community college with the goal of transferring to a 4-year institution, yet only 24% of community college students ultimately transfer and just 17% attain a bachelor's degree within 6 years. To provide new insight into this problem, we drew upon Wang’s concepts of agentic momentum and agency by default to understand how pre- and post-transfer students exhibit agency along their vertical transfer journeys as well as how their experiences within the sending and receiving institutional environments may shape how they exhibit agency. Using focus group and interview data, we identified four forms of agency exhibited as well as patterns in how availability and utility of institutional agents and resources shaped their agency. Our findings highlight how institutions can amplify students’ agentic momentum so they don’t have to pursue their transfer journeys on their own.