Unveiling Career Aspirations: The Role of Human, Social, and Cultural Capital Among California Community College Classified Staff

<p>California community colleges serve as a critical access point to higher education for diverse student populations, but the career paths of the classified staff who support the colleges remain largely understudied. The professional development of classified staff and their motivation for administrative leadership roles remain a sparsely researched topic. An impending retirement wave among senior community college leadership raises an important question: Do classified staff aspire to move up? If so, what factors shape or hinder their progression? Using human, social, and cultural capital theories, this dissertation used quantitative methods to examine classified staff’s career aspirations. The research involved evaluating which factors from human, social, and cultural capital are associated with aspirations for career advancement within community colleges. Findings from 324 classified professional survey responses at 54 institutions show linkages between various forms of capital and career aspirations in terms of leadership, educational, and achievement aspirations, net of individual and institutional backgrounds, and some of the observed relationships vary by gender and race/ethnicity. The path to leadership roles becomes difficult for many classified staff since structural barriers, limited mentorship access, and an institutional slow pace block their development. The probability that someone will aspire to leadership roles depends heavily on their educational attainment, workplace relationships, and chances for emerging leadership positions. However, systemic inequities—particularly along the lines of race, gender, and job classification— highlight the uneven landscape of career advancement. Research findings expand workforce development knowledge in higher education and create strategies that institutional leaders, policymakers, and professional membership groups use to create equal promotion routes for classified personnel. Communities can develop an expanded pool of higher-level administrators by overcoming leadership advancement challenges at community colleges, thus preparing tomorrow’s leadership group to tackle future sectoral changes.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Education, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Educational Studies

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Nguyen, Kevin K.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dina Maramba
• Gwen Garrison

• California community colleges
• Career Aspirations
• Classified Staff
• Community Colleges
• Quantitative research
• Education
• Higher Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1001

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2023