Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
Department
Transformative Action in Education
First Advisor
Anne Zeman, Ed.D.
First Committee Member
Jennifer Geiger, Ed.D.
Second Committee Member
Louise Santiago, Ph.D.
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify the lived experiences of CSU sociology graduate students pursuing a master’s degree. Seven sociology graduate students from six of the eight (75%) total sociology MA programs throughout the entire CSU system were interviewed. Their responses were designed to analyze the support systems and challenges they face while pursuing a master's degree, as well as to investigate whether their experiences correlate with or fail to correlate with the promises in the CSU mission statement, and to answer the study’s research questions and achieve the purpose of this qualitative study.
Four themes emerged from the interviews: 1) support systems, 2) perseverance, 3) challenges, and 4) toxic environments. The themes address the study's research questions and achieve its purpose by exploring the lived experiences of CSU sociology graduate students pursuing a master’s degree, examining the support systems in place, and evaluating the challenges they may have encountered. The themes also enabled the use of participants' experiences to identify and categorize representative data that support the findings and lend them meaning, thereby strengthening the theoretical approach and aligning it with the literature.
Pages
158
Recommended Citation
Ortuno, David. (2026). Examining Challenges for Sociology Master’s Degree Students at California State University. University of the Pacific, Dissertation. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/4325
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