Asking "why": How students experience curricular (in)coherence at three Oklahoma universities

The topic of curricular coherence, or the interconnectedness and intra-connectedness of academic roadmaps, has arguably circled the academy for centuries (Beane, 1995, 1997; Kimball, 2010; Van Doren, 1943). In addition, for the last fifty years, the topic of student involvement has been of great interest to education researchers and practitioners alike (AACU, 2002, 2007; Astin, 1977, 1984, 1993; Fielding, 2004; Malone, 1980), largely because of the relationships between student involvement, learning outcomes, and retention to graduation. Interestingly, despite years of focus on student involvement, the topic remains complex and somewhat murky in terms of guidance for practitioners. Even with decades of overlap, these two concepts—coherence and involvement—have rarely been studied together with a firm focus on the student, despite the possibility that student experiences with coherence may offer insight into their involvement decisions. Given the constant stress on the academy to achieve and track student outcomes (AACU, 2002, 2007), having blind spots in our picture of the student experience is a problem—one which leaves academic mapmakers designing pathways for students with limited perspective on what it is like for students to walk those paths. The purpose of this case study—a single case study with embedded units—was to explore the lived experiences of navigating curricular (in)coherence for undergraduate students at three universities in Oklahoma, and the role that perceived (in)coherence may play in academic involvement decisions. There was no intent to expose a causal relationship between coherence and involvement, as that would best be done through quantitative means, but to offer a glimpse into the lives of one group of students as they journey through their curriculum.