Empowering Adults to (Re)enroll in College: Harnessing Adult Learner Agency Through Ecosystem Support

Alma watches her son pack his backpack for another day of college classes, pride swelling in her chest. She has always encouraged him to pursue his education, knowing it could open doors to opportunities she never had. As she gets ready for her own work—an entry-level job she has held for years—she can’t ignore the nagging thought, What about me? 

Alma has worked hard, proved her skills, and even been considered for promotions. But every time, the same barrier stands in her way: She doesn’t have a college degree. Returning to school feels daunting. Between long shifts, bills to pay, and caring for her family, where would she even start? Still, as Alma reflects on the resilience that got her this far—her determination and perseverance; family members, colleagues, and mentors who believe in her; and the problem-solving skills she’s mastered on the job—she starts to see her own potential. She belongs in college too.
 

Beyond Individual Decisions

Alma’s story is not unique. Many adult learners navigate complex decisions about returning to college while balancing work, family, and financial responsibilities. Although postsecondary institutions often treat college enrollment as a decision adult learners make on their own, in reality, these decisions are not made in isolation. 

This blog draws on a study by AIR that explored the role of learners’ ecosystems—the close networks of people who influence and are influenced by adult learners’ educational journeys—in their decisions around going to college. The study focused on adult learners of color—specifically, Black, Hispanic, and Native American adult learners—because they are more likely to have some college credit but no credential.  
 

Who Helps Shape Adult Learners’ Journeys?

On average, adult learners consulted three individuals in their ecosystems about (re)enrolling in college. Most ecosystem members were family (48%) and spouses or partners (25%), but they also included work colleagues, supervisors, and community members. 

Many ecosystem members had already navigated the challenges of postsecondary education, and those firsthand experiences were encouraging and helpful for learners. For instance, Janet*, a 33-year-old Black woman, recounted a conversation with a family member who had a similar journey:

____________________________

[She's] been through the same exact steps that I'm taking...to become an attorney. I know that I wanted to get my master’s, and I just want to get [my bachelor’s and master’s] done at one time. And that’s exactly what she did. So, hearing from her had a good impact, because she’s been through the same thing.

____________________________

The ecosystem members provided two main types of support that played important roles in helping adult learners make decisions to pursue their educational goals: mindset support and capacity support. 
 

Mindset Support: Reinforcing Adult Learners’ Confidence

Ecosystem members helped adult learners build the confidence to pursue a degree or return to college, addressing the internal question, “Can I do this?” For example, a mentor encouraged Hibiscus, a 33-year-old Black woman, to overcome her fears about returning to school at an older age. 

And Janet, a Black adult learner in her 30s, was encouraged by her wife to enroll in a degree program at a 4-year institution rather than pursuing a nondegree certificate. Her wife’s comment, “Nobody can take your degree away from you,” expanded her sense of what was possible.

Some learners described how programs at postsecondary institutions offered key mindset supports, though this type of support was less common. For example, Bear, a Black learner in his 40s who returned to college after incarceration, shared that mentors and peer ambassadors from a prestigious 4-year university’s program for learners with records of incarceration had strongly influenced his decision to transfer there:

____________________________

[My peer ambassador said], “Get a degree...We’re gonna get you into [the university].” I spoke with him a lot during my time at [the local 2-year] college, and he’s the one who really made me believe that I could do this path.” The same program also provided community and sense of belonging: “I’m around people who look like me and talk like me, sound like me. They have the same kind of disabilities that I do...I have a community here.”

____________________________ 
 

Capacity Support: Tackling Barriers Together

Adult learners received concrete help with addressing practical barriers to enrollment, answering the question, “How do I do this?” Many learners described the importance of information that ecosystem members shared to help them navigate the process. 

For example, David, a 38-year-old Hispanic male student, received application help, transcript reviews, and transfer advice from a community-based organization. And Honey, a 31-year old Black woman, shared that her younger sister gave her “practical advice as far as...what classes I would need when I got into [the program], if the classes were really hard...and she gave me advice career wise on what I can work for.”

Assistance with logistical aspects of college (re)enrollment—like the cost of attendance, transportation, and childcare—was another key form of capacity support for adult learners. For example, Bee, a 37-year-old Hispanic woman, shared that her ex-partner agreed to move to a new city to co-parent their child while Bee attended college. 

And Maria, a 30-year-old Hispanic woman, described the support her mother offered: “She’s always saying, ‘If you ever need a babysitter—you know, drop them off, you can study—you know, if your husband...comes home tired...you guys can drop the kids off here.” 
 

Reflections and Call to Action: Community as Catalyst

These stories illuminate the importance of community and trusted relationships in empowering adult learners to pursue their educational goals. Ecosystem members can be vital sources of encouragement, guidance, and strength. Such supports can help adult learners of color feel that they belong in college.

To adult learners: Your experiences, knowledge, and the communities you belong to can be sources of inspiration and strength. Consider exploring and drawing upon your community’s strengths to help you shape your educational journey. Your presence is important, you belong in college, and your journey can support and inspire others, too.

To postsecondary institutions: To foster a sense of belonging and facilitate adults’ decisions to (re)enroll in college, institutions can recognize and build on the mindset and capacity support that adult learners’ ecosystems provide. For example, institutions can offer support to help address logistical barriers and reinforce college-going mindsets; place staff and other adult learners in positions to support learners through enrollment and beyond; and enhance learners’ existing social capital by offering relevant, tailored information and building support networks for learners.

For more examples of and ideas for supplementing mindset and capacity support, check out the full report. Postsecondary institutions interested in making changes to these types of supports can review AIR’s Supporting Adult Learners in Postsecondary Education: A Toolkit for Implementing Key Promising Practices. This toolkit describes promising practices for supporting adult learners of color and concrete steps that institutions can take to implement them.