The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1 - 15

A Culture of Learning

cation Commission of the States, 1995; Kuh,
2001), and this study attempts to ﬁll this gap
in understanding.

FRAMEWORK
Guiding Questions
Two overarching research questions guided
this cultural case study. First, which elements
of culture appear to inﬂuence the student experience in the LLC that we examined? Second,
what elements of this LLC culture promote
student learning? As the researchers set out to
study these elements of culture, we followed
the principles for a successful cultural study,
which guided data collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of the ﬁndings.

Principles for Cultural Study
"Culture" is a term with myriad deﬁnitions
and usages. Tierney discussed culture in institutions of higher education as "the shared
values, practices, and symbols that constitute
an organization" (2008, p. 14), noting that
rituals and traditions may be understood or
interpreted differently by different members.
Kuh and Whitt deﬁned culture in a higher education context as
persistent patterns of norms, values, practices,
beliefs, and assumptions that shape the
behavior of individuals and groups in a
college or university and provide a frame
of reference within which to interpret the
meaning of events and actions on and off the
campus. (1988, p. iv)
The emphasis in both deﬁnitions is on
shared values, practices, and traditions that inﬂuence behavior and alter how students make
sense of events; therefore, these elements
were considered as we sought to better un-

derstand the culture and learning of this LLC.
Its culture is then seen as enduring and sustained through an overarching network of assumptions, values, attitudes, and experiences
that are shared by many group members, are
communicated to new members, and shape
the expectations and actions of individuals and
groups within the LLC.

Capturing Culture: Artifacts, Values,
and Assumptions
Understanding culture requires extrapolation
from visible and surface-level information
to intangible, less easily identiﬁed concepts
that drive the organization. Kuh and Whitt
(1988) and Schein (1991) propose three levels
of culture: artifacts, values, and assumptions.
Artifacts are visible (but not always tangible)
aspects of organizational life that represent an
organization's values such as documents, room
décor, and ceremonies. Values are salient to
the study of culture and include both espoused
and enacted values (Kuh, 1993). The third layer
of culture, and the one most difﬁcult to ascertain, is the underlying assumptions. Schein
describes assumptions as the "ultimate source
of values and action" (1991, p. 252). We moved
from surface to deeper layers by identifying
and analyzing artifacts, assessing espoused
and enacted values, and attempting to tease
out the underlying assumptions of the culture.

RESEARCH METHODS
The LLC chosen for this study has a long
history. While not the only LLC on campus,
it is the most well established. Founded in
1972, and housing about 450 students, it is
part of the College of Arts and Sciences and
works in cooperation with Residential Programs and Services. Due to its rich history,

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1